PING is one of the most popular programs ever created, but where did it come from? Here are five things you probably didn’t know about PING.
- PING was created by Mike Muuss in December 1983 on a BSD UNIX system to find a network problem.
- Muuss had to code ICMP support into the BSD UNIX kernel to make it work. He did this overnight.
- Originally named after the pulses of sound used by a sonar. The acronym “Packet InterNet Grouper” came later, and not from Muuss.
- The PING code has a thousand lines.
- The ICMP and PING code put in place by Mike Muuss later inspired the creation of the TRACEROUTE command.
Source: The Story of the PING Program
