Hello kalima,
First, it is important to understand what a 'ping' is. A ping is
generally a command issued by a person on Computer A to Computer B. If
Computer B replies to the 'ping', then we know that data is able to
move from Computer A to Computer B.
What is a Ping? "Ping is used to test whether the remote host can be
reached from your computer. This simple function is extremely useful
for testing network connection, by transmitting a request message to a
specified system and receiving a reply, you will know if the network
hardware is functioning on both computers or the link between the two
systems is unbroken and etc."
Source: http://members.fortunecity.com/ramgs/rping20.html
If you are still able to surf the internet while the ping attack is
happening, then the attack is really having no effect on you. Ping
attacks used to work so that Computer A could flood Computer B with so
many ping requests, that it would use up all the internet bandwidth on
Computer B. With high speed connections however, (including 56k modems
to some extent), ping attacks are not as effective anymore.
It is still possible to flood a network with ping requests, but
generally it requires hundreds if not thousands of computers to bring
down a major network. Your personal firewall might be reporting a
valid ping attack, or it might be a bit too sensitive. There is
nothing illegal or wrong about pinging a computer on the internet.
To demonstrate how a ping/ping attack can work (on a Windows PC):
Click on Start and then click on Run.
Type in cmd.exe and hit enter. This should bring up a command prompt.
Type in ping www.google.com and hit enter.
What you should see is www.google.com replying to your ping (4 times).
If you are finding that your internet connection is actually suffering
while these ping attacks happens, your firewall should report one or
more IP addresses (four numbers separated by three decimals) and you
can use these to find out where the ping attack is coming from (this
website is but one example:
http://www.urgentclick.com/address_trace.php ). You might want to
contact your ISP to ask what you can do about ping attacks, one
possible solution is getting a different IP address.
To summarize, a ping is a diagnostic check to see if a data stream is
open between two computers. If a person pings you without stopping,
usually using many computers, this could affect your internet
connection because your computer will be busy replying to all the ping
requests, therefore using up your internet bandwidth. Intentionally
pinging another computer with the intent to disrupt the network is
what a ping attack is.
It could very well be the case that your firewall is a bit too
sensitive and is reporting a ping attack, when a website, application
or service could have a valid reason for pinging you. In fact it is
highly likely that this is the case. If you are not noticing a
degrading of your internet connection when these attacks happen, this
is probably not something you need to be worried about.
Please let me know if you need any clarifications regarding this
answer and I will do my best to further assist you.
tisme-ga
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