Useful ping targets for end-users?

Wed Jan 12 15:58:13 UTC 2022

On Wed, 12 Jan 2022, Adam Thompson wrote:
> Restatement: yes, there are much better ways to diagnose problems, but my
> customer can only run ping & traceroute (and pathping, I suppose) and is
> capable enough to run those tools and self-assess before calling me.

Back in the old days, when there was competition between ISPs, the ISPs 
you paid money used to have curated speed test targets on their networks. 
Because you were paying them, some people wanted evidence they were 
getting what they were paying for, that was the only one under their 
control when you didn't get what you were paying.

"Testing" connectivity to random places on the internet, which depends on 
that wierd thing called peering, would give you random results which no 
one would do anything about.

Step 1: Ask the ISP, which you are paying, for appropriate targets.