[AndrewGSW]

@rnd me: Thank you.

A little search tells me that ping-ing notifies a server of changes to a web page (or site).

This seems (to me) to be almost accidental, as it's original purpose - from the command line - was to test a connection, receiving a detailed response. I gather that the response itself is usually ignored, as simply receiving any response is sufficient to confirm the connection as 'active'.