The traceroute utility is used to trace all of the routers between two points

NetPath was created to help MSPs address these issues. It’s a visual and intuitive feature that gives you insight into your customers’ experience of slowdowns when trying to access a network service or website. To learn more, get N-central free for 30 days to start exploring.

Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool used to track in real-time the pathway taken by a packet on an IP network from source to destination, reporting the IP addresses of all the routers it pinged in between. Traceroute also records the time taken for each hop the packet makes during its route to the destination.

Traceroute most commonly uses Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets with variable time to live (TTL) values. The response time of each hop is calculated. To guarantee accuracy, each hop is queried multiple times (usually three times) to better measure the response of that particular hop. Traceroute uses ICMP messages and TTL fields in the IP address header to function. Traceroute tools are typically included as a utility by operating systems such as Windows and Unix. Traceroute utilities based on TCP are also available.

What is Traceroute Used For?

Traceroute is a useful tool for determining the response delays and routing loops present in a network pathway across packet switched nodes. It also helps to locate any points of failure encountered while en route to a certain destination.

However, in the Internet, Traceroute messages are often blocked by routers in various Autonomous Systems (AS), making Traceroute highly inaccurate in many cases.

Traceroute is a utility that records the route (the specific gateway computers at each hop) through the Internet between your computer and a specified destination computer. It also calculates and displays the amount of time each hop took. Traceroute is a handy tool both for understanding where problems are in the Internet network and for getting a detailed sense of the Internet itself. Another utility, PING, is often used prior to using traceroute to see whether a host is present on the network.

The traceroute utility comes included with a number of operating systems, including Windows and UNIX-based operating systems (such as IBM's AIX/6000) or as part of a TCP/IP package. If your system doesn't include the utility, you can install it. There are freeware versions that you can download.

How It Works

When you enter the traceroute command, the utility initiates the sending of a packet (using the Internet Control Message Protocol or ICMP), including in the packet a time limit value (known as the "time to live" (TTL) that is designed to be exceeded by the first router that receives it, which will return a Time Exceeded message. This enables traceroute to determine the time required for the hop to the first router. Increasing the time limit value, it resends the packet so that it will reach the second router in the path to the destination, which returns another Time Exceeded message, and so forth. Traceroute determines when the packet has reached the destination by including a port number that is outside the normal range. When it's received, a Port Unreachable message is returned, enabling traceroute to measure the time length of the final hop. As the tracerouting progresses, the records are displayed for you hop by hop. Actually, each hop is measured three times. (If you see an asterisk (*), this indicates a hop that exceeded some limit.)

If you have a Windows operating system, try traceroute out by clicking on Start-->Programs-->MS-DOS Prompt, and then at the C:WINDOWS prompt, enter:

tracert www.whatis.com

or whatever domain name for a destination host computer you want to enter. You can also enter the equivalent numeric form of the IP address.

This was last updated in September 2005

Continue Reading About traceroute

• VisualRoute shows you the traced route on a world map.

• Ray Smith offers an explanation of how the traceroute utility uses the TTL value to measure hop timings .

Related Terms

network availabilityNetwork availability is the amount of uptime in a network system over a specific time interval. See complete definitionperformance testingPerformance testing is a testing measure that evaluates the speed, responsiveness and stability of a computer, network, software ... See complete definitionRouting Information Protocol (RIP)Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is a distance vector protocol that uses hop count as its primary metric. See complete definition

Word of the Day

adversarial ML

Adversarial machine learning is a technique used in machine learning to fool or misguide a model with malicious input.

Which software tool is used to trace all of the routers between two points?

What information does the traceroute Tool provide quizlet?

Which two tools function similar to traceroute check all that apply?

Which command can be used to diagnose where a problem lies when there are issues reaching a remote system?