Ping (ICMP)

There is currently support for the following device types within Home Assistant:

• Binary sensor
• Sensors
• Presence detection

Configuration

To add the Ping (ICMP) service to your Home Assistant instance, use this My button:

The setup dialog asks for the following information:

Adding a device to the integration

Before you add a device, give it a stable network address. Use a static IP address or a DHCP reservation in your router for the device you want to ping. If the address changes, Home Assistant keeps checking the old address.

1. Go to Settings > Devices & services and select Add integration.
2. Search for and select Ping.
3. Select Add service.
4. In Host, enter the hostname or IP address of the device.
5. Select Submit.
6. Optional: Change the default device name or add the device to an area.
7. Select Finish.

Polling interval

By default, the integration will ping the device every 30 seconds. If you wish to do a ping at a different interval, you can disable the automatic refresh in the integration’s system options (Enable polling for updates) and create your own automation with your desired frequency.

For more detailed steps on how to define a custom interval, follow the procedure below.

Defining a custom polling interval

If you want to define a specific interval at which your device is being polled for data, you can disable the default polling interval and create your own polling automation.

To turn off the default polling and create your own polling automation, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Devices & services, and select your integration.
2. On the integration entry, select the three dots menu, and then select System options.
3. Turn off Enable polling for changes, and then select Update.
   • If Home Assistant asks you to restart, restart it.
4. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, and select Create automation > Create new automation.
5. Add the triggers and conditions for when you want to poll for data.
6. Select Add action, select By type, select Perform action, and then select + next to Perform action.
7. Under Action, search for and select the Update entity action.
8. Under Entities to update, select the entities you want to poll.
   • You can only select entities. Areas, devices, and labels aren’t supported.
9. Select Save.

Many integrations update their data at most once every 10 seconds. If you poll more often, Home Assistant waits until the 10 seconds have passed before it updates the data again.

Configuration options

The integration provides the following configuration options:

Binary sensor

The binary sensor sends ICMP echo requests so you can check whether a device (or host at a specific IP address) is reachable and determine the round trip times from your Home Assistant instance to that host. This sensor is enabled by default. The default polling interval is 30 seconds.

Sensors

The integration exposes the different round trip times milliseconds as entities:

• Round Trip Time Mean Deviation - the standard deviation
• Round Trip Time Average - the average round trip time
• Round Trip Time Minimum - the shortest round trip time
• Round Trip Time Maximum - the longest round trip time
• Jitter - the variation in round trip times
• Packet loss - the percentage of missed ICMP replies

These entities are disabled by default and can be enabled in the UI if needed.

Presence detection

Use ping presence detection to check whether a device can be reached on your network and use that as a presence signal (for example, home or not_home). This can help when you want presence detection for a phone, tablet, or other device connected to your home network.

When you add a device or address to the integration, Home Assistant creates different entities for different uses:

• The binary sensor is enabled by default and shows whether the device or address is reachable.
• The device tracker is disabled by default and provides the presence state, such as home or not_home.

To use ping for presence detection, enable the device tracker entity:

1. Go to Settings > Devices & services and select the Ping integration.
2. Select the device or address you want to track.
3. To see all entities, under Diagnostic select N disabled entities.
4. Select the entity with the person icon , select the cogwheel , then turn on Enable.
5. Select Update.

The device trackers are connection trackers. They have the tracking_type state attribute set to connection and report whether a device is connected to the associated zone, which is the home zone by default. They do not provide latitude or longitude attributes. For a simple home presence check in an automation, use a state condition that checks whether the tracker is home.

For person-based presence detection, add the ping device tracker to a person entity. You can combine it with other trackers for the same person, such as a tracker from the Home Assistant Companion app or a router integration. This lets Home Assistant use more than one signal to decide whether the person is home.

If you only need one on/off presence signal from multiple ping devices or addresses and do not use person entities, create a binary sensor group helperA helper is a virtual entity you create inside Home Assistant. It is not backed by a physical device. Helpers store values, track state, or do calculations that your automations and dashboards need. [Learn more] from the ping binary sensor entities. By default, the group is on when at least one grouped device is reachable.

How ping presence detection works

The integration checks presence by sending ICMP echo requests to the configured hostname or IP address. It can work for devices that block UDP or TCP packets but still answer ICMP requests, such as some Android phones.

Because ping uses the configured address, it does not need the device MAC address. This can help with devices on another subnet, where methods that depend on ARP, such as some network scans, do not work.