Ping is a great command in the CMD or Command Prompt to tell the status of a server or connection. Using Ping frequently, my use is for determining if a game server is online that a player cannot connect to or see. Lots of times, I’ve found that a player will immediately send reports of servers not being online if they do not show up in the server selection screen of Minecraft. The server is most likely online just not able to broadcast that it is or the player cannot receive it due to something else happening in their system or network. Issuing the “ping” command with “/?” lets me review the options of ping before issuing the complete command across the internet. Normally I like to use the “-t” option, switch or flag as it allows ping to continue until manually shutoff or a break occurs by pressing “ctrl-c”. Occasionally, I run the “ping -t [IP address/URL]” randomly to see how the connection is being reported. More players in the Minecraft server can result in a higher “ms” value which could be causing lag issues with the players in the server.
