Pinging question.

[Sir Padfoot]

I have a most likely fairly noobish question. Nontheless, I recently discovered the joys of pinging websites, but I was wondering if and how it were possible to ping another person using the net if you don't know their I.P. Like, say on this forum, or, say, gaiaonline.com another forum I frequently visit. If this is possible I'd love some help. Thanks.

 

[Geoff]

You can't ping them unless you know their IP, or possibly their MAC address. You can't find their computer from typing in their username, or their PC name (unless its on a LAN).

 

[tlarkin]

sorry but that is not totally true

C:\>ping www.computerforum.com

Pinging computerforum.com [69.16.225.146] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 69.16.225.146: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=54
Reply from 69.16.225.146: bytes=32 time=88ms TTL=54
Reply from 69.16.225.146: bytes=32 time=88ms TTL=54
Reply from 69.16.225.146: bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 69.16.225.146:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 64ms, Maximum = 88ms, Average = 81ms

C:\>