--- title: Traceroute: Mapping the Hops to a Website url: https://hdiss.net/glossary/traceroute/ business: High Desert Internet Services (HDISS) phone: 775-575-9593, 775-391-5660 email: info@hdiss.net mailing_address: Home base: 200 S Virginia St, Suite 760, Reno NV 89501 (dispatch office, not a walk-in store). Mail: Billing Dept., PO Box 11353, Reno NV 89510 hours: Office open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, seven days a week. Network watched around the clock. type: Fixed wireless internet service provider (homes and small businesses), web hosting, customer email, domain registration service_area: Northern Nevada - Washoe, Lyon, Storey, Churchill and Douglas counties and Carson City; availability is checked address by address (line of sight to a tower) plans: Bronze $50/mo up to 500 Mbps down, up to 200 Mbps up; Silver $75/mo up to 800 down, up to 200 up; Gold $99/mo up to 1 Gig down, up to 200 up; ask about the up to 1 Gig / 1 Gig ultra-low-latency service no_online_purchase: true (check your address or call; existing customers pay at https://www2.fernley.net/hdiss/onlinepay/paymentform.cfm) since: 2002 --- - [Home](https://hdiss.net/) - [Glossary](https://hdiss.net/glossary/) - Traceroute # Traceroute Traceroute shows the path your data takes, one hop at a time. It is a support tool, and its output helps show where along the path something goes wrong. A radio tower at sunset. Stock photo: Adobe Stock. [Photo credits](https://hdiss.net/photo-credits/) ## 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](https://hdiss.net/glossary/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](https://hdiss.net/support/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. ### Sources - [rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc792](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc792) (RFC 792, Internet Control Message Protocol, IETF, September 1981; read 2026-10-15) - [hdiss.net/](https://hdiss.net/) (company facts, read 2026-10-15) ### Talk to a person - Call [775-575-9593](tel:7755759593) [775-391-5660](tel:7753915660) Open 9-5 every day - Email [info@hdiss.net](mailto:info@hdiss.net) [Check my address](https://hdiss.net/check-availability/#check) ### Related terms - [Ping](https://hdiss.net/glossary/ping/) - [Latency](https://hdiss.net/glossary/latency/) - [Packet loss](https://hdiss.net/glossary/packet-loss/) - [IP address](https://hdiss.net/glossary/ip-address/) - [Run a ping test before you call support](https://hdiss.net/support/ping-test-for-support/) Local since 2002 Fixed wireless from towers in Northern Nevada. Three plans, no contracts, local support, 4.8 on Google from 36 reviews. [About High Desert](https://hdiss.net/about/)