Tracing Routes & Troubleshooting – Following the Digital Footsteps!

You’ve mastered pinging and connectivity testing, but what if your packets are getting lost in the digital wilderness? 🌍

Today, we train in the art of tracing packets – following their journey across the internet to see where they go... and where they get stuck! 🚧

Following the Packet Trail – The Route of Destiny

If your internet is slow or a website isn’t loading, it could be because your packets are taking the scenic route through the Himalayas. 🏔

Use traceroute (or mtr for fancy real-time tracking) to see the exact path your packets take!

Command	What It Does
traceroute google.com	🛤 Shows the path your packets travel
traceroute -n google.com	🚀 Same, but faster (skips hostname lookups)
mtr google.com	🛰 Real-time traceroute + ping combo!

💡 Example:

traceroute google.com  # See how many hops it takes to reach Google
mtr google.com  # Real-time route tracking

If the route looks like this:

1  192.168.1.1   (Router)
2  10.0.0.1      (ISP Gateway)
3  ???           (Black hole?!)

…then something is blocking the way! 🔥

Finding Network Bottlenecks – Who is Slowing Me Down?

When your internet feels slow, it’s time to find the troublemakers. Use ping, mtr, and traceroute to check:

Command	What It Does
ping -c 10 google.com	🎯 Checks packet loss
mtr google.com	🚀 Finds where packets are delayed
traceroute google.com	🛤 See if packets are taking a weird route

💡 Example:

mtr google.com  # Finds the slowest link in the chain

If one hop has 90% packet loss, you’ve found your bottleneck! 🚦