Testing Connectivity – The Ping of Doom!

Before you blame the internet or smash your router in frustration, you must learn the art of connectivity testing. A true Linux ninja never assumes – they ping, probe, and diagnose!

Today, we train in network testing techniques – because knowing whether a target is alive or dead is the first step before attacking… or just trying to load memes.

Pinging Like a Sniper – Is the Target Alive?

The ping command is your first weapon. It sends packets to a target and waits for a response. If it responds, it’s alive. If not… well, time to troubleshoot.

Command	What It Does
ping google.com	🎯 Pings Google (checks if you have internet)
ping -c 5 google.com	🔄 Sends 5 pings instead of infinite
ping -i 0.2 google.com	⚡ Sends faster pings (every 0.2 sec)

💡 Example:

ping -c 4 google.com  # Sends 4 pings and stops

If no response, either the target is down, or your internet is dead. 😱

Probing with Curl & Wget – Is the Website Alive?

Sometimes, a server exists, but isn’t responding to your requests. That’s where curl & wget come in – they check if a website is alive and can download content.

Command	What It Does
curl google.com	🔍 Fetches website data (HTML response)
curl -I google.com	📨 Gets only the headers (fast check)
wget google.com	📥 Downloads the website’s index.html

💡 Example:

curl -I https://example.com  # Check if a website is responding
wget https://example.com  # Download the page

If curl fails, either: ✅ The website is down

✅ Your network is blocking it

✅ You misspelled the URL (yes, it happens!)

Speed Test – How Fast is Your Internet?

A ninja must know if their internet is strong enough to stream anime (or do serious hacking). Test your download speed using:

Command	What It Does
wget --output-document=/dev/null http://speedtest.tele2.net/10MB.zip	📥 Downloads a test file

⚡ Runs an internet speed test |

💡 Example:

wget --output-document=/dev/null http://speedtest.tele2.net/10MB.zip

If speed is slow, check your Wi-Fi or blame your ISP. 😂

Diagnosing DNS Issues – Who Broke the Internet?

If your internet works but websites don’t load, it’s likely a DNS issue. Test it using:

Command	What It Does
nslookup google.com	🔎 Resolves IP address of a domain
dig google.com	🔍 Advanced DNS lookup
ping 8.8.8.8	🎯 Tests connection to Google’s DNS server

💡 Example:

ping google.com  # If fails...
ping 8.8.8.8  # If this works, it's a DNS issue!

If ping 8.8.8.8 works but websites don’t load, switch to Google DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).