What tool would you use to measure the response time of network requests?

Using the Ping tool is appropriate for measuring the response time of network requests because it specifically sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to a target host and waits for an echo reply. By recording the time it takes for the requests to be answered, Ping provides a direct measurement of round-trip time, which reflects how quickly data is able to travel between your computer and the designated server. This makes it invaluable for determining network latency and troubleshooting connectivity issues.

In contrast, Pathping is a combination of Ping and Traceroute that gives insight into the quality of the route taken by packets but is more complex and not solely focused on immediate response time. Traceroute traces the route taken by packets to a destination and gives the delay for each hop along the way; while it can provide information about response times at individual points, it does not deliver a simple round-trip time for a specific request. Ipconfig, on the other hand, is used to display and manage the network configuration settings of the local computer and does not measure response times. Thus, Ping stands out as the best tool for measuring how fast a network can respond to requests.