Traceroute is a command-line tool used for testing and validating routing functionality. The traceroute tool can help track down routing problems and locate failures along the outbound path to a destination (but does not find problems in the return path). If a trace completes on the destination machine, there is a route to the destination. A traceroute can provide the user with information about the hosts through which traffic passes. Note that a traceroute will not show all possible paths through a network to a destination, and usually only shows the most preferred path.
NOTE: Traceroute was not designed for finding packet loss or latency! It sends a statistically insignificant number of packets and its round-trip time results are useful only in cases of extreme problems.
WINDOWS TRACEROUTE TO A ROUTE SERVER
C:\Documents and Settings\user>tracert route-server.savvis.net
Tracing route to route-server.savvis.net [209.1.220.234] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 16 ms 12 ms 14 ms ip68-98-148-1.dc.dc.cox.net [68.98.148.1] 2 16 ms 13 ms 13 ms ip68-100-0-1.dc.dc.cox.net [68.100.0.1] 3 20 ms 14 ms 14 ms ip68-100-0-137.dc.dc.cox.net [68.100.0.137] 4 14 ms 10 ms 13 ms 68.1.1.4 5 12 ms 23 ms 16 ms so-6-0-0.gar2.washington1.level3.net [67.29.170.1] 6 18 ms 14 ms 14 ms ae-2-56.bbr2.washington1.level3.net [4.68.121.161] 7 15 ms 20 ms 17 ms so-7-0-0.edge1.washington1.level3.net [209.244.11.14] 8 15 ms 13 ms 13 ms cpr2-gigabitethernet2-2.virginiaequinix.savvis.net [208.173.52.73] 9 21 ms 19 ms 21 ms dcr2-so-3-2-0.washington.savvis.net [206.24.238.217] 10 88 ms 91 ms 91 ms dcr2-loopback.sanfranciscosfo.savvis.net [206.24.210.100] 11 90 ms 86 ms 87 ms bhr1-pos-0-0.SantaClarasc8.savvis.net [208.172.156.198] 12 88 ms 88 ms 87 ms bhr2-ge-2-0.SantaClarasc8.savvis.net [208.172.147.54] 13 88 ms 89 ms 87 ms route-server.savvis.net [209.1.220.234]
Trace complete.
TRACEROUTE FROM A ROUTE-SERVER
Step one in finding network problems is running a traceroute to the destination. The second step is running a traceroute back to yourself. You can use a route server to trace your path back to your own location. Typically, you want to run a traceroute from both ends, but this is not always possible, so you can use a route server when no other options are available.
############ route-server.exodus.net ###############
route-server.exodus.net>trace www.inetdaemon.com
Translating "www.inetdaemon.com"...domain server (209.1.221.10) [OK]
Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to www.inetdaemon.com (207.150.192.12)
1 dcr04-p0-2.sntc02.exodus.net (209.1.169.178) 0 msec 0 msec << Load balancing
dcr03-p0-2.sntc02.exodus.net (209.1.169.182) 0 msec << Load balancing
2 bbr01-g4-0.sntc02.exodus.net (216.33.154.99) 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
3 bbr02-p4-0.sntc04.exodus.net (209.1.169.254) 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec
4 ibr01-g5-1.sntc04.exodus.net (216.34.2.54) 4 msec 0 msec 0 msec
5 sl-gw8-sj-7-2-405xT1.sprintlink.net (144.232.192.185) [AS 1239] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
6 sl-bb20-sj-8-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.3.109) [AS 1239] 0 msec 4 msec 4 msec
7 sl-bb23-ana-11-1.sprintlink.net (144.232.18.217) [AS 1239] 80 msec 40 msec 28 msec
8 144.232.1.106 [AS 1239] 12 msec 12 msec 12 msec
9 sl-affinity-15-0.sprintlink.net (144.228.75.202) [AS 1239] 16 msec << Load balancing
sl-affinity-16-0.sprintlink.net (144.228.75.206) [AS 1239] 12 msec << Load balancing
sl-affinity-15-0.sprintlink.net (144.228.75.202) [AS 1239] 12 msec << Load balancing
10 www.inetdaemon.com (207.150.192.12) [AS 18447] 12 msec 16 msec 16 msec
[update... Since this page was originally written, Savvis and Exodus merged.
Note that the route from the server to InetDaemon.Com has changed --InetD ]
route-server.savvis.net>trace www.inetdaemon.com
Translating "www.inetdaemon.com"...domain server (64.41.189.214) [OK]
Type escape sequence to abort. Tracing the route to www.inetdaemon.com (207.150.192.12)
1 209.1.169.178 204 msec 200 msec 200 msec
2 bpr2-so-7-0-0.SanJoseEquinix.savvis.net (208.173.55.25) 200 msec 200 msec 200 msec
3 208.173.55.2 248 msec
208.173.55.46 220 msec 0 msec
4 POS2-0.XR1.SJC7.ALTER.NET (152.63.56.162) [AS 701] 0 msec 4 msec 0 msec
5 POS5-0.XR1.SJC1.ALTER.NET (152.63.52.133) [AS 701] 0 msec 0 msec 0 msec
6 0.so-0-0-0.XL1.SJC1.ALTER.NET (152.63.55.114) [AS 701] 0 msec 0 msec 4 msec
7 0.so-3-0-0.TL1.SAC1.ALTER.NET (152.63.53.250) [AS 701] 4 msec 4 msec 4 msec
8 0.so-6-0-0.TL1.LAX2.ALTER.NET (152.63.2.226) [AS 701] 12 msec 12 msec 16 msec
9 0.so-1-2-0.XL1.LAX2.ALTER.NET (152.63.2.69) [AS 701] 16 msec 12 msec 16 msec
10 POS4-0.XR1.LAX2.ALTER.NET (152.63.115.218) [AS 701] 12 msec 12 msec 16 msec
11 195.ATM6-0.GW3.LAX2.ALTER.NET (152.63.53.41) [AS 701] 12 msec 12 msec 16 msec
12 Affinity-gw1.customer.alter.net (208.222.14.230) [AS 701] 16 msec 16 msec 16 msec
13 www.inetdaemon.com (207.150.192.12) [AS 18447] 16 msec 16 msec 16 msec
As you can see, the traceroute completed because it reached the destination
at hop 10. No matter what you see in the trace, if you reach the destination,
it's reachable and routing correctly, no mattter how many ' * ' characters you
see.