Why can I not ping microsoft.com, amazon.com, or another site?

Some popular sites such as amazon.com, microsoft.com, slashdot.org, and other sites that have had DoS attacks in the past may filter ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) to prevent ping requests. Because of this when pinging these domain names or their associated IP addresses you'll receive a "Request timed out" or get a "100% packet loss" error.

Because this is a legitimate way to configure a website, you should not be concerned if a particular address does not respond to your pings. However, if you are getting this response from every website, you may be experiencing issues with your network. For more information, see our network help and troubleshooting index.