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Checking the status of the information superhighway
using ping and traceroute.
Are you having trouble reaching your destination on the Internet? Maybe your path on the information superhighway is experiencing a traffic congestion, or maybe it's your ISP.
Much like individual cars on a regular motor vehicle highway, information (often called data packets) on the Internet has to travel from point A to point B, sometimes passing through high traffic areas, small tunnels and unstable paths. If you're having trouble reaching a particular site, you may have to first find out if the data packets are able to travel freely in-between your computer and the destination site.
One of the ways to get an idea of what maybe preventing you from reaching your destination is to check with a service that keeps track of the major Internet traffic carriers or backbones.
So how do these services work? Mostly with the help of two commands called ping and traceroute.
Using PING
This method involves comparing how long it takes to get back
multiple packets of data sent to major Internet backbones using
a method called pinging. If it takes a relatively longer time for
the data packets to reach the destination and come back to the
source, or if a high percentage (more than 10% for example) of
the packets doesn't come back at all, the link between the two
points is considered poor. An Internet weather reporting service
would keep repeating this process every so often to produce a
report that you can view and compare 24 hours a day. If your
Internet service provider, your final destination site or one of
the routes in-between is using a backbone with poor conditions,
you may experience slowdowns and/or timeouts.
NOTE:
Due to the decentralized and dynamic nature of the
Internet, Internet weather reporting service may not
be able to pin point your problem every time. Also
note that the condition of Internet backbones may
change within minutes. If you continue to see a
particular backbone in your path perform poorly, talk
to your Internet service provider or your web host,
whichever the case maybe.
Your Internet service provider (ISP) may have an
Internet weather reporting system that's closer and
specific to your Internet connection. If you have a
web site hosted outside of your local ISP's network,
they may also provide a more relevant report closer
to their network center. If available, be sure to use
such services that are closer to you and your web
server instead of generic services. This is because
Internet weather reporting services closer to your
connection may be able to pickup on local problems
that other services may not be able to see.
You maybe able to run a basic ping test directly from your
computer without using an Internet weather reporting service.
To give this a try, go to your operating system's command
prompt (DOS box in Windows 95) and type ping followed by the
host/domain name of your destination site. For example, if your
destination site is gansbaai.com,
type:
ping gansbaai.com
and press ENTER
and wait for the response
Using TRACEROUTE
The other frequently used method of checking Internet weather
and connectivity is by using the traceroute command. It can
reveal the number and the names of the hops (servers / hosts /
routers) data packets would travel through before reaching the
final destination. In other words, you can find out the exact
router location a breakdown maybe occurring using traceroute.
If you're running your own Internet site, you can use traceroute
gateways hosted on distant servers to find out how many hops
your visitors are traveling through to reach your site. Generally
speaking, more hops = slower response.
The closer the website user to the server (less hops), the faster the response.
You can run traceroute from your computer without
using a web gateway.
1.Go to the "DOS Prompt" (or the "Command Prompt")
2.Type "tracert " and press ENTER
For example, if you're trying to reach fernkloof.com,
type:
tracert fernkloof.com
and press ENTER
and wait for the response
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