Why can ping.exe get the IP of a domain with no responding?

When I use cmd to ping a domain like:

> ping apple.com
Pinging apple.com [17.142.160.59] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.

I did't get the response, but I get the IP of it.

Why can I get the IP of the domain with no responding?

Is somewhere storing a table with a lot of domain and IP?

Or the server got my request but block it by firewall?

1 Answer

Why can I get the IP of the domain with no responding?

Because you don't actually get the IP address from the domain itself. You always get it from a separate database – the DNS (Domain Name System).

(You actually can't send anything to a domain name directly – you have to get the IP address first, and only then send the ping packets to that IP address.)

It's similar to telephone numbers: you would use a phonebook to find someone's phone number (or google for the number) before you could call someone.

Is somewhere storing a table with a lot of domain and IP?

Yes, it's called DNS. (Note that it's not a single table – each domain has its own small "table" with its own subdomains and addresses only, hosted on its own DNS servers.)