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Ping = Packet InterNet Groper
Really.
Wow. I guess that shoots my theory to hell. ;O)
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| Mike Muuss wrote PING in 1983 for 4.2a BSD UNIX, and says "from my point of view PING is not an acronym standing for Packet InterNet Grouper, it's a sonar analogy." He continues: "I named it after the sound that a sonar makes, inspired by the whole principle of echo-location. In college I'd done a lot of modeling of sonar and radar systems, so the "Cyberspace" analogy seemed very apt. It's exactly the same paradigm applied to a new problem domain: ping uses timed IP/ICMP ECHO_REQUEST and ECHO_REPLY packets to probe the "distance" to the target machine. " "If I'd known then that it would be my most famous accomplishment in life, I might have worked on it another day or two and added some more options." Dave Mills offered this expansion of the name (Backronymn) to Packet InterNet Grouper (later called Groper and even Gopher) |
However in this case it's a backronym or bacronym ... a type of acronym that begins as an ordinary word, and is later interpreted as an acronym....
The uses of "Ping" as something to "echo" return or locate predates the internet
It makes me hot when you talk all technical... makes me wish I was connected via 802.11G to my wireless router....just can't seem to get off on "B". :-P