Softonic

Traceroute Tool

Step 1 / 2

Browsers cannot send raw ICMP/UDP probes. Use one of the external services below to run a traceroute from a vantage point close to you.

Results

A traceroute lists the routers a packet passes through on its way to a destination. When a site is slow, the cause usually shows up at one specific hop: a congested peering link, a misrouted transit path, or a firewall silently dropping packets. Browsers cannot send the raw ICMP/UDP probes a traceroute needs, so this page does not run the trace itself: it cleans up your target and hands it, prefilled, to reputable public services that trace from multiple points on the internet, which is exactly what you need when the problem is not on your own line. To test your own connection, run tracert or traceroute locally; this page shows you how to read the output either way.

How to run a useful traceroute

  1. 1

    Enter a hostname or IP

    A full URL is fine too: we strip `https://` and any trailing path before building the links.

  2. 2

    Open a probe service

    Every link opens with your target prefilled. Check-host.net and the multi-location traceroute page probe from many regions at once; HackerTarget runs a classic trace from its own vantage point.

  3. 3

    Read the hop list

    Each line is one router: hop number, hostname/IP and round-trip time, usually three samples per hop.

  4. 4

    Spot the problem hop

    A big latency jump, `* * *` (no response) or a long chain inside one network usually points at the issue.

  5. 5

    Escalate to the routing level

    The BGP.tools link shows the AS path and peering data when the problem sits between networks. To measure your own line, run `tracert` or `traceroute` locally.

How traceroute works, in one paragraph

Traceroute sends packets with an artificially low TTL (time-to-live). The first packet has TTL=1, so the first router decrements it to 0 and returns an ICMP “time exceeded” message. TTL=2 reveals the second router, and so on. By the time the TTL matches the real hop count, the packet reaches the destination. The responses tell you the IP and response time of every router on the path.

Reading the output

Symbol / pattern Usually means
* * * Hop did not reply; firewall or ICMP rate limiting
Big jump in latency That router is geographically far away or congested
Same latency on 5+ hops Those routers share one physical location
Loop in the hostnames MPLS or asymmetric routing; check the AS path
Trace ends early Blocked by the destination firewall (common for cloud hosts)

Running it from your own machine

  • Windows: tracert example.com
  • macOS and Linux: traceroute example.com
  • Continuous statistics: mtr example.com (install it with your package manager)

A local run measures the path from your own connection, which no online service can see. The links above probe from the services’ own locations instead, so use both to tell “my line is the problem” apart from “the site’s transit is the problem”.

Tips

  • One-shot traceroutes are noisy. mtr (continuous probing) gives far more reliable data for intermittent issues.
  • Run traces from at least two regions. A problem that shows on one and not the other localises quickly.
  • ICMP-based traceroutes (-I) sometimes succeed where UDP ones fail; firewalls treat them differently.
  • DNS lookups on each hop slow the output. Use a -n equivalent where the probe service offers one.
  • For cloud hosts (AWS, Cloudflare), the destination often hides behind a load balancer and the trace ends a hop or two short of the real server. That is normal.

Frequently Asked Questions

A traceroute from our single server in Germany would tell you almost nothing about a user issue in Los Angeles. Services like HackerTarget and Check-host.net probe from many regions, which is what you actually want when diagnosing a problem, and a trace from your own machine covers your own line.

That router did not reply to the probe within the timeout. Many routers deliberately rate-limit or drop traceroute traffic. If the trace continues past the gap, the path is fine; the router is just silent.

Yes. Responses come back on the return path, which can differ from the forward path. A slow hop in the middle might actually be slow only on the return. MTR and TCP-based traceroutes reduce this ambiguity.

Modern backbone networks consolidate traffic heavily. Eight hops between continents is common if the source and destination both sit on tier-1 networks.

The hostname travels to our server to validate it and build the outbound links, like any ordinary page request, and in the step-by-step flow it also appears in the page URL. Each external service sees it only when you click its link.

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