Spam is typically a different issue. The ping "trick" is simply a quick way of finding out what IP address your ISP has associated with a given domain name. If someone is spamming your e-mail or your server, they likely forge the domain name which would cause ping to give irrelevant information. You would need to find the IP address that is listed in the e-mail (search the forum for "e-mail spoofing" for some related threads).

What operating system are you using? Ping should be available on any version of Windows and Linux, Macs have a GUI based version.

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