What is a trace route?

The tracert command is used to isolate routing issues. This will show you all of the "hops" from your connection to our network. A timeout, indicated by an asterisk or time above 200, indicates a slow or dead hop and may be a problem. Over 15 hops can also be a problem.

To look at a traceroute, type tracert gw1.ibllc.com at the command prompt.

The following are sample traceroutes. Included is an explanation and suggested course of action. This traceroute is an example of a healthy connection. The ping times and the number of hops are low (lower is better). No course of action required.

  1. gatekeeper (206.42.160.1) 1 ms 1 ms 2 ms
  2. jfk-edge-19.inet.qwest.net (63.237.128.53) 19 ms 26 ms 21 ms
  3. jfk-core-03.inet.qwest.net (205.171.30.189) 22 ms 19 ms 24 ms
  4. ewr-core-03.inet.qwest.net (205.171.5.89) 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms
  5. ewr-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.17.98) 20 ms 26 ms 19 ms
  6. 205.171.1.122 (205.171.1.122) 30 ms 20 ms 22 ms
  7. sl-bb23-nyc-3-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.7.109) 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms
  8. sl-bb22-pen-6-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.9.18) 25 ms 37 ms 21 ms
  9. sl-bb26-pen-9-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.16.58) 21 ms 26 ms 22 ms
  10. sl-gw26-pen-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.190) 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms
  11. sl-thllc-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.190.222) 35 ms 31 ms 29 ms
  12. 206.106.137.111 (206.106.137.111) 28 ms 28 ms 30 ms

This is an example of a marginal connection. The ping times and number of hops are fairly high, but the connection should still be usable. Contact your ISP to see if this is a common occurrence. If this is what you can expect, you may want to shop around for another provider. Higher times indicate line latency (slowness) and the high (17) number of 'hops' results in a higher potential for outage, in the event that one of the providers involved experiences a problem.

  1. 195.130.108.1 (195.130.108.1) 3.258 ms 2.325 ms 2.32 ms
  2. athens-teiath-ATM.grnet.gr (194.177.209.149) 3.894 ms 3.546 ms 2.935 ms
  3. athens-2-athens.grnet.gr (194.177.210.226) 3.299 ms 4.549 ms 13.643 ms
  4. grnet1.uk1.uk.geant.net (62.40.103.181) 78.624 ms 72.213 ms 73.457 ms
  5. uk.se1.se.geant.net (62.40.96.125) 104.912 ms 105.978 ms 104.695 ms
  6. so-6-0-0.ar2.CPH1.gblx.net (208.48.23.153) 142.148 ms 115.03 ms 114.235 ms
  7. so2-1-0-622M.cr2.CPH1.gblx.net (62.12.32.77) 113.658 ms 116.135 ms 114.903 ms
  8. pos1-0-2488M.cr2.LON3.gblx.net (195.8.96.181) 134.768 ms 138.151 ms 132.05 ms
  9. pos1-0-622M.br1.LON3.gblx.net (195.8.96.189) 130.876 ms 131.726 ms 134.405 ms
  10. sl-bb21-lon-5-0.sprintlink.net (213.206.131.25) 132.904 ms 131.369 ms 134.111 ms
  11. sl-bb20-msq-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.19.69) 209.434 ms 212.069 ms 209.79 ms
  12. sl-bb20-nyc-11-3.sprintlink.net (144.232.9.102) 215.735 ms 208.302 ms 207.316 ms
  13. sl-bb20-pen-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.18.37) 400.633 ms 352.33 ms 274.419 ms
  14. sl-bb25-pen-8-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.174) 212.023 ms 215.237 ms 215.472 ms
  15. sl-gw26-pen-0-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.5.186) 213.755 ms 212.104 ms 211.378 ms
  16. sl-thllc-4-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.190.222) 218.742 ms 221.021 ms 217.51 ms
  17. 206.106.137.111 (206.106.137.111) 218.028 ms 222.549 ms 218.867 ms

The next example shows a network outage. The connection fails between hop 8 and 9. In the event that this occurs, you should contact your ISP and give them this information. These types of outages are very obvious and are the easiest for an ISP to troubleshoot.

  1. kauge.aso.ee (195.80.96.219) 0.432 ms 0.323 ms 0.357 ms
  2. uninet-gw.aso.ee (195.80.96.211) 1.094 ms 7.688 ms 2.332 ms
  3. 194.204.4.161 (194.204.4.161) 1.489 ms 1.403 ms 1.425 ms
  4. kista-atm.uninet.ee (193.229.72.105) 135.413 ms 129.594 ms 136.073 ms
  5. Pos5-0.GW7.STK3.ALTER.NET (146.188.34.13) 141.723 ms 140.03 ms 122.782 ms
  6. so-3-0-0.XR2.STK3.Alter.Net (146.188.5.37) 113.354 ms 98.346 ms 90.857 ms
  7. ge-1-0-0.TR1.STK2.Alter.Net (146.188.11.242) 94.762 ms 115.168 ms 130.034 ms
  8. so-4-0-0.IR1.DCA4.Alter.Net (146.188.5.197) 257.747 ms 288.965 ms 255.057 ms
  9. request timed out ***
  10. request timed out ***
  11. request timed out ***
  12. request timed out ***

The last example is possibly the hardest to troubleshoot and the most frustrating. The occasional timeout (marked with an asterisk) appears several places in the traceroute. This indicates that intermittent packet loss is taking place. These types of errors are elusive and may not have been reported yet. Contact your ISP about this issue.

  1. <10 ms <10 ms 10 ms 206.106.137.1
  2. <10 ms 10 ms 10 ms sl-gw26-pen-5-0-1.sprintlink.net [144.232.190.21]
  3. <10 ms 10 ms <10 ms sl-bb25-pen-0-7.sprintlink net [144.232.5.185]
  4. <10 ms * <10 ms sl-bb21-pen-8-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.5.237]
  5. <10 ms 10 ms 10 ms sl-bb23-rly-0-0 sprintlink.net [144.232.20.32]
  6. 10 ms 10 ms * 144.232.20.44
  7. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms sl-ameronl-14-0.sprintlink.net [144.223.246.14]
  8. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bb1-ash-P10.atdn.net [66.185.139.209]
  9. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bb1-dtc-P0-2.atdn.net [66.185.152.114]
  10. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms pop1-dtc-P14-0.atdn.net [66.185.140.6]
  11. 10 ms 10 ms ow3-dtc-P0-0.atdn.net [66.185.144.254]
  12. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms ow1-dtc-P9-2.aol.com [205.188.131.218]
  13. 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms www2-dr6-P0-0.aol.com [205.188.172.126]
  14. *** Request timed out.
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