Using Tracert

Tracert (also known as traceroute) is a Windows based tool that allows you to help test your network infrastructure. In this article we will look at how to use tracert while trying to troubleshoot real world problems. This will help to reinforce the tool's usefulness and show you ways in which to use it when working on your own networks.

This TCP/IP utility allows you to determine the route packets take through a network to reach a particular host that you specify. Tracert works by increasing the "time to live" (TTL) value of each successive packet sent. When a packet passes through a host, the host decrements the TTL value by one and forwards the packet to the next host. When a packet with a TTL of one reaches a host, the host discards the packet and sends an ICMP time exceeded. Tracert, if used properly, can help you find points in your network that are either routed incorrectly or are not existent at all.

Introduction

Tracert is a Windows based command-line tool that you can use to trace the path that an Internet Protocol (IP) packet takes to its destination from a source. Tracert will determine the path taken to a destination. It does this by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) Echo Request messages to the destination. When sending traffic to the destination, it will incrementally increase the Time to Live (TTL) field values to aid in finding the path taken to that destination address. The path is outlined from this process.

Using the following illustration, let’s take a look at how tracert would function in a production network.

to View complete contents

:http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles-tutorials/trouble/Using-Tracert.html