How to Ping from MacBook

When someone uses a Mac to ping, that means they are performing a test to see how fast the internet speed is on the computer currently. That can help troubleshoot why web pages are loading slowly, videos are not loading or games are slow. It measures how fast two computers are communicating with each other to pinpoint issues with the connectivity speed. The easiest way to do a ping test using a Mac itself is using the utility, which we’ll cover below. There are also other easy options that help determine speed.

Contents

Using Network Utility
Using an App
Browser Tests

Using Network Utility

Based on the age and OS of the Mac, there are a variety of ways to get the window you need to do a ping test using Network Utility. However, the easiest is to just search Network Utility in the Spotlight. To get to the spotlight, hit the Command key and the space bar at the same time. Type in Network Utility. You’ll get a screen that looks like this, and you’ll want to select Ping:

In the first box, enter the network address you wish to ping using the IP address or URL:

Now you can click the ping button on the left side of the screen.

After you run ping, you’ll be able to see the packet size in the term of bytes and the time it took at the end of each line in terms of milliseconds (ms). You want the time to be low.

Using an App

If you like slicker user interfaces, there are speed test apps that help run ping tests. One popular option is Speedtest by Ookla. Simply look for speed test apps in the App Store and review for ones that allow for a ping test. Speed test apps tend to list the ping information alongside other data from a basic speed test.

Browser Tests

There are also tests you can do via browsers. If you don’t want to download an app, you can go to places like speedtest.net (also by Ookla) and simply hit the go button. It will give you info about how fast your computer is downloading, like the ping time in ms, download speeds in Mbps and upload speeds in Mbps. Many reviewers state that this site gives a general picture if something is very wrong, but you can also search around for different speed test URLs.