Why do some web servers not respond to icmp requests?

Posted by John Himmelman on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by John Himmelman
Published on 2010-03-10T17:19:54Z Indexed on 2010/05/27 16:02 UTC
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webserver

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icmp

What is the purpose of blocking/dropping inbound ICMP traffic on a public web server? Is it common for it be blocked?

I had to test if a server was accessible from various locations (tested on various servers located in different states/countries). I'd rely on ping as a quick & reliable method of determining if a server was online/network-accessible. After not receiving a response on a couple boxes, I tried using lynx to load the site, and it worked.

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