Traceroute

What is Traceroute?

The tool sends messages with a time-to-live that starts low and goes up by one each time. The ICMP specification, RFC 792 from September 1981, says a gateway that finds a datagram's time-to-live at zero must discard it and may notify the source with a Time Exceeded message. Traceroute uses those replies to learn the address of each hop. The result is a numbered list of routers, with the time to reach each.

See ping for the simpler test that checks only the end.

Why does it matter on a fixed wireless connection?

Some hops reply slowly or not at all on purpose, and that does not mean a fault. A gap or a star on one line while later lines respond is common and normal. What matters is where the numbers stay high from one hop onward, or where the trace never reaches the end.

For a fixed wireless customer, the first lines show your router, then the provider's equipment, then the wider internet. This site gives no latency number for any hop, because the company publishes none.

What should I do about it?

Open a command window on a computer, type tracert followed by a site name on Windows, or traceroute on a Mac, and let it finish. Copy the whole result and send it to support, along with the time, rather than a picture of part of it. The article ping test for support shows how to gather it.

Trace from a wired computer if you can, since Wi-Fi adds its own variation. Do not worry about every line. A technician reads it for you. Call 775-575-9593.

Run it a second time a few minutes later, since a single run can mislead.