Which command-line tool would you use to verify the reachability between two devices and measure the round-trip time using ICMP?

Which command-line tool would you use to verify the reachability between two devices and measure the round-trip time using ICMP?

• A. Traceroute
• B. Netstat
• C. Ping
• D. Nslookup

Answer: (C)

To verify reachability and measure round-trip time using ICMP, you use a tool that sends ICMP Echo Request packets to the target and waits for Echo Replies. This is what ping does. It directly tests whether the destination can be reached over the network and provides RTT measurements in milliseconds for each reply, giving a clear sense of responsiveness and connectivity. If ICMP is allowed by firewalls, you’ll see replies with timings; if not, you may get timeouts even though the host might be reachable by other protocols. Traceroute, while related, is used to discover the path to a destination and show delays per hop, not just end-to-end reachability and RTT to the final destination. Netstat lists active connections and routing information, not a live reachability test. Nslookup queries DNS records, which is unrelated to testing connectivity or measuring latency.

To verify reachability and measure round-trip time using ICMP, you use a tool that sends ICMP Echo Request packets to the target and waits for Echo Replies. This is what ping does. It directly tests whether the destination can be reached over the network and provides RTT measurements in milliseconds for each reply, giving a clear sense of responsiveness and connectivity. If ICMP is allowed by firewalls, you’ll see replies with timings; if not, you may get timeouts even though the host might be reachable by other protocols.

Traceroute, while related, is used to discover the path to a destination and show delays per hop, not just end-to-end reachability and RTT to the final destination. Netstat lists active connections and routing information, not a live reachability test. Nslookup queries DNS records, which is unrelated to testing connectivity or measuring latency.