ping <nickname> ping <channel>

Lag is a way of life on irc. “Lag” is determined by how much time it takes a message to get from the sender to the recipient. The more lag, the longer it takes for someone to get your messages. Sometimes you want to see just how long it will take for a message to get to someone else and back. The PING command sends someone a specially crafted message asking them to send the message back. When you receive the message back, you can then measure the amount of time it took to come back and that will tell you how much lag there is to that person.

This command uses the CTCP ping command to do its work.

This command actually sends a message to the other person who will then send another message back. If the server (or network) is already overloaded with traffic, this will only add to the burden. PINGing people frequently will make the lag worse, so be reasonable.

Not every client will respond to a PING request. You are not guaranteed to receive a reply to a PING command. Some clients will mangle the PING request rendering the results invalid. You are not guaranteed to receive an accurate reply to a PING command.

The PING command uses the CTCP command and so will not work from within an /ON MSG, /ON PUBLIC, /ON PUBLIC_OTHER, /ON NOTICE, or the like.

To see how far away your friend booya is from you:

    /ping booya

To see how far away everyone in channel #blah is:

    /ping #blah