How to ping from a Chromebook

Many people think of a Chromebook as a glorified web browser and not much else.  While it's true that the web browser is a large part of what a Chromebook does, there is still other functionality that can be taken advantage of on a Chrome OS computer.

You can ping from a Chromebook very similarly to how you would ping from a Windows, Mac, or Linux machine.  To bring up the terminal interface, press CTRL + ALT + T.  A "crosh" (Chrome OS developer shell) tab will open up.  This tab includes the command line interface that you can use to ping.

The basic syntax for the ping command is:

ping <IP address | domain name | hostname>

Using ping this way will start a continuous ping process that you can stop by pressing CTRL + C.  To specify the number of ping attempts, use this format:

ping -c <# attempts> <IP address | domain name | hostname>

For more switches you can use with ping, type help at the command line and press ENTER.  To exit the terminal interface and close the tab, type exit and press ENTER.