Ping command:

This is the most widely used tool to check the connectivity between the network devices. It uses port no 69 and is TCP based. It relies on ICMP(Internet control message Protocol)

It uses two types of  ICMP messages;

• Type 0, Echo request  - sent by the source machine;
• Type 0, Echo reply - sent by the Destination machine.

Ping command Helps in following way.

1)      Access: It helps us to see if the system is in reach of the connected system. If you get a reply from the destination then you can say that the system is reachable or else not.

2)      Distance : You can also find the distance and time it takes to reach the destination system. You can compare the time and the ping distance to determine if the system or site or the network is slow.

3)      IP Address: You can use the Ping command to find the IP address of the site. If you ping the domain name it automatically displays the IP address of the site.

Using Ping command is very easy:

Open the MSDOS on the windows computer and type PING followed by the computer name or the IP address of the computer. You will get the result in few seconds.

The output of the command consists:

IP Address of the remote machine

ICMP Sequence number

TTL i.e Time To Live, which shows the no of routers the packet hoped to reach the destination

Round-trip delay: It is the length of the time between the source and the destination

The number of lost packets.

Lets see the exact process of execution:

1. The source machine generates  the ICMP Data unit

2. This ICMP data unit is encapsulated with source and destination IP address and IP header

3. The Host machine also notes the time on the local machine while it sends the IP datagram towards the destination.

4. Each system reads the IP datagram if the destination address contains the IPaddress of its machine if not it forwards it to the next machine.

5. Finally when the destination machine receives the IP datagram and then Ipaddess maches with the machine.

6. The destination machine then replies with the ICMP Reply message, encapsulates it in the datagram placing its own IP address in source IP address field and the original senders IP in Destination field

7. This new IP datagram is routed back to the original sender of the command.

8. The host receives it and then notes the time on the clock and at last displays the output information which include the time elapsed

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Some people are yet confused and aren’t sure about the Operating System (OS) to be installed on their servers. Let me clear that doubt, one can have any OS on a server, irrespective of the one they have on their local computing machine. It makes no difference if one has Windows on the local machine and wishes to have Linux OS on the server.

As we all are aware, Windows and Linux are two different operating systems. Windows is widely used on the household/office PC’s. Linux is a newer version of Unix OS. Both contribute to an excellent web hosting environment. Though, we cannot deny the Pro’s and Con’s of each.

An individual usually gets stuck when choosing the OS on the servers. Here are certain factors that may help you to get rid of this confusion.

COST:

Cost is one of the major determining factors when choosing an OS.

Linux is an Open Source OS, which means one does not need to pay the licensing fees inorder to have it. Hence, Linux is comparatively cheaper than Windows. Whereas, one needs to purchase the license of Windows inorder to install it on the machine. A single licensed copy can be installed on one computer. But, with Linux, once you own it, you can freely install it on any number of machines.

RELIABILITY:

Linux is reputed for its stability and reliability. Meaning, Linux server is much less likely to crash than Windows Server. Hence, these servers can offer more uptime to the web-sites hosted on it.

SPEED:

There is practically not much difference in the speed of both the OS, but there is marginally faster speed seen in Linux when processing basic web pages.

SCRIPTS:

Many CGI programs can be found over the Internet. Majority of the Perl scripts, developed on Unix/Linux servers.Most of them can be freely downloaded from the internet.

FUNCTIONALITY:

Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) programming/scripting language are supported by Windows only. It enables oneself to build dynamic web-pages by connecting to Microsoft’s database such as SQL server or Access. Linux, does not offer any support to ASP and Microsoft databases, instead MySQL database is supported.

Today, more and more people are switching to Linux Web Hosting solutions as it is easy to use, more stable, open source, free updates are available and most importantly it is cheap. Hence, unless ASP and MsSQL database is required by a web site, Linux can prove to be a better choice over Windows.

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