How in the Tech

Running Traceroute from Multiple Locations at Once

By Adam Myers ⋅ March 3, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Internet, Networking

Traceroute is a utility that maps your route through the Internet from your computer to any specified destination address. Each stop on the route is called a hop and generally, the more hops involved the slower your connection is to that particular destination as each hop adds latency. This latency is measured and reported by a traceroute; it is quite useful in determining where network problems are occurring as well as generating a detailed layout of the Internet itself, at least as it relates to the beginning and end points in question.

Traceroute is available natively with most operating systems, including Windows – via a Command Prompt and referenced by the command tracert – and UNIX. Just Traceroute takes this concept a few “hops” farther, specifically the ability to generate a traceroute to a destination from four different geographical origins. Why would this be useful? Let’s suppose you are having a problem reaching Google and you want to make sure it’s not just your connection. As different parts of the world take different routes to the same destination throughout the Internet, a traceroute from multiple places may help identify where the source of your problem lies.

Just Traceroute utilizes servers in Brazil, Australia, Netherlands, and Singapore. Once completed, the results can be copied to your clipboard or emailed to yourself. From my traceroute to howinthetech.com, you can see that it has uncovered 3 different paths into the hosting server – which is a pretty good peering agreement if you ask me.