| How to Trace the Route of an Internet
Connection |
| Windows Tutorial |
| Experience level: Intermediate
- Expert |
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Ever wondered about the path your computer takes to get to
a website? Or maybe why your connection to a site is slower
that usual? The data your computer sends and receives may
actually take a number of "hops" across a network before it
actually reaches its destination. The "TRACERT" (Trace Route)
command is a diagnostic utility that allows you to see the
path and the amount of hops a network "packet" takes to reach
its destination. The function can be used to test the path
to a website (or computer on a network) to see if there are
any problems making a connection.
The Tracert command is used at the DOS prompt and may return
results similar to below:
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| The first column indicates the number of hops.
In the area circled in yellow, look out for errors such as "Destination
net unreachable" and "Timed out". Asterisks (*) appearing in
the area circled in red means that the connection has timed
out (in other words, it took too long to wait any further). |
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| How to run TRACERT |
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| Step 1: Connect
to the Internet (or network) |
| Step 2: Run
the MS-DOS utility (see below if you don't know how) |
|
Click Start, select Programs,
select Ms-DOS prompt
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| Step 3: Type
"TRACERT" at the command prompt followed
by a website address or an IP address. See example
below: |
|
tracert
justbajan.com
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| Step 4: Press
the Enter key. |
| When the trace is completed, you will see "Trace
complete" displayed. |
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| Step 5: Type
"EXIT" to return to Windows. |
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