TraceProto Examples Page

An example of the default output of TraceProto. The hops are listed in order with each subsequent line showing the next hop further from the source. As can be seen from hops 13 and 14, responses that come from a different host than the earlier responses for the hop are printed on a new line for easy readability. Not too surprisingly, it would seem that yahoo does some load balancing.

[root@armoury traceproto]# ./traceproto yahoo.com
traceproto: trace to yahoo.com (66.94.234.13), port 80
ttl  1:  ICMP Time Exceeded from nm-nrp4-dhcp1-gw.dsl.binkleytech.net (68.25.159.2)
        9.0230 ms       8.1850 ms       9.4540 ms
ttl  2:  ICMP Time Exceeded from soto-6400-vlan.binkleytech.net (217.113.195.176)
        8.0290 ms       9.4640 ms       8.8390 ms
ttl  3:  ICMP Time Exceeded from soto-7500-eth.binkleytech.net (217.113.193.2)
        10.662 ms       10.661 ms       9.7310 ms
ttl  4:  ICMP Time Exceeded from 12.126.56.5 (12.126.56.5)
        13.032 ms       13.736 ms       12.550 ms
ttl  5:  ICMP Time Exceeded from gbr2-p21.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.193.198)
        20.293 ms       19.993 ms       19.212 ms
ttl  6:  ICMP Time Exceeded from tbr1-p013602.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.11.37)
        24.197 ms       23.102 ms       23.144 ms
ttl  7:  ICMP Time Exceeded from ggr2-p310.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.65)
        21.259 ms       21.127 ms       21.455 ms
ttl  8:  ICMP Time Exceeded from so-1-1-0.edge1.Chicago1.Level3.net (209.0.227.77)
        20.695 ms       21.704 ms       20.475 ms
ttl  9:  ICMP Time Exceeded from so-2-1-0.bbr1.Chicago1.Level3.net (209.244.8.9)
        21.440 ms       21.642 ms       20.974 ms
ttl  10:  ICMP Time Exceeded from so-0-2-0.bbr2.SanJose1.Level3.net (64.159.0.218)
        70.862 ms       70.456 ms       69.499 ms
ttl  11:  ICMP Time Exceeded from so-13-0.hsa4.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.68.121.234)
        71.902 ms       68.564 ms       71.024 ms
ttl  12:  ICMP Time Exceeded from 65.57.246.2 (65.57.246.2)
        85.627 ms       85.843 ms       86.085 ms
ttl  13:  ICMP Time Exceeded from vl10.bas1.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.64.134)
        86.367 ms
        ICMP Time Exceeded from vl17.bas2.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.64.150)
        86.256 ms
        ICMP Time Exceeded from vl36.bas2-m.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.82.201)
        86.167 ms
ttl  14:  ICMP Time Exceeded from UNKNOWN-66-218-82-230.yahoo.com (66.218.82.230)
        86.335 ms
        ICMP Time Exceeded from UNKNOWN-66-218-82-238.yahoo.com (66.218.82.238)
        85.611 ms
        ICMP Time Exceeded from UNKNOWN-66-218-82-226.yahoo.com (66.218.82.226)
        85.681 ms
ttl  15:  TCP Syn Ack from w1.rc.vip.scd.yahoo.com (66.218.71.198)
        86.772 ms       85.888 ms       85.001 ms

hop :  min   /  ave   /  max   :  # packets  :  # lost
-------------------------------------------------------
  1 : 8.1850 / 8.8873 / 9.4540 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  2 : 8.0290 / 8.7773 / 9.4640 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  3 : 9.7310 / 10.351 / 10.662 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  4 : 12.550 / 13.106 / 13.736 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  5 : 19.212 / 19.833 / 20.293 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  6 : 23.102 / 23.481 / 24.197 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  7 : 21.127 / 21.280 / 21.455 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  8 : 20.475 / 20.958 / 21.704 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  9 : 20.974 / 21.352 / 21.642 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 10 : 69.499 / 70.272 / 70.862 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 11 : 68.564 / 70.497 / 71.902 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 12 : 85.627 / 85.852 / 86.085 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 13 : 86.167 / 86.263 / 86.367 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 14 : 85.611 / 85.876 / 86.335 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 15 : 85.001 / 85.887 / 86.772 :   3 packets :   0 lost
------------------------Total--------------------------
total 8.0290 / 41.261 / 86.772 :  45 packets :   0 lost

There are several other output styles as well. The standard style is nice for seeing the hops, but network problems tend to occur at inopportune times. Fatigue can make it can hard to accurately judge the return times from the numbers. With the graphical output (-o g) its easy to see that the return times jump a bit in AT&T's space, and again in Savvis' space.

