traceroute

 

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Virtually all operating systems have an embedded tool called "traceroute" for helping identify network bottlenecks. Windows NT 4.0, 2000 and XP have renamed the utility "tracert".

To use the utility, open a command prompt and type in "tracert ". For example...

C:\tracert www.yahoo.com 
Tracing route to www.yahoo.com [202.11.18.77]
over a maximum of 30 hops: 

1 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms gway.yourhost.com [68.192.210.193]
2 135 ms 6 ms 6 ms mrnet-t1-1-1-2-20-xyz.b1.nsb.mr.net [137.192.45.49]
3 152 ms 6 ms 6 ms core1-ge0-0-0.nsb.mr.net [137.192.224.254]
4 20 ms 19 ms 20 ms aads.globix.net [206.220.243.108]
5 21 ms 19 ms 20 ms ge-6-0-0.core2.cgx2.globix.net [209.10.12.105]
6 234 ms 154 ms 271 ms so-1-0-0.core1.sjc3.globix.net [209.10.10.149]
7 227 ms 69 ms 68 ms so-5-3-0.core1.sjc1.globix.net [209.10.11.222]
8 140 ms 69 ms 68 ms gig3-1-edge1-gw1.sjc1.globix.net [209.10.3.78]
9 76 ms 70 ms 69 ms 209.11.128.10
10 161 ms 554 ms 72 ms ipx.net.48.40.206.in-addr.arpa [206.40.48.2]
11 70 ms 71 ms 206 ms 202.11.18.77

Trace complete. 

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The first column represents the router or 'hop' number.

The next three columns show the amount of time (in milliseconds) that it took the traceroute packet to travel to that hop.

The last column shows the DNS name (if available) and IP address of the hop/router.

Things to look for would be times in excess of 80ms. Most ISPs commit to a <80ms SLA. If a particular link is consistently above 150ms, then you should contact your ISP or upstream provider to have them investigate. They will most likely require that you send them a traceroute to aid their troubleshooting. Excessive hops can also be a problem. Anything higher than 20 hops will most likely show that there is some inefficient routing happening somewhere on the Internet.