This allows other Internet users to check to see whether your router is connected. It can also be used to see what route is used to connect to your router and how long it takes to reach it. You can enable or disable this on the router. If you disable it, should someone 'ping' your router's Internet IP Address, they will not get a response.

It used to be believed that if someone 'pinged' an IP Address and no response was received, then it was likely that there was nothing there. However, it is now assumed that, in most cases, there is something there when it comes to addresses allocated by ISPs to their customers. This is because most people leave their routers and Hubs on all of the time allowing them to access the internet at any time and prolonging the life of the router.

You can 'ping' another connected router or server on the Internet by using the Internet address as either the named address (i.e. www.bbc.co.uk) or the IP Address (i.e. 212.58.244.70). The following is an example of a 'ping' command:

C:\Users\Owner>ping www.bbc.co.uk

Pinging www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.70] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=56
Reply from 212.58.244.70: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 212.58.244.70:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 27ms, Maximum = 33ms, Average = 29ms

'tracert' (Trace Route) is useful to see where your connection between two points travels. The following is an example of a 'tracert' command:

C:\Users\Owner>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.95]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms SkyRouter.Home [192.168.5.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 34 ms 31 ms 29 ms ip-84-38-37-34.easynet.co.uk [84.38.37.34]
4 31 ms 31 ms 31 ms te0-0-0-5.er11.thlon.ov.easynet.net [89.200.135.135]
5 27 ms 28 ms 27 ms ntl-ge2-9.prt0.rbsov.bbc.co.uk [212.58.238.189]

6 * * * Request timed out.
7 29 ms 30 ms 31 ms ae0.er01.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.93]
8 31 ms 30 ms 33 ms 132.185.255.165
9 30 ms 29 ms 29 ms bbc-vip016.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.95]

Trace complete.