3 Jan
2016
3 Jan
'16
8:26 p.m.
From: Jacob Goense <dugo(a)xs4all.nl>
Mills's 1983 RFC889[2] calls the original PING
Packet InterNet Groper.
I have a strong suspicion that Packet-etc is a 'backronym' from Dave Mills.
Note that the use of the term "echo" for a packet returned dates back quite a
while before that, see e.g. IEN 104, "Minutes of the Fault Isolation
Meeting", from March 1979:
"ability to echo packets off any gateway"
When ICMP was split from GGP (see IEN-109, RFC-777), the functionality
migrated from GGP to ICMP, and was generalized so that all hosts provided the
capability, not just routers.
Noel