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Network Tools

Traceroute

Maps the route packets travel from the server to the destination, showing every hop along the path with latency. Useful for diagnosing where traffic slows down or is dropped.

Query

Traceroute can take 20–30 seconds to complete.

What is Traceroute?

Traceroute reveals every router hop between a source and a destination, along with the latency at each one. Where ping only tells you whether a host is reachable, traceroute tells you the path the traffic takes to get there — which is exactly what you need when something is reachable but slow, or not reachable at all.

It works by sending packets with a gradually increasing Time To Live (TTL), forcing each router along the path to reply once before the packet would otherwise expire, effectively mapping the route one hop at a time.

How to use the Traceroute tool

  1. 1 Enter a hostname or IP address for the destination you want to trace a path to.
  2. 2 Run the trace and read each hop from top (closest to our server) to bottom (the destination).
  3. 3 Look at the latency column — a sharp jump at one specific hop usually marks where delay is being introduced.
  4. 4 Note any hop that times out (shown as asterisks) — this can be a firewall silently dropping probes, not necessarily a break in the path, especially if hops after it still respond.

When you need this tool

  • Pinpointing which network segment is responsible for a slow or unreliable connection to a specific destination.
  • Diagnosing routing loops, asymmetric routing, or unexpected detours through a distant region.
  • Confirming traffic to a service is taking the expected path after a CDN, BGP or ISP peering change.
  • Providing hop-by-hop evidence when escalating a connectivity issue to an ISP or hosting provider.
  • Verifying a newly configured anycast or multi-region deployment is routing users to the nearest point of presence.

How it works

The tool sends a sequence of probes to the destination with an increasing TTL value, starting at 1. Each router that receives a packet whose TTL has expired sends back an ICMP "time exceeded" message before dropping it, revealing its address and the round-trip time to reach it. Repeating this with TTL 1, 2, 3… builds the full hop-by-hop path to the destination.

Frequently asked questions

Why do some hops show "* * *" (timeout)?

Many routers are configured to not respond to traceroute probes or to rate-limit ICMP replies, for security or load reasons. A timed-out hop doesn't necessarily mean a break in the connection — if hops beyond it still respond, traffic is passing through it fine, it's just not replying to the probe itself.

What does a big latency jump between two hops actually tell you?

It shows where the most delay is being added along the path — often a long-distance link (an undersea cable, cross-country backbone, or satellite hop) rather than a problem. A jump is only a red flag if that hop's latency is unreasonable for the physical distance involved, or if it's followed by timeouts or packet loss.

How is traceroute different from ping?

Ping only tells you whether the final destination is reachable and how long a round trip takes overall. Traceroute breaks that round trip down hop by hop, showing every router in between — essential when you need to know where a problem is, not just that one exists.

Why does the same destination show a different path each time?

Routing can change dynamically — ISPs rebalance traffic, BGP routes update, and some networks use multiple parallel paths (load balancing) that a traceroute can hop between mid-trace. This is normal and doesn't indicate a fault by itself.