this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
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Hello! I'm trying to ping some lemmy instances to understand which one is the faster, so I'm just using the ping command:

$ ping lemmy.ml
PING lemmy.ml (54.36.178.108) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from lemmy.ml (54.36.178.108): icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=24.4 ms

ping lemmy.world
PING lemmy.world (135.181.143.230) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from static.230.143.181.135.clients.your-server.de (135.181.143.230): icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=58.2 ms

but if I try with certain instances:

ping vlemmy.net
PING vlemmy.net (109.78.160.70) 56(84) bytes of data.




it just hangs there, forever. if I try to ctrl+C it, it displays

^C
***
vlemmy.net ping statistics
***
13 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 12267ms

why does this happens? I can perfectly visit vlemmy.net from my browser so I really can't understand whay is this happening

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[–] MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

One possibility is that the server is configured not to respond to pings

[–] worldofbirths@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

This is most likely the issue. Maybe just measure HTTP response times instead?

[–] tubbadu@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (3 children)

what advantages can derive from this?

[–] maynarkh 2 points 2 years ago

Adding to the other answers, there isa bunch of server software that comes preconfigured to ignore ICMP.

[–] SirMrR4M@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

Prevents some types of port scanning normally. Don't know about other advantages

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

ICMP is one vector of a distributed denial of service attack. Also, even if not denying the service, it puts load on the network interfaces / routers of that server - everything behind the first firewall / router layer that would otherwise block the ICMP requests.

[–] MaxPower@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

ping nowadays is overrated anyway. If a server responds to ICMP and how fast it does it does not really say much about "how fast" a website is. It only tells you that a) ICMP requests and responses are not blocked and b) how fast ICMP requests get answered.

That's it. It may not even tell you that a website is online because a load balancer may be responding to the ICMP request while the hosts behind it are offline.

People value ping responses way too highly.

httping may be a better tool to measure "how fast" a website is responding.

[–] Sebito@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Also every major browser has a tool for timing and seing how long a site and it's components load. You could test it with that but even then; load times will vary slightly depending on what the instances have to load.

But probably a better way than pings ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[–] MaxPower@feddit.de 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Correct, especially with all the dynamic loading and rendering websites nowadays do measuring in a web browser is waaay better than doing ICMP/ping requests or even httping requests.

It depends on what you are trying to measure ofc but ICMP/ping does not tell you almost anything about how fast a website is.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

People value ping responses way too highly.

I beg to differ. Not everyone's use of the internet is limited to http(s) - ping is an invaluable tool to determine round trip times of the underlying network infrastructure & therefore assess e.g. the potential throughput of TCP based protocols for given window sizes. Also, to assess delay in UDP based communication.

[–] tubbadu@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

httping may be a better tool to measure “how fast” a website is responding.

this works well, thank you! the results are similar to the ones obtained with ping, but vlemmy.net and other instances that ping couldn't reach are correctly measured. seems that lemm.ee is the fastest for me

[–] lemann@lemmy.one 3 points 2 years ago

The server's firewall could be blocking them?

If it's a VPS, most providers' firewalls will block everything by default, and you have to specifically choose what ports to open or transmission protocols to allow.

I personally have all my VPS's set up to drop pings from any unauthorised IP addresses

[–] qprimed@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago

ICMP echo requests/responses may be blocked - usually by a remote endpoint firewall.

[–] FrostyPolicy@suppo.fi 1 points 2 years ago

There's a firewall blocking ICMP echo-reply requests on the other end. It's totally normal for servers to block ping requests.

[–] axzxc1236@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

In case someone googled the same words as title:

https://dnstools.ws/ can do ping, nslookup, whois, traceroute ....., supports both IPv4 and IPv6, and has dozens of servers around the world.

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