This article is about running a Trace Route, which helps us to identify where a connection issue might be.
You should know
Trace route is a command/process so you can see what path a data takes to get to its destination and how much latency, or delay, between each stage. A server that is causing problems in the connection (it's either offline or very slow) will show up with (*) asterisks rather than trace times in ms.
Steps
Windows
- To open the Command Prompt; Open the Run window (Windows + R)
- Type cmd and hit enter, or press ok
- In Command Prompt, type tracert -4 [domain.name] (e.g. tracert -4 one.nz)
MAC
- Open Applications
- Select Utilities
- Select Terminal
- Type in traceroute [domain name] (e.g. traceroute one.nz)
How will I know I've been successful?
An example of a Trace Route.
C:\>tracert one.nz Tracing route to one.nz [203.29.160.32] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 150 ms 150 ms 150 ms tnt8.akl.ihug.co.nz [203.29.165.107] 2 141 ms 141 ms 150 ms feth-0-1-tig-nz-akl-1.ihug.net [203.29.165.254] 3 180 ms 180 ms 180 ms transient.ihug.co.nz [203.29.161.245] 4 150 ms 150 ms 191 ms ihug.co.nz [203.29.160.32] Trace complete. C:\> |
As seen here there were 4 hops (stages) for this connection, and each stage had similar latency.