How To Run Traceroute on macOS
open the terminal and execute this command
traceroute hostname
For example, traceroute ozgurozkok.com
What Is Traceroute?
Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool used to track the path that a packet of information takes from its source to its destination. It is commonly used to diagnose network connectivity issues and to determine the route taken by packets across an IP network.
Here’s how traceroute works:
- Packet Transmission: Traceroute sends out a sequence of packets to a specified destination. These packets are uniquely designed to return error messages when they reach a specific hop (a point in the network) or the final destination.
- Time-to-Live (TTL) Values: Each packet has a Time-to-Live (TTL) value, essentially a counter limiting how many hops the packet can pass through. The TTL value is set to 1 for the first packet and incremented by 1 for each subsequent packet.
- Receiving Responses: Each router or hop along the path decrements the TTL value of the packet by 1. When the TTL value reaches 0, the router discards the packet and sends back an Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) “Time Exceeded” message to the source.
- Identifying Hops: By starting with a TTL of 1 and incrementally increasing it, traceroute identifies each hop along the path to the destination. The ICMP messages sent back to the source include the IP address of the hop that returned them, thereby revealing the route.
- Measuring Transit Delays: Traceroute measures the round-trip time (the time it takes for the packet to go to a hop and back) for each packet sent, indicating the latency or delay at each hop.
- Completion: The process continues until the packets reach the destination or until the maximum number of hops (usually 30) is reached. If a packet reaches the destination, the destination sends back an ICMP “Echo Reply” message, and traceroute records the final hop.
Traceroute is available in various operating systems with command-line interfaces. In Windows, it’s known as tracert, while in Unix-like systems, it’s called traceroute. It’s a valuable tool for network administrators and users to understand the path data takes through a network and to diagnose where problems may occur.