Traceroute is the go-to utility for troubleshooting many network related issues.
Overview Traceroute launches a probe packet towards DST IP with a TTL of 1 Every router hop decrements the IP TTL of the packet by 1 When TTL equals 0 the packet is dropped, and the router sends an ICMP TTL exceeded packet to the SRC with the original probe packet as payloads The received message is displayed as a “hop” by traceroute The TTL is incremented by 1 and another probe sent This process is repeated until traceroute receives ICMP Dest Unreachable Probe Packets Each OS has a slightly different of implementing traceroute and its probe packets UNIX uses UDP probes UDP DST port 33434 incrementing once per probe Windows (and some others) use ICMP (each request) probes Look for some traceroute implementation that allows you to use TCP, UDP, or ICMP In most cases, three probes are sent per hop This is why you will see three latency results or *’s These three probes are important as in the case of load balancing path and latency might change Finding problems in your traceroute results Network Latency is normal It takes ~400 ms for a packet to travel across the world (around the equator) just in light propagation Many times ICMP is forwarded, and processed by routers general CPU, which can cause higher than normal delays Note the path your traffic is taking (see below for tips) Tip to understanding traceroute outputs on the internet Look for IATA Airport Code CLLI Codes UN/LOCode Provider names City Names Example Traceroute output from macOS traceroute to google....