[HeadOn]

(Best Cliff Claven impression) Actually, PING is a term that comes from the use of sonar. A "ping" is when a soundwave is sent out and comes back to the receiver, letting the operator know what is out there. The term has been co-opted by the computer society to mean, among other things, sending a signal to a server or client machine to see if you can get a response. So, sending a "PING" to another Freeper is the same thing. (Despite the Cliff Claven voice, I believe my explanation is correct....)

Welcome, and have fun.

[altair]

The term has been co-opted by the computer society to mean, among other things, sending a signal to a server or client machine to see if you can get a response.

The signal is similar to sonar. It's an ICMP echo packet, and the program which did this was (and still is) called "ping".