Networking Intermediate

What is Traceroute?

A network diagnostic tool that shows the path packets take from source to destination, listing each hop along the way.

Traceroute (tracert on Windows) discovers the route packets take through the network. It sends packets with incrementing TTL values, causing each router along the path to respond. This reveals the path, hop count, and latency at each point.

Traceroute helps diagnose routing problems, identify bottlenecks, and understand network topology. High latency at a specific hop indicates congestion or distance. Asterisks (*) indicate filtered/dropped probes.

Related Terms

ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)

A protocol that maps IP addresses to physical MAC addresses on a local network segment.

A numbered endpoint (0-65535) that identifies specific processes or services on a networked computer for communication.

Token Bucket Algorithm

A rate limiting algorithm that allows burst traffic by accumulating tokens at a fixed rate and consuming them per request.

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A geographically distributed network of servers that caches and delivers web content from locations closest to users for faster load times.

A logical division of an IP network into smaller segments to improve performance, security, and management.

A device or software that connects two or more network segments at the data link layer, forwarding traffic based on MAC addresses.

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