<snip>
> Neither does it help to rattle off acronyms that the person
> you're replying to probably won't understand. Sure *you* know
> what RFC1918 is, and *I* know what RFC1918 is, but I have no
> doubt that a large number of people on this list don't know.
>

RFC = Request for Comments
The internet standards are defined by RFCs.
See http://www.ietf.org - Internet Engineering Task Force

>
> As you say, an ICMP echo (ping) is not a particularly
> accurate RTT (round trip time) tester, and microsoft's
> version of ping is less accurate than most, but it's not
> useless as a diagnostic tool. It is still good for ballpark
> figures when you don't have anything better handy, and it is
> a damn good diagnostic tool if all you want to do is check
> basic connectivity.
>

ping sends an ICMP_ECHO_REQUEST datagram to elicit an ICMP_ECHO_RESPONSE
from the target.
This will, of course fail if the admin of the target host does not
understand IP networking and decides to block all ICMP traffic e.g.
certain banks.
Type of service can be set in the request (yes, even with Windows). See
RFC1349 for more info on request types.
The Windows version allows source routing (useless - damn near all
service providers deny source-routed packets, for good reason), has poor
control options for setting the DF bit (Don't Fragment) - if this
doesn't work, path MTU discovery is broken.....

In short, a poor tool.
A better recommendation would be to use fping - there is a version for
Windows available
http://www.bluechillies.com/details/4754.html

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