What does traceroute output mean?
Emily Sparks
Published Jan 19, 2026
A traceroute displays the path that the signal took as it traveled around the Internet to the website. It also displays times which are the response times that occurred at each stop along the route. If there is a connection problem or latency connecting to a site, it will show up in these times.
What is a traceroute output?
A traceroute is a network command that can be run on your computer if you experience routing problems. It traces the “hops” between your computer and the final destination. For each hop, the traceroute will diagnose where the problem is.
How do you read traceroute results?
- Hop Number – This is the first column and is simply the number of the hop along the route. ...
- RTT Columns – The next three columns display the round trip time (RTT) for your packet to reach that point and return to your computer. ...
- Domain/IP column – The last column has the IP address of the router.
What does the traceroute command tell us?
Traceroute – The traceroute command is used to determine the path between two connections. Often a connection to another device will have to go through multiple routers. The traceroute command will return the names or IP addresses of all the routers between two devices.
What do the numbers in tracert mean?
The first column is the number of hops to the destination (maximum of 30). The next three columns are the amounts of time to receive the responses. The right-most column shows the router information along the path.
39 related questions foundHow do you do a tracert?
How do I use Tracert?
- Open a Command Prompt. ...
- In the Command Prompt window, type 'tracert' followed by the destination, either an IP Address or a Domain Name, and press Enter. ...
- The command will return output indicating the hops discovered and time (in milliseconds) for each hop.
How do I run a traceroute in Windows 10?
How to Run a Traceroute on a Windows 10 Computer
- Open the Windows search box. ...
- Then type CMD in the search bar and click Open.
- Next, type tracert followed by a space and then an IP address or URL. ...
- Finally, press Enter on your keyboard and wait for the traceroute to finish.
How do I trace a network connection?
Follow these steps to run a network path trace:
- Open the Start menu and select Run.
- Type cmd and select OK.
- This will open the command prompt. ...
- You should see the traffic path taken to your site. ...
- Don't worry about understanding the output. ...
- Paste the output to an email and send it to the appropriate support personnel.
What is traceroute in cyber security?
Traceroute is a utility that records the route (the specific gateway computers at each hop) through the Internet between your computer and a specified destination computer. It also calculates and displays the amount of time each hop took.
What is the relationship between ping and traceroute?
The main difference between Ping and Traceroute is that Ping is a quick and easy utility to tell if the specified server is reachable and how long will it take to send and receive data from the server whereas Traceroute finds the exact route taken to reach the server and time taken by each step (hop).
What can affect tracert results?
Interpreting tracert outputs. Routes traced can go through many hops and a number of different Internet Service Providers (ISPs), depending on the size of your ISP and the location of the source and destination hosts. Each “hop” represents a router.
What do stars mean in traceroute?
If the traceroute command completes successfully and you see these stars, most likely the device that was hit was not configured to reply to ICMP/UDP traffic. This result does not mean that the traffic wasn't passed. The second possibility is that the packets were dropped due to an issue on the network.
What is the difference between traceroute and Tracepath?
Tracepath and traceroute are very similiar network mapping commands. The main difference between the two is that you need to be a superuser on a Linux computer to use traceroute, whereas tracepath can be run without this credential. On a Windows PC, any user with command line access can use both diagnostic tools.
Why Does My traceroute timeout?
When ping is blocked, the server doesn't respond at all, resulting in “request timed out” messages that prevent traceroute from ever being able to map the path to the final destination.
How do I run a traceroute in Linux?
For Linux
- Start by opening the Terminal. Press Ctrl + Alt + T or type in “terminal” in the search bar.
- Install traceroute. If you do not have traceroute already installed, you may need to install it. ...
- Use the traceroute command. Type in “traceroute” along with a hostname or IP address.
How do hackers use traceroute?
Tracert assists ethical hackers by gathering information about a specific network's infrastructure and its IP ranges. How it works: Tracert tracks the packet using ICMP ECHO packets to report information on each router from the source to the destination.
What happens when you traceroute?
Traceroute uses an identification process to show you the hops by setting a specific TTL. It sends the first packet out with a TTL of 1 and each route along the way decrements the TTL by one. Once the TTL reaches 0, the router responds back with a TTL exceeded error message.
How many hops is too many traceroute?
You run a traceroute to a destination device and specify a maximum of 30 hops. Traceroute then does the following: It sends data packets with a TTL of "1" to the destination server. The first network device the data passes through reduces the TTL to "0", and sends back a message that the packets were dropped.
How do you know if a traceroute fails?
Do a traceroute from this router to your target server.
- If the trace completes – The routing to the target server is working fine. ...
- If the trace fails - Test the routing table and check the other status of all the hops between this router and your target destination.
Why is traceroute useful?
Traceroute is a useful tool for determining the response delays and routing loops present in a network pathway across packet switched nodes. It also helps to locate any points of failure encountered while en route to a certain destination.
What is network tracing?
Network tracing is a process that traverses a hierarchical network (pits/pipes etc.) The hierarchical network is composed of connected edges (lines) and nodes (points). The trace compiles a set of edges that connect to the initial start edge and can be limited in extent by defining break points at nodes in the network.
How do I run TCP traceroute in Windows?
Windows does not have a native utility to run TCP traceroute.
...
Now you can run TCP traceroute in the following way:
- To open the Command Prompt (CMD), press Win + R keymatch. Run dialog box will be opened.
- Type cmd and click on the OK button:
- Type the command: tracetcp domainname.tld. NOTE:domainname. ...
- Press Enter.
How do you use traceroute on Google?
Run Trace Route Command
- Hold the Windows key and press the R key to open the Run dialog box.
- Type cmd and click OK.
- Type tracert followed by an external web address. For example: tracert
- Press Enter.
How do I track network traffic in Windows?
How to check network usage with Settings
- Use the Windows key + I keyboard shortcut to open the Settings app.
- Click Network & internet.
- Click Data usage. ...
- Click the Usage details link to view network data usage for all your applications installed on your computer.
What is the difference between traceroute and tracert?
Traceroute is a command that runs tools used for network diagnostics. These tools trace the paths data packets take from their source to their destinations, allowing administrators to better resolve connectivity issues. On a Windows machine, this command is called tracert; on Linux and Mac, it's called traceroute.