Producing a TraceRt Log For Analysis

Many network problems that affect your access to the Internet, such as the currently obnoxious "Server Error 1-500", can be better understood, if we can understand how you are connecting to the servers in question. A tracert log is very useful in this case.

1. Open a command window.
2. Type

   tracert www.google.com >c:\tracert.txt

   at the command prompt.
3. Type "notepad c:\tracert.txt" (less the "") at the command prompt.
4. Copy, and paste, the entire log, as displayed in Notepad, into your email or forum post. Please don't munge, or disguise, any details.

It really is simple - when you know how. Just be generous - and precise (see the spaces in the commands?). If you're having a problem with "www.yahoo.com", target that instead.

tracert www.yahoo.com >c:\tracert.txt

If you may be having a DNS problem, find out the IP address of the server, and target it, for comparison.

tracert 66.249.89.99 >c:\tracert.txt

Here's a sample log.

C:\>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [66.249.89.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 40 ms 43 ms 41 ms 10.122.84.253
3 42 ms 41 ms 43 ms 10.122.84.254
4 54 ms 55 ms 55 ms 10.121.20.1
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 51 ms 53 ms 51 ms 58.147.0.52
7 53 ms 51 ms 53 ms 58.147.0.46
8 268 ms 275 ms 271 ms 202.47.254.161
9 270 ms 269 ms 269 ms 202.47.253.148
10 280 ms 283 ms 283 ms 203.208.191.197
11 297 ms 299 ms 283 ms ge-0-1-0-0.sngtp-cr1.ix.singtel.com [203.208.149.201]
12 283 ms 339 ms 285 ms so-2-1-0-0.hkgcw-cr2.ix.singtel.com [203.208.154.38]
13 114 ms 115 ms 113 ms 72.14.196.5
14 118 ms 117 ms 117 ms 216.239.43.68
15 144 ms 137 ms 141 ms 66.249.95.198
16 142 ms 137 ms 139 ms 72.14.232.166
17 178 ms 171 ms 167 ms 72.14.236.236
18 175 ms 173 ms 175 ms 66.249.95.197
19 176 ms 181 ms 177 ms 216.239.47.54
20 176 ms 177 ms 175 ms jp-in-f99.google.com [66.249.89.99]

Trace complete.

You have two classes of information there. The list of IP addresses are very important, to understand the path that your traffic may take, between your computer and the Google server.

The timings (or lack of them, as in "Request timed out") are not always easy to interpret. A difference of 200+ ms (as in hops 7 and 8 above) may represent a real problem, or it may be the result of the two hops being on opposite ends of a busy or long communication line, as in a trans continental trunk line.

In many cases, a router (represented by one of the IP addresses in the list), though it will identify itself in the list, will prevent you from probing it for a timed response. The error "Request timed out" won't be as significant as the IP addresses.

Sometimes, the problem won't be immediately obvious from one traceroute log. If your problem comes and goes, a tool like PingPlotter will help you look for a problem over time.

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