Understanding How Ping Works Through a Live TryHackMe Exercise
Durre Shaffa
In this networking fundamentals lab, I worked with the ping tool to test host availability and response time over an IP network using ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol). The lab involved running ping commands to various IP addresses, understanding the output, and retrieving a hidden flag as proof of completion.
🔍 What Is Ping?
ping is a basic yet powerful network utility that uses ICMP echo requests and replies to check:
If a host is reachable
How long it takes for a packet to travel to and from the target (latency)
Whether any packets are lost during transmission
📌 Syntax Example
To ping any IP address:
bashCopyEditping [IP address]
To limit the number of packets (e.g., 4 packets), use:
bashCopyEditping -c 4 [IP address]
Lab Execution & Results
Ping to Google DNS (8.8.8.8)
bashCopyEdituser@thm:~$ ping -c 4 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=9.39 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=8.60 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=8.22 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=7.50 ms
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 8.132/9.428/10.957/1.057 ms
Flag Retrieved:
textCopyEditTHM{I_PINGED_THE_SERVER}
Ping to 10.10.10.10
bashCopyEdituser@thm:~$ ping -c 4 10.10.10.10
PING 10.10.10.10 (10.10.10.10) 56(84) bytes of data
64 bytes from 10.10.10.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=8.19 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=8.30 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=8.22 ms
64 bytes from 10.10.10.10: icmp_seq=1 ttl=56 time=9.49 ms
--- 10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 4006ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 8.132/9.428/10.957/1.057 ms
Both IPs responded successfully, showing that the network path is available and stable with minimal latency.
Learning Outcome
This exercise strengthened my understanding of network diagnostics using ICMP and how to interpret real-time packet data using the ping utility.
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