Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool used to track the pathway taken by a packet on an IP network from source to destination. Traceroute also records the time taken for each hop the packet makes during its route to the destination.
Traceroute uses Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets with variable time to live (TTL) values. The response time of each hop is calculated. To guarantee accuracy, each hop is queried multiple times (usually three times) to better measure the response of that particular hop.
Traceroute exists as part of most operating systems in one form or another.
Below is a basic guide on how to use tracert in Windows:
- Step 1. Open the "Start" menu.
- Step 2. Click "Run".
- Step 3. To open the command-line interface, type "cmd" and then click "OK".
- Step 4. At the command line prompt, type:
> tracert example.com (specify the domain name or IP address)
This will give you an overview results of what happened, for exapmple where the connection dropped.