[root@armoury traceproto]# ./traceproto -og yahoo.com
traceproto: trace to yahoo.com, port 80
ttl  1:  ICMP Time Exceeded from nm-nrp4-dhcp1-gw.dsl.binkleytech.net (68.25.159.2)
########  8.3280 ms
##########  10.606 ms
#########  9.6010 ms

ttl  2:  ICMP Time Exceeded from soto-6400-vlan.binkleytech.net (217.113.195.176)
#########  9.5110 ms
##########  10.306 ms
#########  9.3110 ms

ttl  3:  ICMP Time Exceeded from soto-7500-eth.binkleytech.net (217.113.193.2)
########  8.5350 ms
#########  9.7070 ms
########  8.9800 ms

ttl  4:  ICMP Time Exceeded from 12.126.56.5 (12.126.56.5)
###########  11.554 ms
############  12.518 ms
###########  11.962 ms

ttl  5:  ICMP Time Exceeded from gbr1-p21.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.193.194)
#####################  21.901 ms
#####################  21.201 ms
####################  20.330 ms

ttl  6:  ICMP Time Exceeded from tbr2-p013502.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.11.49)
#######################  23.085 ms
#######################  23.351 ms
######################  22.447 ms

ttl  7:  ICMP Time Exceeded from ggr2-p390.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.123.6.37)
####################  20.162 ms
###################  19.529 ms
####################  20.586 ms

ttl  8:  ICMP Time Exceeded from dcr1-so-3-3-0.Chicago.savvis.net (208.175.10.93)
#####################  21.913 ms
######################  22.409 ms
#####################  21.472 ms

ttl  9:  ICMP Time Exceeded from dcr1-loopback.Washington.savvis.net (206.24.226.99)
####################################################  52.473 ms
##########################################  42.493 ms
##########################################  42.089 ms

ttl  10:  ICMP Time Exceeded from bhr1-pos-10-0.Sterlingdc2.savvis.net (206.24.227.106)
##########################################  42.247 ms
ICMP Time Exceeded from bhr1-pos-1-0.Sterlingdc2.savvis.net (206.24.238.166)
##########################################  42.516 ms
########################################  40.906 ms

ttl  11:  ICMP Time Exceeded from 216.109.84.166 (216.109.84.166)
##########################################  42.267 ms
#########################################  41.621 ms
#######################################  39.361 ms

ttl  12:  ICMP Time Exceeded from vl49.bas1-m.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.120.222)
########################################  40.887 ms
ICMP Time Exceeded from vl33.bas2-m.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.120.154)
########################################  40.058 ms
ICMP Time Exceeded from vl32.bas1-m.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.120.150)
########################################  40.590 ms

ttl  13:  TCP Syn Ack from w2.rc.dcn.yahoo.com (216.109.127.29)
#######################################  39.794 ms
######################################  38.438 ms
########################################  40.424 ms


hop :  min   /  ave   /  max   :  # packets  :  # lost
-------------------------------------------------------
  1 : 8.3280 / 9.5117 / 10.606 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  2 : 9.3110 / 9.7093 / 10.306 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  3 : 8.5350 / 9.0740 / 9.7070 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  4 : 11.554 / 12.011 / 12.518 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  5 : 20.330 / 21.144 / 21.901 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  6 : 22.447 / 22.961 / 23.351 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  7 : 19.529 / 20.092 / 20.586 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  8 : 21.472 / 21.931 / 22.409 :   3 packets :   0 lost
  9 : 42.089 / 45.685 / 52.473 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 10 : 40.906 / 41.890 / 42.516 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 11 : 39.361 / 41.083 / 42.267 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 12 : 40.058 / 40.512 / 40.887 :   3 packets :   0 lost
 13 : 38.438 / 39.552 / 40.424 :   3 packets :   0 lost
------------------------Total--------------------------
total 8.3280 / 25.137 / 52.473 :  39 packets :   0 lost

How about a more minimal approach? With the '-o m' flag you can get the simplest view -- great for spotting packet loss. For fun, we can minimize the end-of-run accounting as well using '-a 1' ('-a 0' would disable the accounting alltogether). Looks like we lost a packet on hop 11.

[root@armoury traceproto]# ./traceproto -om -a1 yahoo.com
1  X X X
2  X X X
3  X X X
4  X X X
5  X X X
6  X X X
7  X X X
8  X X X
9  X X X
10  X X X
11  X * X
12  X X X
13  X X X
14  S S S

hop :  min   /  ave   /  max   :  # packets  :  # lost
------------------------Total--------------------------
total 7.9800 / 37.911 / 86.549 :  41 packets :   1 lost

There are several other output modes and a number of different options. To find out about them, read through the man page, or for the impatient, try 'traceproto -h'.

Have Fun.