Networking

The Request Timed Out Message

The Request Timed Out error message is very common when you use the ping command. Essentially, this error message indicates that your host did not receive the ping message back from the destination device within the designated time period. Assuming that the network connectivity is okay on your system, this is typically an indicator that the destination device is not connected to the network, is powered off, or is not configured correctly. It could also mean that some intermediate device is not operating correctly. In some rare cases, it can also indicate that there is so much congestion on the network that timely delivery of the ping message could not be completed. It might also mean that the ping is being sent to an invalid IP address or that the system is not on the same network as the remote host, and an intermediary device is not configured correctly. In any of these cases, the failed ping should initiate a troubleshooting process that might involve other tools, manual inspection, and possibly reconfiguration. The following example shows the output from a ping to an invalid IP address:

C:\>ping 169.76.54.3
Pinging 169.76.54.3 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 169.76.54.3:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100%
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum =  0ms, Average =  0ms

During the ping request, you might receive some replies from the remote host that are intermixed with Request timed out errors. This is often a result of a congested network. An example follows; notice that this example, which was run on a Windows Me system, uses the -t switch to generate continuous pings:

C:\>ping -t 24.67.184.65
Pinging 24.67.184.65 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=127
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=68ms TTL=127
Reply from 24.67.184.65: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=127
Ping statistics for 24.67.184.65:
    Packets: Sent = 11, Received = 8, Lost = 3 (27% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 27ms, Maximum =  69ms, Average =  33ms

In this example, three packets were lost. If this continued on your network, you would need to troubleshoot to find out why packets were being dropped.