Inside Tufts University Information Technology

Network Engineering

Trouble shooting TCP/IP connections

Physical Problems...Finding TCP/IP Info...Ping and Traceroute

Ping and traceroute

The next steps in troubleshooting begin to look at how your computer is generating and receiving network traffic. For Windows, these tests will need to be run from the Command Prompt.

Ping
Ping is a basic Internet program that lets you verify that a particular Internet address exists and can accept requests. The verb ping means the act of using the ping utility or command. Ping is used diagnostically to ensure that a host computer you are trying to reach is actually operating.
The computer acronym was contrived to match the submariners' term for the sound of a returned sonar pulse, but actually stands for Packet Inter-Network Groper.
Traceroute
Traceroute is a utility that records the route (the specific gateway computers at each hop) through the Internet between your computer and a specified destination computer. It also calculates and displays the amount of time each hop took. Traceroute is a handy tool both for understanding where problems are in a network and for getting a detailed sense of the Internet itself.
The traceroute utility comes included with a number of operating systems, including Windows, Macintosh and UNIX-based operating systems or as part of a TCP/IP package. If your system doesn't include the utility, you can install it. Look for freeware at Shareware.com by searching on the word "traceroute."
For more information see Traceroute Org for indepth information