Traveling Through a Network

 

A computer communicates through the internet by sending packets. A packet contains information such as an IP address, the data size, and the data itself (image, video, etc.). For example, the IP would be 111.111.1.1, the data size would be X amount of bytes, and the data itself would be a photo of the family dog. Internet computers route the packet to the destination. The internet's computers know how to route the packet to the destination address. Depending on Internet traffic conditions, packets might follow different routes. The ping and traceroute commands command Prompt can be used to see how packets travel through the network. PING stands for Packet Internet Grouper. Pinging an IP or website means sending small packets of info to a specific IP and requesting a response from the recipient. The targeted computer sends an echo reply acknowledging receipt of the packets reaching their destination. Ping also reports the number of packets sent, received, and lost. If no response is received within a certain period of time, the request times out. Running a traceroute sends packets to a domain or IP and documents the path they took to get to their destination. The traceroute command lists all of the routers the packets pass through and the time spent at each router. If the packet fails to reach its destination, the traceroute will show precisely where the failure occurred. Both ping and traceroute show round-trip times. Round trip time is the time in milliseconds it took the packets to reach their destination and return. The round trip time depends on the geographical location of where you are trying to ping, but it also depends on how the country has developed.

I am currently on the eastern side of Africa. I pinged websites hosted in the United States, Australia, and Vietnam. Vietnam is the closest country to me, at around 4000 miles away, and it got the slowest round trip time out of all the websites I tested. Although close, it is less modern and developed than Australia and the US. It ranks as the 36th largest national economy by GDP. Australia was the second closest country to me at around 6500 miles away, and it got the fastest round trip time out of all the websites I tested. It is also a highly developed country. It is the 14th largest national economy by GDP. The US is the farthest country away from me at about 9000 miles and got the second fastest round trip time. The US is the largest national economy in the world by GDP. Round trip time depends on geographical location and how developed the country is.

In addition to the information that ping and traceroute provide, they can also be used to troubleshoot various internet connection problems. The ping command can help determine if a website or server is reachable and how long it takes to get a response. If the ping fails, it could indicate a problem with the website or server or a problem with your connection. Traceroute can help you identify the path packets take to reach their destination. Traceroute can help you find where in the network the connection is failing. A ping or traceroute request may fail or time out if the name or IP you typed in must be corrected. If the hostname or IP was typed in incorrectly, the command won't work, and an error will come up. In addition, if there is a broken link somewhere in the network, ping requests and traceroute commands may fail.

Example of a traceroute ran to a website hosted in Vietnam

Example of pings ran to websites in different host regions of the world