How
To Ping & Traceroute Your Web Host or Site
Ping
is a simple utility that is used to check if a server is active
and responding, and if it is, how long it is taking packets of information
to travel from your computer to the destination server. Packets
are small blocks of data (often 32 bytes of information), the sending
is then are checked to ensure that the data is transfered accurately.
In addition to the time statistics provided, you will also receive
the IP address of your destination. This can be usefull in tracking
domain name issues by ensuring that the domain is pointing to the
correct IP address.
Traceroute
is a utility that helps diagnose network congestion between your
computer (ISP) and the destination server (www.domainname.com).
Traceroute works by sending packets of information from your location
to the destination and timing how long it takes to receive a response.
In addition to tracking the time it takes to reach the final destination,
you are provided with the times to each 'Hop' between your terminal
and the destination. Each Hop is a separate 'router' that your information
must pass through. By providing the times for each hop, we can often
find the source of problems accessing a server.
Using
Ping in MS DOS
For
Windows users, ping is already setup to run in the MS DOS window.
To use Ping, open an MS DOS window, and type 'ping www.domainname.com'
(without the quotes) and press [ENTER]. You should see something
that looks similar to the following:
C:\WINDOWS>ping
www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com
Pinging
www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com [216.23.162.66] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply
from 216.23.162.66: bytes=32 time=140ms TTL=244
Reply from 216.23.162.66: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=244
Reply from 216.23.162.66: bytes=32 time=155ms TTL=244
Reply from 216.23.162.66: bytes=32 time=145ms TTL=244
Ping
statistics for 216.23.162.66:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 145ms, Maximum = 160ms, Average = 150ms
This
tells you that the D2D-Web-Hosting server is up and running, and that
the average time it took 32 bytes of data to travel from your computer
to www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com, and back is 98ms.
Using
Traceroute in MS DOS
For
Windows 95 and 98 users, traceroute is already setup to run in the
MS DOS window. To use traceroute, open an MS DOS window, and type
'tracert www.domainname.com' and press [ENTER]. You should see something
that looks similar to the following:
C:\WINDOWS>tracert
www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com
Tracing
route to www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com [216.23.162.66]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1
119 ms 121 ms 120 ms sym0103723m01.bctel.net [207.102.1.251]
2 107 ms 114 ms 98 ms 207.102.34.249
3 113 ms 117 ms 123 ms 192.197.174.118
4 135 ms 122 ms 116 ms 166.48.13.245
5 134 ms 145 ms 159 ms core7.SanFrancisco.cw.net [204.70.4.93]
6 144 ms 142 ms 136 ms Hssi2-1-0.BR1.SCL1.Alter.Net [206.157.77.74]
7 145 ms 152 ms 147 ms 105.ATM3-0.XR1.SCL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.145.158]
8 138 ms 149 ms 146 ms 195.ATM2-0.TR1.SCL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.146.2]
9 189 ms 170 ms 209 ms 107.ATM6-0.TR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.137.165]
10 187 ms 180 ms 180 ms 199.ATM7-0.XR1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [146.188.179.85]
11 194 ms 177 ms 185 ms 191.ATM8-0-0.GW1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [146.188.176.225]
12 196 ms 208 ms 179 ms NVC.customer.UU.NET [64.68.0.242]
13 197 ms 206 ms 207 ms www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com [216.23.162.66]
Trace
complete.
As
you can see, it took 13 'hops' to get from my computer to the www.D2D-Web-Hosting.com
server. If you experience hops with * this denotes possible congestion
(packet loss) and can affect the loading of your pages. When this
occurs and you are having trouble accessing your server, send in
a support request with the above information. You can use the Copy
and Paste buttons in MSDOS to copy to the request form's text box.
HELPFUL TIP
You can save the information from a Ping or Traceroute to a text
file by using the following syntax:
Ping D2D-Web-Hosting.com >>filename.txt
Tracert D2D-Web-Hosting.com >>filename.txt
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