How to Send Trace-Route Results

What is Trace-Route?
Trace-Route provides us with the map/route of how the data travels on the internet from its source to its destination.

How does Trace-Route work?
The main work of the traceroute is to send the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets to every router that is involved in transferring the data which gets these packets. These ICMP packets give information on whether the routers are able to effectively transfer the data involved in the transmission.

What is Trace-Route used for?
An Internet Protocol (IP) tracer is helpful in finding out the routing hops the data go through, and when it sends the data to the destination, it also responds to the delay as it travels across the nodes. This enables you to locate where the data was not able to be sent along, and this point is known as the point of failure.

How to Run a Trace-Route?

To run a traceroute on a Windows OS, you can follow the steps below:

Open the Command Prompt by going to the Start menu and searching for "Command Prompt" or "cmd".
In the Command Prompt window, type tracert followed by a space and then the IP address or domain name of the destination site. For example: tracert www.yourdomain.com
Press the Enter key to initiate the traceroute.
The Command Prompt window will display a list of the routers and their IP addresses that the connection passes through on its way to the destination site. The time it takes for each router to respond to the traceroute request is also displayed.
You can stop the traceroute at any time by pressing Ctrl+C.

To run a traceroute on a Linux OS, you can follow the steps below:

Open a terminal window on your Linux system. The exact method to do this may vary depending on your Linux distribution, but it is typically accessible from the Applications menu or by pressing the Ctrl+Alt+T keys.
In the terminal window, type traceroute followed by a space and then the IP address or domain name of the destination site. For example: traceroute www.yourdomain.com
Press the Enter key to initiate the traceroute.
The terminal window will display a list of the routers and their IP addresses that the connection passes through on its way to the destination site. The time it takes for each router to respond to the traceroute request is also displayed.
You can stop the traceroute at any time by pressing Ctrl+C.

To run a traceroute on a Mac OS, you can follow the steps below:

Open the Terminal application on your Mac. You can do this by going to Finder, then Applications, then Utilities, and finally selecting Terminal.
In the Terminal window, type traceroute followed by a space and then the IP address or domain name of the destination site. For example: traceroute www.yourdomain.com
Press the Enter key to initiate the traceroute.
The Terminal window will display a list of the routers and their IP addresses that the connection passes through on its way to the destination site. The time it takes for each router to respond to the traceroute request is also displayed.
You can stop the traceroute at any time by pressing Ctrl+C.

What is a Trace-Route command?
The Trace-Route command sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets to test and manage the connections and reports on the analysis between two points (source and destination) on the internet. It is also used to diagnose networking errors and can be accessed by using the traceroute command directly.

Updated on: 23/11/2023