[ih] internet-history Digest, Vol 13, Issue 1

[David P. Reed]

If I were a betting man, the term "ping" came from it's use in sonar 
contexts, to refer to a signal intended to be echoed.

I have no direct evidence or memory of the first use, but the fact that 
BBNers were in an acoustics-centric technical milieu suggests that 
"ping" made a perfect analogy for probing via echoes.

I wouldn't be surprised if the term ping was used for probing via echoes 
in NCP and PARC's PUP protocols (predecessors of Internet Protocol and 
ICMP).

Bob Braden wrote:
> Mike Muuss performed an invaluable service in writing the original
> Unix Ping program, but he did not "invent" the ping function.
>
> For example, a simple grep for "Ping" in the online IENs finds the
> following quote from IEN 145, "Internet Meeting Notes 14,15 May 1980",
> 29 May 1980, written by Jon Postel:
>
> "V.  GATEWAY PROTOCOLS AND HOSTS
>
>      Jim Mathis presented his procedure for routing.  The main points are
>      first pick any gateway, second refine the chance to the best gateway
>      and third detect the failure of that gateway should it occur.
>
>       o  Pick a Prime gateway
>       o  Poll it at a slow rate
>       o  Send to the Prime gateway
>       o  Accept and act on a Redirect message
>       o  Ping gateway in use if higher level protocol complains
>       o  Periodically change the Prime gateway
>
>      Does this procedure get unstable in high load?
>
>      IENs 109 and 131 should be reviewed by host IP implementors."
>
> Note that "Ping" was apparently a synonym for "poll" here.  So the
> term was already in use in 1980.  Unfortunately, I don't remember
> when it first arose.
>
> One more minor correction: Dave Mills did indeed supply the mnemonic
> expansion of PING, but it was "Packet INternet Groper"  (groper, as in,
> a person who can't keep his hands to himself! ;-), not grouper.)
>
> Bob Braden
>
>
>
>