Traveling Through a Network: Using Ping & Traceroute Commands to Check Network Connections

 

Traveling Through a Network 

Part 1. Ping Activity and How Packets Travel Through the Network

In my experience with network diagnostics, I utilized ping and traceroute commands to analyze how data packets travel through the internet. These tools help us understand the network activity and performance issues in communications between devices. After testing out the different websites, I observed how packets are transmitted, and the different paths they take depending on geographic location and network routing. When using the ping command, my device sends a series of data packets to the specified IP address or domain name. Then it travels across multiple nodes or routers and switches until it reaches the intended destination. RTT (round trip time) is measured with the ping command, displaying how long it takes for a packet to reach its destination, and return, this helps observe latency and your overall connection quality.

ping google.com

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Minimum = 46ms, Maximum = 104ms, Average = 70ms

ping google.co.uk

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Minimum = 56ms, Maximum = 121ms, Average = 74ms

ping google.co.jp

Pinging google.co.jp [2607:f8b0:4008:805: : 2003] with 32 bytes of data:

Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

Minimum = 47ms, Maximum = 74ms, Average = 58ms

Part 2: Traceroute Activity

Traceroute operates TTL (Time-to-Live) value, traceroute allows users to see each hop a packet makes, providing information into the network path and identifying possible failures. If you see a * in a column, the command timed out before you received a response, which could indicate packet loss. If the request times out, you should not consider that a successful hop.

Tracing route to google.com

11  hop’s  68 ms   55 ms  54 ms 

Trace complete.

Tracing route to google.co.uk

11   hop’s   52 ms   68 ms     64 ms     

Trace complete.

Tracing route to google.co.jp

12   hop’s    151 ms        138 ms         84 ms

Trace complete.

Part 3. Comparing Results & Troubleshooting

In testing different websites, such as google.com and google.co.jp, the results revealed significant differences in both round-trip time (RTT) and path taken. When pinging google.com, I recorded an RTT of around 68 ms with 11 hops. In contrast, the other site, google.co.jp, had an RTT of 151 with 12 hops, it traversed more hops, indicating a longer  and more congested route. This highlights how paths can vary based on destination and underlying infrastructure. The relationship between RTT and geographical location became apparent in my tests. It appears that generally, websites with shorter RTTs  were physically closer to my location or were traversing through better infrastructure. In contrast, longer RTTs were associated with the websites located farther away, in particular the more hops, showed a more complex and less efficient routing path. That could also be due to weaker infrastructure as well.

Troubleshooting with Ping and Traceroute Commands

Troubleshooting with ping and traceroute commands are invaluable tools addressing network connections. For example, if a website is not responding, a ping test can determine if the server is responsive. If it time out, it could be another issue with either my connection or the website’s server. Then following up with a traceroute can provide insight into where the disconnection is happening along the network path, making it easier to identify a specific router that may be causing delay or failures.

Several reasons may cause a ping request or traceroute command to timeout or return an error response: Firewall Settings, many servers have firewall configurations that block ping requests to prevent Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. If the ping is blocked it will automatically time out. Routing Issues or Network Congestion, when a network experiences heavy traffic or routing failures, packets may be dropped, and lead to a failed request. This can result in traceroute commands reporting incomplete paths or timeouts at specified nodes. Nodes are a device that is directly connected to a network and acts as a connection point for data transmission.

My experience utilizing ping and traceroute commands significantly enhanced my knowledge and understanding of how data packets travel through the networks and factors that affect network connectivity.

 

 

 

References

TestOut Corp. (2024). CertMaster Learn Tech+. http://www.testout.com

The University of Arizona Global Campus. (n.d.). Guide to ping and traceroute commands Download Guide to ping and traceroute commands. Canvas@UAGC. https://login.uagc.edu