History thumb|DOS version of ping The ping utility was written by Mike Muuss in December 1983 during his employment at the Ballistic Research Laboratory, now the US Army Research Laboratory. A remark by David Mills on using ICMP echo packets for IP network diagnosis and measurements prompted Muuss to create the utility to troubleshoot network problems. The author named it after the sound that sonar makes since its methodology is analogous to sonar's echolocation. The backronym Packet InterNet Groper for PING has been used for over 30 years, and although Muuss says that from his point of view, PING was not intended as an acronym, he has acknowledged Mills' expansion of the name. The first released version was public domain software; all subsequent versions have been licensed under the BSD license. Ping was first included in 4.3BSD. The FreeDOS version was developed by Erick Engelke and is licensed under the GPL. Tim Crawford developed the ReactOS version. It is licensed under the MIT License.
history thumb|dos version of ping the ping ut,ility was written by mike muuss in december 1983 during his employment at th,e ballistic research laboratory now the us army research laboratory a remark by david mills on using icmp echo packets for, ip network diagnosis and measurements prompted muu.ss to create the utility to troubleshoot network problems the author named it after the sound that sonar makes since its methodology is analogous to sonar's echolocation the backronym packet internet groper for ping has been used for over 30 years and although muuss says that from his point of view ping was not intended as an acronym he has acknowledged mills' expansion of the name the first released version was public domain software; all subsequent versions have been licensed under the bsd license ping was first included in 43bsd the freedos version was developed b:y erick engelke and is licensed under the gpl tim crawford developed the reactos version it is licensed under the mit license