Interpreting tracert results

[KikMyAssAgain]

Hi all. :confused: I've been asked by my isp to run a couple of tracert's agaisnt some of the sites i use. The results are in the form of .txt files. Does anybody know how to interpret the results ?

[G Smith]

Basically it shows the route a packet takes to get to a host ip address. And shows any problems with that route.

Here's a more technical description

The TRACERT diagnostic utility determines the route taken to a destination by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets with varying IP Time-To-Live (TTL) values to the destination. Each router along the path is required to decrement the TTL on a packet by at least 1 before forwarding it, so the TTL is effectively a hop count. When the TTL on a packet reaches 0, the router should send an ICMP Time Exceeded message back to the source computer.

TRACERT determines the route by sending the first echo packet with a TTL of 1 and incrementing the TTL by 1 on each subsequent transmission until the target responds or the maximum TTL is reached. The route is determined by examining the ICMP Time Exceeded messages sent back by intermediate routers. Note that some routers silently drop packets with expired TTLs and are invisible to TRACERT.

TRACERT prints out an ordered list of the routers in the path that returned the ICMP Time Exceeded message.

So if you do a tracert to your ISP and there is a problem along the way it will show up in the report.


MS Explanation of Tracert

[Mr. C]

Here's a tracert tutorial that gives a nice summary of the programs output.
http://support.webwizards.net/tut_tracert.shtml

[KikMyAssAgain]

I've sent the report and now await with baited breath what my isp tells me. Atleast with your replies i can try and make some conclusions myself.

[Mr. C]

Basically, it's a nice summary of the staus of the route taken from point A to point B with all junctions in between.
Of course this route can change from moment to moment and results will vary depending upon the status/traffic at any given point along the way.

Unfortunately, there is little you can do about poor results - all you can really do is send your packets and hope for the best.

[mohitdaksh]

I want to ask that if the data packets don't necessarily follow the same path every time then what is the use of tracing the route.. I mean next time the data may not follow that path so whats the use