Tracing Your Network Path with Traceroute

Sometimes a connection issue isn’t about whether you can reach a website, but how your data gets there. The internet is made up of many different networks linked together. Every time your data passes through a router or server along the way, that’s called a hop.

The traceroute command shows you each hop between your computer and the destination, giving you insight into where delays or failures happen.

What Traceroute Does

• Maps the path your data takes across the internet
• Shows each hop along the way, including routers and servers
• Highlights where slowdowns or failures occur

How to Run Traceroute

1. Open a command line tool:
   • On Windows: press Windows + R, type cmd, and press Enter.
     tracert google.com
   • On macOS or Linux: open Terminal.
     traceroute google.com
2. Press Enter and review the results.

Example Output

Here’s a sample from Windows:

Tracing route to google.com [142.250.190.78] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms   192.168.1.1

  2      9 ms     8 ms     8 ms   10.45.0.1

  3     23 ms    22 ms    21 ms   96.120.84.25

  4     25 ms    25 ms    25 ms   142.250.190.78

How to read it:

• Hop 1 is your router (192.168.1.1).
• Hop 2 is your ISP’s local network.
• Hop 3 and beyond are other networks your data travels through.
• The last hop is the destination server.

If you see * * *, that means the hop didn’t respond. This doesn’t always mean failure — some servers are simply set not to reply.

Activity: Run Your Own Traceroute

1. Run tracert google.com (Windows) or traceroute google.com (macOS/Linux).
2. Take a screenshot of the results.
3. Count the number of hops before reaching the destination.
   
   How traceroute hop counting works:
   Each numbered line represents one hop. Even if the hop shows Request timed out, it still counts as a hop because the traceroute attempted to reach that router. The final hop is the destination (Google’s server in this case).

Reflection

• Which hop is your router?
• Where do you notice latency (higher response times)?
• How could traceroute help you explain why a site is slow for one person but fine for another?

Traceroute is a powerful way to see the hidden journey of your data. By practicing with it, you’ll build the skills to spot network issues beyond your own computer or router.