Traveling Through a Network: Pings & Traceroutes

I started by using the ping and traceroute commands for four websites, which provided valuable insight into how data packets travel through the Internet. These tools helped illustrate the paths and speeds at which packets travel from my computer worldwide. Interesting information that I experienced while engaging in this project is as follows:

The ping command tests connectivity and measures the time packets take to travel to a destination and back. When I pinged (Google.com), the response times were very low and consistent, indicating a close and efficient network route. On the other hand, pinging a website in Japan (Amazon.co.jp) showed higher latency, reflecting the greater physical distance and additional network infrastructure involved in reaching those destinations.

For the ping and traceroute statistics for each website:

Google.com ping Sent: 4, Received: 4, Lost: 0. (RTT) 27ms-36ms. Traceroute: 13 Hops, Request timeouts: 3, with a spike to 408ms at hop 2, and the final reached 25ms. 

Amazon.co.jp ping Sent: 4, Received: 4, Lost: 0. (RTT) 52ms-59ms. Traceroute: 18 Hops, Request timeouts: 12, final reached 52ms.

The traceroute command helped visualize the path packets took by showing each hop they passed. Traceroute to Lowes.com.au and Google showed fewer hops and lower latency between them, while traceroutes to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.co.jp included many more hops and greater delays between them. Traceroute to Amazon.co.jp, for instance, passed through multiple international connections before reaching its destination. Some hops along the route were timed out or did not return information, which can happen for several reasons, including firewalls or routers configured not to respond to ICMP requests.

These results show a direct relationship between round-trip time and geographical location. The farther away a destination server is, the more hops and longer it takes for a packet to reach and return from that server. However, other factors like network congestion and the number of intermediate routers also influence this time.

Both ping and traceroute are valuable tools for troubleshooting internet connectivity issues. Ping helps determine whether a host is reachable and how stable the connection is, while traceroute identifies where a connection might be failing or experiencing delays. For example, if a ping fails but the traceroute shows successful hops up to a certain point, the issue likely lies beyond that router. Alternatively, if the traceroute fails immediately, it could indicate a local network issue.

Two common reasons a ping or traceroute might time out or fail include:
1. Firewall settings that block ICMP requests are essential for both commands.
2. Router configurations that do not allow responses to traceroute hops or high network congestion that cause packet drops.

Therefore, this activity provided a clearer understanding of network operations and showed how essential these diagnostic tools are in managing and troubleshooting connectivity across the internet.

Ping Google

Traceroute Google

Ping Amazon.co.jp

Traceroute Amazon.co.jp