How to use Traceroute Command in CentOS/RHEL

In processing, traceroute is a computer network diagnostic tool for showing the path and measuring transit delays of packets over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The historical backdrop of the course is recorded as the round-trip times of the packets got from each remote node in the path. Each hop indicates the total time spent to establish the connection.

traceroute working explained

When you connect with another PC, your traffic does not go straightforwardly to the machine you are attempting to connect with. Rather it goes through different machines on the Internet known as switches. These machines fill the sole need of controlling how your activity gets to your destination. On the off chance that any one connection fails, you will not be able to connect to the intended destination.

# traceroute www.facebook.com

Output:

traceroute to www.techoism.com (67.225.171.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.10.19 (192.168.10.19)  0.586 ms  0.538 ms  0.426 ms
 2  180.211.97.49 (180.211.97.49)  1.830 ms  1.816 ms  1.934 ms
 3  202.131.102.137 (202.131.102.137)  1.902 ms  1.878 ms  1.844 ms
 4  202.131.101.77 (202.131.101.77)  1.651 ms  1.638 ms  1.442 ms
 5  static-221.65.93.111-tataidc.co.in (111.93.65.221)  2.385 ms  2.341 ms  3.113 ms
 6  121.241.90.69.static-ahmedabad.vsnl.net.in (121.241.90.69)  1.787 ms  6.892 ms  6.851 ms
 7  172.29.211.217 (172.29.211.217)  13.230 ms  10.059 ms  14.865 ms
 8  ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5)  11.385 ms  14.913 ms *
 9  if-2-2.tcore2.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.2)  201.027 ms  205.081 ms  200.953 ms
10  if-6-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net (80.231.130.5)  196.861 ms  199.408 ms  202.987 ms
11  if-4-2.thar1.NJY-Newark.as6453.net (80.231.130.34)  200.334 ms  199.057 ms if-7-2.thar1.NJY-Newark.as6453.net (66.198.70.25)  201.763 ms
12  if-1-3.thar2.NJY-Newark.as6453.net (216.6.57.2)  204.706 ms  205.571 ms  210.118 ms
13  if-14-14.tcore2.NTO-New-York.as6453.net (66.198.111.126)  204.706 ms  200.568 ms  201.493 ms
14  66.110.96.5 (66.110.96.5)  206.721 ms  206.866 ms  206.380 ms
15  66.110.96.142 (66.110.96.142)  196.109 ms 66.110.96.130 (66.110.96.130)  204.903 ms 66.110.96.150 (66.110.96.150)  206.609 ms
16  he-5-5-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.83.105)  206.970 ms  209.242 ms he-5-2-0-0-cr01.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.83.97)  203.801 ms
17  be-10206-cr01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.226)  230.105 ms  229.209 ms  228.444 ms
18  he-0-12-0-1-pe03.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.22)  227.460 ms  225.733 ms  222.588 ms
19  50.242.150.126 (50.242.150.126)  218.717 ms *  223.561 ms
20  lw-dc3-core1-te8-16.rtr.liquidweb.com (209.59.157.244)  235.323 ms  233.561 ms  233.632 ms
21  lw-dc3-dist13-po5.rtr.liquidweb.com (69.167.128.73)  225.355 ms  231.942 ms  232.943 ms

Traceroute sends out three packets per TTL increment. Each column corresponds to the time is took to get one packet back (round-trip-time). This tries to account for situations such as:
A traceroute packet is routed along a different link than other attempts

180.211.97.49 (180.211.97.49)  1.830 ms  1.816 ms  1.934 ms

A traceroute packet is dropped

ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5)  11.385 ms  14.913 ms *

Disable IP address and host name mapping

At whatever point traceroute command is run, it will demonstrate some host names with their IP addresses. Traceroute comes with a facility with which the mapping of IP addresses into their host name is deactivated. We can do this using ‘-n’ switch.

# traceroute www.techoism.com -n

Output:

traceroute to www.techoism.com (67.225.171.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.10.19  0.544 ms  0.506 ms  0.479 ms
 2  180.211.97.49  1.177 ms  1.150 ms  1.210 ms
 3  202.131.102.137  1.178 ms  1.481 ms  1.671 ms
 4  202.131.101.77  1.050 ms  0.890 ms  1.164 ms
 5  111.93.65.221  7.546 ms  4.673 ms  4.573 ms
 6  121.241.90.69  1.809 ms  2.548 ms  2.114 ms
 7  172.29.211.217  15.086 ms  14.508 ms  14.903 ms
 8  180.87.38.5  14.802 ms  10.652 ms  16.843 ms
 9  180.87.38.2  202.398 ms  202.332 ms  208.650 ms
10  80.231.130.5  206.543 ms  199.208 ms  200.054 ms
11  80.231.130.34  202.273 ms  205.187 ms 66.198.70.25  204.901 ms
12  216.6.57.2  205.138 ms  201.010 ms  207.817 ms
13  66.198.111.126  202.650 ms  197.473 ms  205.241 ms
14  66.110.96.5  203.241 ms  206.345 ms  203.455 ms
15  66.110.96.134  203.681 ms 66.110.96.138  207.483 ms 66.110.96.142  197.660 ms
16  68.86.83.101  206.906 ms 68.86.85.189  202.685 ms 68.86.84.241  204.626 ms
17  68.86.86.226  223.367 ms  232.333 ms  224.255 ms
18  68.86.86.22  227.067 ms  228.441 ms  224.831 ms
19  50.242.150.126  228.817 ms  221.873 ms *
20  * 209.59.157.244  243.321 ms *
21  69.167.128.73  227.315 ms  232.094 ms  227.492 ms

