How to perform a Traceroute - Windows & Mac

General Information
1

Tracing the route from your computer to a destination is a useful diagnostic tool for understanding the path your data takes across the internet and identifying any network issues. This process is known as a traceroute. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to perform a traceroute on both Windows and Mac computers.

NOTE: Traceroutes are crucial in diagnosing connectivity problems. If you’re experiencing connectivity issues with a server, always send the traceroute results to our support team for assistance.

How to Traceroute on Windows

Steps:

  1. Open Command Prompt:
  • Press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box.
  • Type cmd and press Enter to open the Command Prompt.
  1. Run Traceroute:
  • In the Command Prompt window, type the following command:
tracert [destination]
  • Replace [destination] with the IP address or domain name of the server you want to trace. For example:
tracert google.com
  1. Analyze Results:
  • The Command Prompt will display each hop between your computer and the destination server, including the time it takes for each hop.
  • You can identify where delays or issues are occurring based on the information provided.

Example Output:

Tracing route to google.com [216.58.214.14] over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms    <1 ms     1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    15 ms    10 ms    15 ms  10.0.0.1
  3    20 ms    20 ms    20 ms  172.16.0.1
  ...
  10    50 ms    50 ms    50 ms  216.58.214.14

Trace complete.

How to Traceroute on Mac

Steps:

  1. Open Terminal:
  • Press Command + Space to open Spotlight Search.
  • Type Terminal and press Enter to open the Terminal application.
  1. Run Traceroute:
  • In the Terminal window, type the following command:
traceroute [destination]
  • Replace [destination] with the IP address or domain name of the server you want to trace. For example:
traceroute google.com
  1. Analyze Results:
  • The Terminal will display each hop between your computer and the destination server, including the time it takes for each hop.
  • Similar to Windows, you can identify where delays or issues are occurring.

Example Output:

traceroute to google.com (216.58.214.14), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  1.123 ms  0.812 ms  0.754 ms
 2  10.0.0.1 (10.0.0.1)  14.547 ms  13.632 ms  14.214 ms
 3  172.16.0.1 (172.16.0.1)  20.178 ms  20.857 ms  21.456 ms
 ...
 10  216.58.214.14 (216.58.214.14)  49.885 ms  49.782 ms  50.001 ms