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Learn how to use traceroute to find where network slowdowns, routing delays, and connection failures begin.
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Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool that shows the path your data takes from your device to a destination on the internet. It displays each router, also called a hop, between your computer and the destination along with the response time for each hop.
Traceroute is useful for identifying where a network connection is slowing down or failing.
Use traceroute when:
Windows:
tracert google.com
macOS / Linux:
traceroute google.com
If traceroute is not installed on Linux:
sudo apt install traceroute
Tracing route to google.com [142.250.190.14]
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms 10.1.1.1
3 18 ms 17 ms 19 ms 72.14.215.1
4 22 ms 21 ms 23 ms 142.250.190.14
Trace complete.
Hop Number:
Each line represents a hop. A hop is a router or networking device that forwards traffic toward the destination.
Examples:
Response Time:
These values show how long it took each hop to respond.
General latency guidelines:
IP Address or Hostname:
This identifies the device responding at that hop.
Examples:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms 10.1.1.1
3 220 ms 245 ms 231 ms 72.14.215.1
4 225 ms 240 ms 236 ms 142.250.190.14
Analysis:
Notice how latency jumps dramatically at Hop 3:
10 ms -> 220 ms
This suggests the issue may be:
Because the high latency continues on all following hops, the issue likely begins at Hop 3.
You may see output like this:
4 * * *
This means the router did not respond within the timeout period.
Possible causes:
A single timeout is usually not a problem. However, repeated timeouts for multiple hops may indicate a routing issue.
Ping:
Tests if a device is reachable and measures latency.
Traceroute:
Shows the route traffic takes and where delays occur.
A common troubleshooting process is:
High Latency at Hop 1:
1 150 ms
Possible causes:
High Latency After ISP Hops:
2 10 ms
3 180 ms
4 190 ms
Possible causes:
Destination Unreachable:
Request timed out.
Possible causes:
Traceroute helps you:
Windows:
tracert google.com
macOS/Linux:
traceroute google.com
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