Why Ping and Traceroute are important

Using Ping And Traceroute

Using ping and traceroute commands is exciting but takes time to figure out. It took me longer to run the commands because I couldn’t find the application and encountered other technical difficulties. I like the simplicity of the command after figuring out how to get started and how it allows you to connect to most IP addresses. Ping and traceroute is a troubleshooting utility tool that checks the connectivity from one IP address to another.  The ping tool sends packets to one IP address and tracks the time it takes to respond from the other. While the packet is being sent, it checks the time it takes to respond and shares its response time. This will allow you to see any issues with the response between networks and if the packet is being delivered. If the packet isn’t delivered, you will receive an error message providing information that there's a problem.   

Each tool checks in milliseconds (ms), but the traceroute tool maps the travel route for a signal to connect to another network computer. When traceroute sends it package and maps it until it arrives at its destination. While mapping its route, it will collect data from stops along the route and provide a timeline of the stops. Traceroute provides information if there's an issue and shares what happens to the package. It provides information on your home router and internet service provider; each line is considered a hop. A hop is a signal from another router that is farther away, and while this occurs, it provides a domain name or IP address that gives you the locations of the routers. When running a traceroute or ping and you see a *, that means there was a timeout before receiving a response. This may delay the package's travel time, or the package could be lost.

While running my ping, I learned it had a solid signal for everyone, but I lost a package when it was transmitted with www.netgear.comLinks to an external site.. It pinged 16 times and was successful in 15 of the 16 pings, which indicated a lost package. This showed me there could be an issue, but the other test run didn’t. When running a traceroute it indicates that there were quite a few errors, but it could be due to the number of sites owned by each company. I was curious about the errors, so I sent it to a less well-known site and got different results listed below. It shows that there weren't any issues, but the larger sites showed errors that may not be valid errors.