Traceroute

Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool used to track the pathway taken by a packet on an IP network from source to destination. It records the route's path and measures transit delays of packets across the network.

How Traceroute Works

Traceroute works by sending packets with incrementally increasing Time To Live (TTL) values, starting with TTL=1. When a router receives a packet, it decrements the TTL value by 1, and if the TTL reaches 0, the router sends an ICMP "Time Exceeded" message back to the source. By analyzing these responses, traceroute can determine the path taken by packets across the network.

Understanding the Results

• Hop: Each step in the path from your computer to the destination
• IP Address: The IP address of the router or device at each hop
• Hostname: The DNS name of the router or device (if available)
• RTT (Round Trip Time): The time it takes for a packet to go from your computer to the hop and back
• Timeouts (*): Indicates that the router didn't respond within the expected time

Common Uses

• Identifying network bottlenecks and latency issues
• Diagnosing routing problems and network outages
• Verifying network paths and connectivity
• Understanding the network topology between your location and a destination