PING

Though this term can refer to a golf brand as well as the sound made by striking your glass with your spoon at the dinner table, it also has a computer-related meaning. The main purpose of a ping is to test a system on the Internet to see if it is working. "Pinging" a server can also test and record the response time of servers and other computers connected to the Internet. This is helpful in finding Internet bottlenecks, so that data transfer paths can be rerouted the most efficient way. Also, a good way to make sure you do not get disconnected from your ISP for being idle is to send a ping every 5 minutes or so. There are a number of shareware Ping programs that will do this for you.