Post 4: Traveling Through a Network

I had a great time using the CMD prompt to do something I never knew existed, which was testing both PING commands and TRACEROUTE commands.  I thought it was just for running programs and other things, but I didn't realize you could track your internet pathways. Using the PING command brought up quick results for each site I checked.

The PING results are below:

C:\Users\timam>ping google.com

Pinging google.com [172.217.5.206] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 172.217.5.206: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=117
Reply from 172.217.5.206: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=117
Reply from 172.217.5.206: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=117
Reply from 172.217.5.206: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=117

Ping statistics for 172.217.5.206:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 21ms, Average = 15ms

--------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\timam>ping thelocal.it

Pinging thelocal.it [130.211.29.240] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 130.211.29.240: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=117
Reply from 130.211.29.240: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=117
Reply from 130.211.29.240: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=117
Reply from 130.211.29.240: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=117

Ping statistics for 130.211.29.240:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 17ms

--------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\timam>ping next.mx

Pinging next.mx [204.74.99.103] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 204.74.99.103: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=55
Reply from 204.74.99.103: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=55
Reply from 204.74.99.103: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=55
Reply from 204.74.99.103: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 204.74.99.103:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 22ms, Average = 16ms

The PING times didn't show a noticeable difference for google.com vs the Italian or Mexican sites, which I thought was interesting.  I figured there would be some noticeable difference at least. 

The TRACERT results are below:

C:\Users\timam>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [172.217.5.206]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1         3 ms         2 ms         3 ms      testwifi.here [192.168.86.1]
2      15 ms      15 ms      10 ms      142.254.177.5
3      14 ms      13 ms      15 ms      agg63.snaucaos02h.socal.rr.com [24.30.175.181]
4       22 ms     12 ms       23 ms      72.129.1.40
5       17 ms     20 ms       12 ms      agg27.tustcaft01r.socal.rr.com [72.129.21.2]
6       10 ms     17 ms       39 ms       bu-ether16.tustca4200w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.64]
7       17 ms     31 ms       18 ms      72.14.202.138
8       31 ms     24 ms       20 ms      108.170.237.12
9       20 ms     15 ms       15 ms      142.250.228.75
10    38 ms    17 ms       14 ms       lax28s10-in-f14.1e100.net [172.217.5.206]

Trace complete.

--------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\timam>tracert thelocal.it

Tracing route to thelocal.it [130.211.29.240]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1        2 ms          2 ms         2 ms        testwifi.here [192.168.86.1]
2      20 ms      12 ms       12 ms      142.254.177.5
3      32 ms      15 ms       17 ms      agg63.snaucaos02h.socal.rr.com [24.30.175.181]
4      20 ms     36 ms       77 ms      72.129.1.40
5     25 ms       24 ms      17 ms       agg27.tustcaft01r.socal.rr.com [72.129.21.2]
6     22 ms       27 ms       21 ms      bu-ether26.tustca4200w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.3.232]
7     16 ms      17 ms        13 ms       72.14.221.230
8               *                 *                   *         Request timed out.
9     29 ms      18 ms        16 ms       240.29.211.130.bc.googleusercontent.com [130.211.29.240]

Trace complete.

--------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\timam>tracert next.mx

Tracing route to next.mx [204.74.99.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1       17 ms         5 ms          1 ms       testwifi.here [192.168.86.1]
2       11 ms       16 ms       30 ms       142.254.177.5
3       35 ms       16 ms       17 ms       agg63.snaucaos02h.socal.rr.com [24.30.175.181]
4       17 ms       13 ms       22 ms       72.129.1.40
5       16 ms       14 ms       23 ms       agg27.tustcaft01r.socal.rr.com [72.129.21.2]
6       18 ms       22 ms       20 ms       bu-ether26.tustca4200w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [66.109.3.232]
7       17 ms       17 ms       17 ms       66.109.5.247
8       17 ms       17 ms       17 ms       68.142.89.242
9       21 ms       15 ms       17 ms       lag91.fr4.lax.llnw.net [68.142.88.70]
10    16 ms       23 ms       16 ms       ve6.fr3.lax.llnw.net [69.28.171.205]
11    26 ms       16 ms       21 ms       ultradns.p6-11-10g.fr3.lax.llnw.net [68.142.76.195]
12    25 ms       15ms        15 ms       204.74.99.103

Trace complete.

The TRACEROUTE to the Italian site shows only a slight increase in hop time, but it's a minimal difference if any.  The first few hops are the same on each test.  I believe this is because they are my router, modem, and ISP.  What I'm curious about, though, is that the routes to Google and the Mexican website took more stops than the Italian site.  Since Italy is geographically farther away, I figured it would require more hops, but it didn't.

PING and TRACEROUTE commands are a great way to help troubleshoot internet connection problems because they can show whether or not the connection times out at the router or ISP, indicating a problem with the network instead of the website.

A PING or TRACEROUTE command can time out or get an error response, though, if one of the routers along the way is not working correctly or if a router is busy with heavy traffic. 

What sites have you run these tests for? What did you guys think?