Using Sound To Test Internet Connections

sifi writes "An article in the New Scientist claims that by converting the frequencies of a 'ping' to sound it is possible to hear the reliability and strength of an internet connection. They then go on to claim that all this is going to make telesurgery safe. I quite frankly think that this is a case of the media printing something becuase it sounds (pun intended) cool. I'm convinced that there's nothing here that couldn't be done with a suitably clever piece of software - unless I'm missing something."

Comments

Re:This is Stupid

[Chexum]

there is no frequency beside on and off.

Perhaps, but ever tried something like this?

ping 192.168.60.254|sed 's/ttl/ttl^G/g'

^G is ctrl-g, possibly ctrl-q,ctrl-g or ctrl-v,ctrl-g depending on your shell. It's really easy to "hear" a few ten ms differences between individual packets, and obviously you don't need a display to hear connections failing..