Traveling Through a Network

Ping and traceroute are useful tools for viewing and troubleshooting internet connections.  “A computer communicates via the Internet by sending a packet, containing information like an address for a destination computer, the data size, and the data itself” (Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. 2017).  I used ping and traceroute to see the results of three different websites, google.com, smh.com.au, and ameblo.jp.  These websites are based in three different countries, United States, Australia and Japan respectfully. 

When I used the ping command I was presented with multiple lines of output.  Ping gave me the domain name and corresponding IP address of the destination I entered.  It also gave me details of the echo replies received from the destination, statistics showing what happened to the packets and the range of round-trip times to receive echo reply.  The results I received from the three different websites in different countries the millisecond for roundtrip for the foreign websites (smh.com.au and ameblo.jp) was faster then google.com. 

When I used the traceroute command I was presented with another display of multiple lines of output.  The information given using traceroute was different then ping and provides more detail.  The extra amount of information given in the traceroute command is the exact routes taken to each server.  The relationship between the roundtrip time and geographical location is not exactly related.  The road trip time is determined on the number of routers between me and the target.  Ping and traceroute commands can be used to troubleshoot internet connection problem.  Traceroute being of good use because it is helpful to tell where the network connection slows, and congestion occurs (2019).  Knowing when and where a time out occurs can be useful in troubleshooting an internet connection.  Receiving a time out or error response can happen for multiple reasons.  If a timeout is received the host maybe down or unreachable at the time.  The ping command can also be disabled by the host system administrator.

Here are screenshots of me using Ping and Traceroute for two different websites in two different geographical locations (google.com and smh.com.au).  First example is using PING.

These second screenshots are using Traceroute