What Is TTL in Networking and What Does It Mean in Ping Results

A home network desk at night showing a computer running ping commands with TTL values in the terminal output, next to a consumer router with Ethernet cable connections.

What Is TTL in Networking? TTL stands for Time to Live. It is a value embedded inside every IP packet that controls how many network devices — specifically routers — that packet is allowed to pass through before it is discarded. Despite the name suggesting a time-based limit, TTL in networking actually functions as a … Read more