Explain Traceroute
Hosting and Internet terminology can often be difficult to understand, but terms like 'traceroute' are actually vital to your knowledge of your computer and Internet settings. Knowing this term can be especially helpful if you experience issues reaching specific websites, uploading to your web hosting account or getting online. Performing a traceroute is easy once you know the basic definition and have a simple how-to guide that you can refer to as needed.
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Function
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A traceroute is simply a computer command. This command shows you the exact path a specific amount of information takes from one computer to another. For example, when you visit AnyWebsite.com from your home in New York, your computer may go through several other routers (in Missouri, then Texas and then California) in order to get to AnyWebsite.com, which is hosted in California.
A traceroute will show you all these locations in what are called "hops." A hop is just how the information jumps (literally) from one place to another in order to reach its final destination. In addition to providing this important information, traceroutes also show the place any errors occur. So if your computer cannot connect to a website, a technician at that website can see exactly where the hops stopped and where the computer was unable to connect.
Features
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Traceroutes contain specific information that you should be aware of as you review it.
1. At the beginning of every traceroute, the traceroute will tell you what website you are trying to access, the IP address of that website, and how many hops it will take before timing out. For example, it may look something like this:
"Tracing route to WEBSITE.COM [11.111.1.111] over a maximum of 20 hops"
2. Traceroutes consist of a number of lines of code that explain what happens to the information being passed from place to place. The number of lines is determined by the traceroute and shows how many hops it will take before it essentially gives up on the request.
3. Within each of the lines, the traceroute will display the time it took (in milliseconds) to reach any given destination, along with the domain and/or IP address of the router it is reaching. Three columns are shown for the time periods, as traceroutes test each location three times.
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Performing a Traceroute
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Performing a traceroute is very easy. Do not be afraid to use this, even if you are unfamiliar with using a command prompt. You will not harm your computer in any way by performing a traceroute; essentially, you are just viewing how your computer would normally connect to a website.
On a Windows PC, click "Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Accessories > Command Prompt"
This should bring up a small black box, where you can start typing information. ONLY type the word "tracert" (without quotations), followed by a space, and finally the domain name of the website you would like to reach.
For example, a traceroute may look as follows: "C:\>tracert Google.com"
Click "Enter" and the computer will perform your traceroute. This may take a few minutes to complete, but once it is done, the command will end with "trace complete."
Example Traceroute
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The following is a traceroute performed on a computer located in California, trying to access Google.com as an example website. You can test this same example by performing a traceroute as instructed.
C:\>tracert google.com
Tracing route to google.com [74.125.127.100] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 172.31.9.1
2 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 69.178.136.1
3 5 ms 5 ms 5 ms g01.br5.irvnca.telepacific.net [64.60.224.218]
4 79 ms 48 ms 5 ms 64-60-224-217.static-ip.telepacific.net [64.60.224.217]
5 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms sl-gw29-ana-6-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.223.68.233]
6 11 ms 8 ms 6 ms sl-crs2-ana-0-12-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.1.81]
7 18 ms 18 ms 18 ms sl-crs1-sj-0-8-0-2.sprintlink.net [144.232.18.57]
8 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms sl-st30-sj-0-15-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.8.149]
9 24 ms 18 ms 18 ms sl-googl9-221710-0.sprintlink.net [144.228.110.10]
10 19 ms 23 ms 32 ms 209.85.240.231
11 38 ms 37 ms 38 ms 216.239.49.198
12 121 ms 126 ms 83 ms 216.239.48.34
13 44 ms 44 ms 44 ms 64.233.174.101
14 61 ms 47 ms 57 ms 216.239.46.2
15 42 ms 42 ms 41 ms pz-in-f100.google.com [74.125.127.100]Trace complete.
C:\>
Expert Insight
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Using a traceroute is extremely helpful when experiencing issues with Internet or website connectivity. If you are experiencing connectivity issues, always perform a traceroute before calling your web hosting provider or ISP. Having this information handy will assist the technicians in finding out where the problem is and getting your issue fixed as quickly as possible.
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