What exactly does traceroute show

abirhasan — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:00:09 GMT

I am trying to run traceroute for different server IP addresses and with the kind of results i am getting...i think i don't know exactly what this result actually explains.

I understand it suppose to show the path of network but my question here is from where to where?

When i use the pingdom website http://tools.pingdom.com/ping/ i see everytime it passes through through telia.net every time...so my question is is this testing the route of the server IP from my computer or what? Why am i seeing telia everytime?

Can someone please explain this in a different way other than path of network? like path of netowrk from where to where? and what does the results mean? like the response time and all

I thought i knew what it was until i see results that shouldn't be.

Re: What exactly does traceroute show

jaketehcatuk — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:09:25 GMT

If you run 'tracert' from your local PC, then the results will be all of the hops (devices along the internet that pass the traffic to the next device) that are required to get from your local PC to the website in question.

If you use pingdom, then the results will be from pingdom - not your local PC.

The response times will be in MS and it's how long a packet of data has taken to get from the machine initiating the traceroute to the various devices along the way.

The following is the route from my desktop: -

C:\>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.95]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms
3 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 83-244-204-129.cust-83.exponential-e.net [83.244.204.129]
4 * 3 ms 3 ms 1-1-2.pr01.thca.uk.exponential-e.net [195.66.224.186]
5 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms bbc-linx.pr01.thdow.bbc.co.uk [195.66.224.103]
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms ae0.er01.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.93]
8 5 ms 4 ms * 132.185.255.165
9 5 ms 4 ms 5 ms bbc-vip016.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.95]

Trace complete.

The following is from my webserver: -

C:\>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.246.92]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms
2 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms v193-gs2-ar3.router.uk.clara.net [217.158.179.189]
3 1 ms <1 ms 1 ms g1-1-3-gs2-cr2.router.uk.clara.net [195.8.90.157]
4 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ten2-0-0-t6-cr1.router.uk.clara.net [195.8.90.166]
5 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms ten0-0-0-t6-br1.router.uk.clara.net [195.8.86.206]
6 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms claranet-gw.thdo.bbc.co.uk [195.8.86.202]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 3 ms 3 ms 3 ms ae0.er01.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.93]
9 6 ms 4 ms 7 ms 132.185.255.165
10 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms bbc-vip013.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk [212.58.246.92]

Trace complete.

As you can see, same destination but different routes.

Does that help?

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What exactly does traceroute show

Re: What exactly does traceroute show