Can the maximum ping size of 65500 bytes can be increased?

Question

Can I override the default maximum size - 65535 bytes of ICMP ping packets? If - then How?

Solution 1

The maximum size of an IPv4 packet is 65535 bytes of which some is protocol overhead so that data must be a couple bytes less than 65535 and a ping can't be more than one IP packet, so the answer is no.

Why would you want to send a larger ping?

Solution 2

Yes

In Windows, type:

Ping <target> -l xx

where xx is the buffer size.

For full options of the Windows ping command -

Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
        [-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
        [-w timeout] [-R] [-S srcaddr] [-4] [-6] target_name

Options:
-t             Ping the specified host until stopped.
               To see statistics and continue - type Control-Break;
               To stop - type Control-C.
-a             Resolve addresses to hostnames.
-n count       Number of echo requests to send.
-l size        Send buffer size.
-f             Set Don't Fragment flag in packet (IPv4-only).
-i TTL         Time To Live.
-v TOS         Type Of Service (IPv4-only. This setting has been deprecated
               and has no effect on the type of service field in the IP Header).
-r count       Record route for count hops (IPv4-only).
-s count       Timestamp for count hops (IPv4-only).
-j host-list   Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-k host-list   Strict source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-w timeout     Timeout in milliseconds to wait for each reply.
-R             Use routing header to test reverse route also (IPv6-only).
-S srcaddr     Source address to use.
-4             Force using IPv4.
-6             Force using IPv6.

Solution 3

Yes, there is a way to increase the default size. Which OS or network device are you referring to?

By the way, there really is no practical reason to increase the size unless you're super curious or just plain ol' malicious.

From a network operations perspective, the increased overhead will choke performance. This is a bad idea.

From a security perspective, and much like John T points out, increasing the packet size for ICMP messages will usually lead to denial of service

Comments

[MD XF]

To DoS someone, probably

[N.K]

doing so will say Bad value for option -l, valid range is from 0 to 65500.

[Toto]

The question is “Can the maximum size 65535 be increased”, you do not answer it.