Tool Description: Traceroute

Traceroute is a tool that uses ICMP to "ping" all the routers along the path to an endpoint. This can be helpful in determining the source of excessive delay.

Application

Traceroute sends a series of ICMP messages with differing TTL counts that "expire" progressively along a route. This causes responses to be returned from each router and hence allows the delay to each point to be determined.

The route taken by Traceroute messages is not necessarily the same as those taken by voice packets and hence this approach may not always uncover the problem - it is however a useful and widely used tool.

Windows NT and Windows 2000 support traceroute from a DOS prompt:

c>tracert [-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host-list] [-w timeout] target-name

Where:

-d Do not resolve addresses to hostnames

-h Maximum number of hops to search for target

-j Loose source route along host-list

-w Wait timeout milliseconds for each reply

There are several traceroute tools available for Windows, including Pingplotter.

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