> TRACEROUTE_COMMAND_GENERATOR

📖 How to Read Traceroute Results

Understanding Traceroute Output: Traceroute shows the path your data takes through the internet as a list of "hops" - each hop represents a router forwarding your packet toward its destination. Each line typically shows the hop number, router IP address (and sometimes hostname), and three latency measurements in milliseconds. This detailed path information helps diagnose exactly where network problems occur.

Key Patterns to Recognize:

• Latency jump at hop N: A sudden increase (e.g., hop 5 shows 20ms, hop 6 jumps to 180ms) indicates congestion or routing issue at/after that specific hop. This could mean international links, satellite connections, or overloaded routers. Normal gradual increases are expected as geographic distance increases.
• Timeouts/Asterisks (*): Routers may deprioritize ICMP packets used by traceroute for security or performance reasons. Seeing * for one hop while later hops respond normally is usually fine - it's ICMP rate limiting, not actual packet loss. However, consecutive * across many final hops may indicate firewall blocking or genuine connectivity issues.
• Loss at one hop only: If pathping/mtr shows packet loss at a single hop but 0% loss at subsequent hops, this is usually ICMP rate limiting (the router intentionally ignoring some ICMP probes) rather than real packet loss affecting your traffic. Focus on the final destination statistics.
• Loss continues for later hops: When packet loss persists through subsequent hops (e.g., 15% loss at hop 8 and all following hops), this indicates a real problem at hop 8 affecting actual traffic. This warrants investigation or contacting your ISP to report routing issues on that path.
• High latency from start: If hop 1 (your local gateway/router) already shows high latency (>50ms), check local network/ISP connection first. The problem is likely Wi-Fi interference, faulty router, overloaded home network, or issues with your last-mile connection. Fix local issues before analyzing distant hops.
• Sudden latency drop: Sometimes latency decreases at later hops - this seems impossible but occurs because different hops may measure latency to different router interfaces, or routers may use different queue priorities for ICMP responses. Don't be alarmed by this pattern.

Advanced Analysis Techniques: Run traceroute multiple times at different times of day to identify patterns - congestion during peak hours shows ISP capacity issues. Compare routes to multiple destinations; if slowness appears at the same hop regardless of final destination, that hop is your bottleneck. Use MTR's statistics (standard deviation column) to identify unstable links with high variation.

Common Hop Count Expectations: Local servers within your ISP: 5-10 hops. Regional servers (same country): 10-15 hops. International servers (different continent): 15-25 hops. More than 30 hops often indicates routing problems or intentionally complex paths through VPNs/proxies. Cloud services often show fewer hops due to optimized routing and direct peering.

Next steps: Ping & Jitter Test · Speed Test · How to Fix High Ping Guide · IP Lookup

❓ Traceroute FAQs

What is traceroute? Traceroute shows the network path (hops) packets take to reach a destination, plus the latency to each hop. It works by sending packets with incrementally increasing TTL (Time To Live) values - TTL=1 reaches first hop, TTL=2 reaches second hop, etc. Each router along the path responds with its IP address when TTL expires, building a complete map of your data's journey.

Why do I see asterisks (*)? Asterisks usually mean a router didn't reply to the probe within the timeout period (often ICMP rate limiting for security). If later hops still respond, it's commonly not an actual outage - just that specific router ignoring ICMP packets. Firewalls, security policies, and resource management cause routers to deprioritize ICMP responses. Use pathping or MTR to see real packet loss percentages.

What does a big latency jump mean? A sudden increase at hop N can indicate congestion, routing issues, geographic distance (intercontinental links), or slower connection types at that hop or after it. For example, a jump from 20ms to 200ms often means crossing an ocean via undersea cable. Confirm with multiple runs at different times and compare with ping/jitter tests. Consistent jumps indicate infrastructure limitations; sporadic jumps suggest temporary congestion.

What tool should I use for packet loss per hop? On Windows, use pathping (run: pathping -n example.com) which combines traceroute with 25 seconds of pings to each hop, showing exact packet loss percentages. On macOS/Linux, use mtr (run: mtr -rwzc 50 example.com) for more reliable loss statistics with real-time updating. These tools distinguish between ICMP rate limiting and actual packet loss.

Why does my traceroute path change between runs? Internet routing is dynamic - routers choose paths based on current network conditions, load balancing, and routing policies. Different routes to the same destination are normal and even desirable for redundancy. However, if routes change frequently (every few minutes) and show varying latency, this could indicate routing instability (route flapping) worth investigating.

What's the difference between tracert, traceroute, pathping, and MTR? Tracert (Windows command) uses ICMP Echo by default and shows 3 samples per hop. Traceroute (Linux/Mac) uses UDP by default (use -I for ICMP). Pathping (Windows) combines traceroute with extensive ping testing for packet loss analysis. MTR (Linux/Mac, "My Traceroute") provides real-time updating traceroute with continuous statistics - it's the most powerful option. All accomplish similar goals but MTR offers the best analysis features.

Can traceroute help with gaming lag or video call issues? Absolutely. Gamers should look for: high latency at any hop (>100ms problematic for FPS games), packet loss (even 1-2% ruins gameplay), and jitter/inconsistent latency. Video calls need low jitter and loss but tolerate higher latency (150ms acceptable). Run MTR during problematic times and share results with your ISP if the problem hop is within their network.

Why doesn't traceroute reach the destination? Many servers and networks block ICMP or rate-limit traceroute responses for security. If final hops show * but the service works (website loads, ping succeeds), the destination is simply blocking traceroute traffic. This is normal and doesn't indicate problems. The path information up to the last responding hop is still valuable for diagnosing issues.

Related tools: Ping & Jitter · Speed Test · DNS Lookup · IP Geolocation