Website not pinging but is opened by Web browser
ping
packets use the ICMP protocol, whereas on the same level web pages use the TCP protocol. Both go over the IP protocol, but they are different types of packets. (In case you have heard the term HTTP, it is a protocol which is one layer up from ICMP or TCP.)
What this means is that any router or firewall between you and the server you try to ping may just block your pings. Pinging a server is not a reliable way to see if it is up. Some operating systems block pings in their default configuration.
And it is even possible that people from different networks see different behaviour. @Popnoodles may be able to get his ping through, you or me not.
When I ping www.cloudbees.net
, there is no answer. However, when I tell my computer to find out a bit more:
traceroute 75.101.143.131
This command shows you the servers the ping packet meets during its travel. I get approximately 20 servers before the ping vanishes somewhere in the big void. The last server is 216.182.224.73
, which is somewhere in the Amazon cloud.
So, by this information, it is likely that cloudbees.net
uses Amazon services. However, there is no solid technical reason for a ping packet to go the same route as a TCP packet. Usually, it does, but things can be done differently if someone wants to obfuscate the route. (In Amazon's case it's unlikely.)
By the way, there may be more than one IP address corresponding to a DNS name, and more than one DNS name may point to the same address. The first scenario (multiple IPs) is very common with large sites, and it can be used to balance the load. The second scenario (several names point to the same address) happens with name-based virtual hosting where there are several websites on a single server with only one IP address.