Traceroute Test
Trace the network path to any host
About Traceroute
Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool that shows the route taken by packets across an IP network. It displays the series of network hops traversed to reach a destination, along with the round-trip time of each hop.
How It Works
Traceroute works by sending packets with progressively increasing TTL (Time To Live) values, starting with 1. Each router along the path decrements the TTL by 1, and when a router decrements the TTL to 0, it discards the packet and sends an ICMP Time Exceeded message back to the source. By analyzing these messages, traceroute builds a list of routers that packets traverse on the way to the destination.
Common Uses
- Diagnosing network connectivity issues
- Identifying points of network congestion
- Determining where packet loss occurs in a network path
- Verifying routing efficiency