Traceroute

What is trace route tool?

Usually, when you are pinging from one destination to another one, the data packets pass through several set of routers and computers (up to 30 devices and computers) before reaching the final ip address. Trace route tool is used in order to identify each point in the TCP/IP network the packets have passed through and this is useful in troubleshooting connection problems for administrators. The utility shows the host name of the device, ip address of the device and the time it took for a data packet to hop between last destinations to the next one.

Why and when do you need to trace route anyway?

Usually, when the website you’ve created is down for some users or for everybody in the internet, trace route utility helps you to identify whether the problem is in your end or it cannot be reached globally. There might be several reasons why your website cannot be reached by your internet users:

• Connection problems globally in one of the Internet Service Providers
• Your server might be down, or experiencing downtime problems
• Problems in the channel connection
• Your website has been banned in some countries by some Internet Service Providers
• And so on…

The trace route utility helps you to identify where in the network the response time-outs are occurring and you can trace route back between the destination and the sender where the problem has occurred. This will identify what is the real reason why some users cannot access your website.