The majority of managed service providers (MSPs) and IT administrators and technicians traceroute and ping are the most likely ports of call when attempting to fix issues with connectivity or latency in the network. Traceroute is an easy tool that anyone with an access point to the command line is able to use. But, if you're not acquainted with the fundamentals that traceroute provides, it could be difficult to comprehend the test results. This article will provide the fundamentals of traceroute, how you should use it and how to interpret the results.

What Is The Traceroute Tool?

Traceroute is a command which operates tools that are used to diagnose network issues. The tools trace the routes data packets travel from their origin to their destinations, which allows administrators to more effectively deal with connectivity problems. On the Windows machine the command is tracert. On Linux and Mac it's traceroute. 

Traceroute and Tracert function similarly, they track the route data follows from one location within a network to an specific IP server. When data is transferred between two locations the data must "hop" through several devices such as routers and switches. Traceroute tracks each hop and provides details as well as round-trip times (RTT) and provides the device's name as well as the IP address, if possible.

While ping is able to tell the presence of an issue, traceroute can aid in identifying where the problem is. To illustrate how to use traceroute, consider that you're on an online site and the pages are taking a lengthy duration to open. In this case you can utilize traceroute to pinpoint the areas where the most delays are taking place to determine the source of the issue.

How Can We Use The Traceroute Tool?

Before running a traceroute operation be aware of the network mechanism known as "time to live" (TTL). TTL restricts the length of time information can "live" in an IP network. Each data packet is assigned a value for TTL. Each time a packet of data gets to a hop, the TTL value decreases by one.

Another important aspect to consider the importance of "round-trip time" (RTT). Traceroute makes sure that every hop that leads to the destination device drops a packet , and then transmits the receiver the ICMP error signal. This means that traceroute is able to measure the time interval between the moment that data is transmitted and you receive the ICMP message is received for each hop. This gives you the RTT value for each hop.

For a better understanding Let's take the example of running traceroute, and you specify the maximum number of hops at 30. Traceroute sends packets with TTL of 1 to the server that you want to connect to. The first network device that data goes through will reduce the TTL to zero. A message telling you that the packets are lost is transmitted. This will give you your RTT for hop number 1.

The data packets are then sent to the destination server using the TTL of two. Once the packets have passed through first, TTL is reduced to one. After they have passed over the next hop the TTL drops to zero. The message is sent back. This will give you the RTT for hop number two.

The process continues till the packets of data arrive at the destination device or reaches an amount of hops that is the highest. At the end of this test, you'll be aware of how many hops required to the device that you want to connect to and the RTT length for each hop, as well as the name of the device as well as the hostname for every hop.

The results of traceroute will appear somewhat different depending on the specific software that you employ. If you opt to utilize NetPath (tm) along with solarwinds (r) N-central (tm) the process of analyzing the results is a breeze. The intuitive visuals allow you to pinpoint hotspots throughout the entire delivery chain.

If you're using tracert that is the Windows traceroute tool, then you'll be able to see an amount of hops that have been taken from the device that originated it and the target device on the upper left column. Each hop will be able to see three RTT values (provided the TRACERT tool is configured to deliver three information packets in order to test each hop as per standard settings). On the right side, you'll be able to see additional device details.