How to Do Traceroute from a Windows Machine

When a website is slow or inaccessible, our first thought is to assume that there is a problem with the web server. While a problem on the web server is certainly possible, it's just as likely that there is a problem somewhere along the way between the server and your computer. This is where traceroute comes in; it can display where connections are failing or experiencing delays.

Traceroute is one of the most common utilities built into operating systems. This utility helps you find where high transfer times are occurring in your internal network and on the Internet. It is useful for diagnosing network connections and the source of many problems. It traces the path a packet takes from your host/computer through each processing point and the time it takes to get from one router to another to the final destination (which can be a web server, mail server, or SQL server). Sometimes, the tracert command is referred to as the traceroute command.

How to Run a Traceroute on Windows

To run a traceroute on a Windows machine, follow these steps:

1. Open the Windows search box and type CMD in the search bar.

2. Open the Command Prompt app and type tracert followed by a space, then the domain name, server name, or IP address (e.g., tracert testing.com).

3. Press Enter on your keyboard and wait for the traceroute to complete. You will see the words Trace complete when the process is finished.

4. You can stop a traceroute at any time by pressing Control + C keys simultaneously.

5. To copy the traceroute results, left-click and drag the mouse to select the results.

How to Run a Traceroute on Other Devices

On a Mac:

1. Double-click the hard drive icon.

2. Open the Applications folder.

3. Click to open the Utilities folder.

4. Open Network Utility.

5. Select the Traceroute tab.

6. Enter your website's domain name, server name, or IP address and click on Trace.

On an iPhone:

1. Download a traceroute app, such as iNetTools.

2. Go to the Trace Route menu.

3. Paste your domain name, server name, or IP address in the input box and click Start. The output will be displayed in the result window.

On an Android:

1. Use the Network Utilities app.

2. Click on the menu icon to view available utilities.

3. Go to the Traceroute menu and paste the domain name, server name, or IP address.

4. Select Trace to get the output, or save it to a text file.

On Linux:

1. Open a Terminal window and type: traceroute -I domain.com (you can use the server name or IP address).

2. The -I option is necessary to use ICMP.

3. The test will complete within a minute or more, generating a list of connections and their speeds.

To copy the traceroute results, use your mouse cursor to select them and right-click to copy. If you have difficulty copying the information, or if it runs off the screen, you can type this command instead:

tracert hostname > C:\trace1.txt

This writes the command results to a text file named trace1.txt in the root of your C:\ drive. You can then open this file and paste the contents into your email to Support.

How to Read Traceroute Report

The report produced from a traceroute can be confusing to interpret. If there is an issue within the network, the results may display error messages such as Request timed out, Destination unreachable, or * in the RTT columns.

• Request timed out: This means that the connection to the server is unstable or a firewall is blocking your request. Try connecting to the website using another ISP.

• Destination Unreachable: This indicates that the website you are trying to reach might be down because the data packets have stopped traveling within the network.

• * in RTT columns: This suggests packet loss and that the router did not respond within the allotted time. This could mean the router was not configured to respond to a traceroute request. You can ping the IP address of the router to verify if there was packet loss.

Note: To be effective, the traceroute test must run during a time when you are experiencing the problem, from a computer that is having the issue. If the problem is no longer occurring, you will need to wait until it happens again before running the traceroute test.