Configure Response Wait Time

At whatever point traceroute issues a test, it wait for the response from the switch for some time span called “Response Wait Time”. The ‘-w’ option set the time (in seconds) to wait for a response to a probe. Default wait time is 5.0 sec.

# traceroute www.techoism.com -w 0.1

Output:

traceroute to www.techoism.com (67.225.171.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.10.19 (192.168.10.19)  0.544 ms  0.503 ms  0.461 ms
 2  180.211.97.49 (180.211.97.49)  10.825 ms  10.801 ms  10.769 ms
 3  202.131.102.137 (202.131.102.137)  1.412 ms  1.124 ms  1.476 ms
 4  202.131.101.77 (202.131.101.77)  1.058 ms  1.023 ms  0.989 ms
 5  static-221.65.93.111-tataidc.co.in (111.93.65.221)  2.859 ms  2.033 ms  3.032 ms
 6  121.241.90.69.static-ahmedabad.vsnl.net.in (121.241.90.69)  3.055 ms  1.712 ms  1.679 ms
 7  172.29.211.217 (172.29.211.217)  16.248 ms  10.212 ms  14.633 ms
 8  ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5)  14.599 ms  10.175 ms  10.151 ms
 9  * * *
10  * if-6-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net (80.231.130.5)  199.572 ms *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * if-14-14.tcore2.NTO-New-York.as6453.net (66.198.111.126)  197.383 ms *
14  * * *
15  66.110.96.130 (66.110.96.130)  199.798 ms * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  he-0-12-0-1-pe03.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.22)  226.315 ms  223.533 ms  226.256 ms
19  50.242.150.126 (50.242.150.126)  220.786 ms  223.699 ms  217.170 ms
20  * * *
21  lw-dc3-dist13-po5.rtr.liquidweb.com (69.167.128.73)  232.910 ms  228.195 ms  229.594 ms

Configure Number of Queries per Hop

As already explained earlier, the traceroute utility sends 3 packets per hop to provide 3 round trip times. This default value of 3 is configurable using the option ‘-q’. This option expects an integer which it sets as new value of number of probes per hop.

# traceroute www.techoism.com -q 6

Output:

traceroute to www.techoism.com (67.225.171.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  192.168.10.19 (192.168.10.19)  0.518 ms  0.506 ms  0.482 ms  0.443 ms  0.503 ms  0.467 ms
 2  180.211.97.49 (180.211.97.49)  1.254 ms  1.226 ms  1.199 ms  1.163 ms  1.087 ms  1.056 ms
 3  202.131.102.137 (202.131.102.137)  1.033 ms  1.383 ms  1.977 ms  1.936 ms  1.180 ms  1.262 ms
 4  202.131.101.77 (202.131.101.77)  1.129 ms  1.101 ms  1.070 ms  1.042 ms  1.204 ms  1.160 ms
 5  static-221.65.93.111-tataidc.co.in (111.93.65.221)  2.491 ms  2.846 ms  4.064 ms  4.029 ms  2.760 ms  2.934 ms
 6  121.241.90.69.static-ahmedabad.vsnl.net.in (121.241.90.69)  1.635 ms  1.610 ms  1.861 ms  1.815 ms  1.795 ms  1.757 ms
 7  172.29.211.217 (172.29.211.217)  9.963 ms  9.938 ms  15.537 ms  15.024 ms  14.988 ms  14.967 ms
 8  ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5)  10.579 ms  10.562 ms  15.356 ms  14.838 ms  10.466 ms  10.442 ms

Configure the TTL value to start with

Traceroute utility is flexible enough to accept the TTL value that the user wants to start the utility with. By default its value is 1 which means it starts off with the first router in the path but using the ‘-f’ option a new value of the TTL field can be set.

# traceroute www.techoism.com -f 6

Output:

traceroute to www.techoism.com (67.225.171.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 6  121.241.90.69.static-ahmedabad.vsnl.net.in (121.241.90.69)  1.867 ms  1.827 ms  1.783 ms
 7  172.29.211.217 (172.29.211.217)  14.691 ms  14.838 ms  14.794 ms
 8  ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5)  14.848 ms  14.804 ms  45.595 ms
 9  if-2-2.tcore2.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.2)  205.646 ms  203.410 ms  205.568 ms
10  if-6-2.tcore1.L78-London.as6453.net (80.231.130.5)  203.817 ms  205.112 ms  204.670 ms
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