Ping over IPv6
Resolve the IPv6 address of a host, ping it from several places and put the result next to IPv4.
What an IPv6 ping shows
IPv6 is the newer internet address format, and many hosts answer on both families through different paths. A host can be fast over IPv4 and slow or silent over IPv6 without anyone noticing, because browsers quietly fall back to the family that works. Pinging both from the same places makes the difference visible.
Enter a host name and we look up its AAAA record, then ping the IPv6 address from each place. The same places are then pinged over IPv4, and each row shows the two side by side with the address each family reached.
Reading the IPv4 and IPv6 comparison
- About the same. The two families are within a factor of two and 50 ms of each other. Nothing to fix.
- IPv6 is much slower here. IPv6 takes more than twice as long, or 50 ms more, than IPv4 from that place. This often means an IPv6 tunnel or a poor route on the way.
- No IPv6 route. The place got no reply over IPv6, while IPv4 worked. The probe may have no IPv6 connectivity, or the path may be broken.
A probe without IPv6 connectivity of its own says nothing about the host, so look at several places before drawing a conclusion. If most places agree, the host is the cause. If only one place disagrees, that probe or its network is.
When a host has no IPv6 address
A name with no AAAA record has nothing to ping over IPv6. We say so plainly and offer the IPv4 ping instead, along with a DNS lookup so you can see which records the name does have. Adding IPv6 means adding an AAAA record at the DNS provider and making sure the server listens on the new address.
How the probes are chosen
Many places runs through Globalping, a free network of volunteer probe machines. Pick an area or type a country, a city, a network or a cloud region, and tell us how many places you want. The probes are volunteer machines, many in data centres, so the times show how the internet sees the host from those places and not from your house.
Questions people ask
What if a host has no IPv6 address?
Then there is nothing to ping over IPv6. We say so, show the IPv4 address it does have, and offer the IPv4 ping instead.
Why is IPv6 slower than IPv4 for some hosts?
The two families can take different paths. A tunnel, a smaller provider network or a route that crosses an ocean can add a lot of delay to IPv6 while IPv4 stays direct.
Does a slow IPv6 path hurt visitors?
Browsers try both families and use the one that connects first, so visitors rarely notice. It still matters for services that prefer IPv6, and it can hide a broken IPv6 setup.
Can I ping a raw IPv6 address?
Yes, from our server. The probe network accepts IPv6 only for host names, so a bare address is timed from our own server as a TCP connection, and the result is labelled that way.
Why does one place show no IPv6 route?
Not every volunteer probe has IPv6 connectivity. If only one place fails and the others answer, the probe is the likely cause, not the host.
Which addresses did each place reach?
The Addresses tab lists every address the name resolved to and which places reached each one. CDNs often hand different places different addresses.
Use it from AI, the API or the command line
Every LookupOwl tool is also a free API and an MCP tool, with no key and no account. This one is ping. Please be kind to the rate limits.
curl "https://lookupowl.com/api/v1/tools/ping?q=cloudflare.com&places=1&protocol=tcp"claude mcp add --transport http lookupowl https://lookupowl.com/mcp