Request timeout for icmp_seq

Question

Using sudo ping -f (URL) on a Mac gives the message:

Request timeout for icmp_seq as a reply.

How can I fix this?

Registrar

I was getting the exact same thing when trying to ping my Mac from my iPhone that were on the same Airport Extreme wifi network. My firewall on my Mac was turned off. I ended up doing a reboot of the Airport Extreme and it all started working. – Yorker

Answer 1

The reply means the target host is unreachable which is not an error and can happen using a plain 'ping' as well. Now, using the -f(lood) option, some firewalls or hosts can believe it's a DoS attack and drop the icmp packets silently.

Do you really need this -f option ? It can overflow the network and should be avoided as much as possible.

Cryoscopy

If your network settings were wrong, you would have other problems. Now, some hosts don't reply to icmp at all (for security reasons). Try a simple 'ping URL' to see what happens. There is no difference between ping and ping -f packets, only the emission rate. If the plain ping don't work, the ping -f will certainly not. You can try a port scan as well. – Cryoscopy

When I tried ping -f 54.206.125.84, it shows Operation not permitted – Peracid

Try 'sudo ping -f 54.206.125.84' as the OP does. Ping is a restricted command. – Cryoscopy

Answer 2

In my case, I want to ping another connected device in the same network (for wireless debugging purpose using adb) but returning "Request timeout for icmp_seq" in the mac terminal.

So if you encounter this problem only in your own home / private network, continue reading this answer, because I experienced this issue on my own wifi network.

I found this solution with configuring my wifi router (ZTE Router) below.

1. In browser go to http://192.168.1.1 (router config dashboard)
2. Enter router username & password
3. Check the connected device status (local network > status > wlan client status). In this case, my phone connected to SSID1 and my mac connected to SSID5, so cannot ping each others
4. To solve this, go to SSID configuration (local network > wlan > wlan ssid configuration)
5. In the configuration I found that SSID1 using 2.4Ghz and SSID5 using 5Ghz, maybe the this is the root cause, so I turned off all SSIDs and leave only SSID1 active
6. Solved, ping success & wireless debugging using adb connect success

Gershon