What is a Tracroute?

A traceroute is a computer network tool that allows you to see which route taken by packets or data across an IP network. It shows how many hops (the connection string) it takes for the packet to get to it’s destination. A traceroute can be used for various things, like finding out where the longest delays are taking place when it’s taking a long time for a web page to load. A traceroute where show you where and why your connections to a server is giving you a problem , it shows you how your systems are linked to each other and you get to see how your ISP connects to the internet.

If you use Windows you can run a traceroute by doing the following:

1. In Windows 98, first you go to Start >Run. Then you type command in the box and Press the Enter key.
2. It’s very similar with Windows 2000 and XP. First you go to Start >Run. Next you type in cmd (which is short for command) and then hit the enter key.
3. By doing this, this will bring up the ‘command prompt’ window. To run the traceroute you have to type in : tracert and then enter the hostname, where the hostname is located and the name of the server connection you are testing. Make sure you leave a space between everything you type.
4. In a few minutes the test will proceed and show you a list of results.

If you are using Mac, you run a traceroute by performing the following:

1. Click on Macintosh HD
2. Then hit the Application tab
3. Press Utilities
4. Click Network Utility
5. Next select the Traceroute Tag
6. Then you type in the web addresses or the IP address

When using Unix you can do a traceroute by:

1. By opening a terminal window
2. Then type traceroute and enter the websites addresses or the IP address

* When performing traceroutes with all systems is essential that you leave a space between everything you type, so that you can get accurate test results.

Now that you know how to do a traceroute it’s important that you know how to interpret the results so you know what’s going on. You don’t want to have any misunderstanding.

If there is a single hop at unusual high response times that’s a indication that the router is overloaded. That doesn’t mean that it’s the reason why the router is traveling slow. If there is a single hop that contains nothing but asterisks but the trace still continues this is a sign that a router or switch successfully routes traffic but doesn’t respond well to traceroutes or non public IP addresses. If dropped responses appear at a hop and carries on through the rest of the hops this can denote congested link.

Now that you what a traceroute is, how to perform one and how to interpret the results you get from a test now you can do one yourself on your computer or you can use our traceroute or visual traceroute tools. If you have been experiencing problems with loading information and problems with your server. That way you can make sure your network is working properly.

Last Updated Monday, August 27 2007 @ 06:09 pm PDT