The traceroute tool is one of the most valuable yet straightforward diagnostic utilities available for network troubleshooting. Built into virtually every operating system, traceroute runs a connection test from one computer to another device, showing each “hop” the data takes between network devices.
This comprehensive guide will help you understand how traceroute works, interpret its results and recognize common network problems it can reveal.
Traceroute: Understanding What It Does
To see traceroute in action, we can begin with a simple example of running a traceroute from your computer to Catchpoint’s servers. The specific results will be different for each person. However, in most cases, the results will show you around four to 20 “hops” that packets take to get from your computer to Catchpoint’s servers and back. The first one would likely be your local router, and from there, the data will take multiple “hops” through your internal network and out through your internet service provider (ISP) and over the internet, before finally reaching Catchpoint’s servers.
Figure 1 shows an example of what you might see on the command prompt of a Windows computer.
Figure 1: Image of a traceroute command and the results generated.
Understanding how to run this Continue reading
Alessandro Improta