You’re having problem connecting to a computer in a network, first thing you should do is to PING the computer. Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable across an IP network. It is also used to self test the network interface card of the computer, or as a speed test. It works by sending ICMP “echo request” packets to the target host and listening for ICMP “echo response” replies.

Although Ping is useful for network administrators, computer hackers also use Ping to find potential victims on the Internet. By pinging a specific IP address and receiving a response from the IP address, a hacker can determine that something of interest might be there. If you can configure your computer to block ping response, it should heightens the level of security for your computer.