Windows 7 And IPv4 Ping

"Ping" is the IT go-to tool for testing basic network connectivity.  In Windows XP and earlier, the default TCP/IP protocol is IP version 4, or IPv4.  In Windows Vista and Windows 7, the default TCP/IP protocol is IP version 6, or IPv4.

If you ping a Windows 7 workstation from another Windows 7 workstation, the default behavior is to respond with the IPv6 address.  That's great, unless you're still working in an IPv4 shop.  To force Windows 7 boxes to respond with the IPv4 address, use the following ping switch from the Windows 7 command prompt:

c:\> ping -4 [localhost]

Where [localhost] is the machine name of the PC you want to ping.  When you type the command in, don't type the left or right brackets.

You should get a result similar to my example below:

(Click the above screen shot to see a larger version of it.)

The first ping command above is the IPv6 response when I ping my local Windows 7 workstation.  The second ping command, the one with the "-4" switch, returns the IPv4 address for the same Windows 7 workstation.

For more help with the Windows 7 ping command, type the following in a command prompt window:

c:\> ping /?