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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Why can't I ping some websites? (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

top 8 comments

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

what advantages can derive from this?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

As others have commented, blocking is the most likely reason. That said, responding to ping requests typically is deprioritized when the networked device is loaded heavily and requests get dropped.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

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

[–] [email protected] 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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

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)_/¯