How To Use Traceroute Command

Traceroute shows us the path traffic takes to reach the website. It also displays the delays that occur at each stop. If you’re having issues reaching a website and that website is working properly, it’s possible there’s a problem somewhere on the path between your computer and the website’s servers. Traceroute would show you where that problem is.

Here are instructions on how to perform a traceroute check on different operating systems:

Windows

1. Open Start menu

2. Click Run

3. Type cmd and press enter

4. In the command prompt type tracert domain.com and press enter

This will provide traceroute results from your computer to domain.com. You can also use tracert with an IP, i.e. tracert IP

Traceroute Test In Linux

Open a terminal and type traceroute IP

root@serverxx [~]# traceroute 74.220.215.85
traceroute to 74.220.215.85 (74.220.215.85), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  serverxx.hosthat.com (50.22.59.65)  18.676 ms  18.763 ms *
 2  ae0.dar01.sr01.dal05.networklayer.com (173.192.118.130)  2.571 ms  2.671 ms  2.727 ms
 3  ae5.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com (173.192.18.214)  2.168 ms  0.899 ms  1.008 ms
 4  10gigabitethernet3-1.core1.dal1.he.net (206.223.118.37)  12.349 ms  1.061 ms  12.444 ms
 5  10ge2-4.core1.phx2.he.net (184.105.222.77)  21.613 ms  26.536 ms  26.632 ms
 6  10ge15-6.core1.lax2.he.net (184.105.222.86)  35.808 ms  30.703 ms  33.280 ms
 7  10ge3-1.core1.las1.he.net (184.105.222.162)  42.990 ms  45.390 ms  45.352 ms
 8  10ge4-1.core1.slc1.he.net (184.105.222.158)  42.845 ms  42.424 ms  37.373 ms
 9  ace-data-centers-inc.10gigabitethernet1-4.core1.slc1.he.net (66.160.133.118)  61.437 ms  57.222 ms  57.319 ms
10  rtr-b.unifiedlayer.com (199.58.199.118)  59.022 ms  59.519 ms  59.400 ms
11  host285.hostmonster.com (74.220.215.85)  57.320 ms  57.309 ms  51.911 ms
root@serverxx [~]# 

Understanding the Output

root@serverxx [~]# tracert 96.30.56.129
traceroute to 96.30.56.129 (96.30.56.129), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
 1  96.30.56.129 (96.30.56.129)  2.448 ms  2.398 ms  2.391 ms
 2  * * *
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root@serverxx [~]#

It shows there is a problem with current router.