Ping test
Send real ICMP echo requests to any host and see the round-trip time, jitter and packet loss — the raw latency of the path between our server and theirs.
Reading a ping result
Ping measures the time for a small packet to reach a host and come back. It is pure network latency: no web server, no database, no page rendering.
- Under 30 ms — the host is close, or on a well-peered network. Typical for UK-to-UK.
- 30–100 ms — normal for continental or transatlantic hops.
- 100–250 ms — long-haul routing, or a satellite/mobile link somewhere in the path.
- Above 250 ms — congestion or a badly routed path; interactive use will feel sluggish.
Jitter matters more than you think
The gap between minimum and maximum round-trip time is jitter. A host at a steady 90 ms feels better on a video call than one bouncing between 20 ms and 200 ms, because buffers cannot plan for a moving target. If the numbers in the per-packet list swing widely, you have congestion rather than distance.
Packet loss
Any sustained loss above zero is worth investigating; above 2% you will notice it in calls and games. Note that some networks deliberately rate-limit or de-prioritise ICMP, so a small loss figure on ping alone is not proof of a problem — compare it with a TCP-based check to the same host.
"Request timed out" does not mean down
Plenty of large sites — and most Cloudflare-fronted ones — simply drop ICMP. If ping fails but the website status check succeeds, the host is up and ignoring pings on purpose.
FAQ
What is a good ping for gaming?
Under 50 ms to the game server feels instant; 50–100 ms is playable for most genres; above 150 ms you will lose trades in anything competitive. Consistency matters as much as the number.
Why is my ping to this site high when my internet is fast?
Bandwidth and latency are different things. A 1 Gbps connection routed the long way round the world still has a long round trip. Latency is set by distance and routing, not speed.
Does ping tell me if a website is slow?
Only partly. Ping is the network floor; a site with a 10 ms ping can still take four seconds to build a page. Use the response time test for the full picture.
Related reading
Other tools
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Is it up, how fast, and what is it running?
DNS lookup
A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, SOA and CAA records.
SSL certificate checker
Expiry, issuer, chain and hostname match.
HTTP header & security check
Every response header, graded for security.
Open port checker
Which TCP ports answer from the outside.
WHOIS lookup
Registrar, age, expiry and nameservers.
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