The old Ping command type command. go out on a very specifio IP Port, which
most people know about,
and I am also finding that many larger companies, are blocking access to that port,
however, there are better commands out there. as mentioned, Tracert, is a good command line type utility, avail on winnt, and win2000 (and most linux and unix machines)
for a very nice graphic utility, thats free, and easy to use you might look at neotrace express from http://www.neoworx.com/
it works better for me than tracert.
for example

I cant ping IBM.com
tracert times out as well to ibm.com
however, newtrace works, and I get a complete report on the speed of the connection etc.

Bob Lee

>>Have you tried to do a tracert? This will show the path to the particular .com. It might give you some ideal of where the problem is.
>
>No, but that's a good idea, if I need it (and we'll have to see if that still works from within a firewall, too). But I was really just curious about PING, not trying to do anything specific just now.
>
>From what I have read and tested, the more advanced firewalls all block PINGs now. I'm not surprised about my worksite, they are very tight on security. But even my personal ISP blocks PINGs now too (at least I assume they are blocked from within).