Traceroute — Trace the Network Path

Ping tells you "is it reachable?" Traceroute tells you "what's the path, and where is it slow?" Every packet you send to a website passes through multiple routers (called "hops") — your home router, your ISP's network, regional backbone providers, and finally the destination's network. Traceroute reveals every hop along the way, with timing for each.

Run Traceroute

Windows

# Open Command Prompt (Win+R → cmd → Enter)
tracert google.com

# With max hops limit
tracert -h 20 google.com

Note: Windows uses tracert (not traceroute).

Mac / Linux

# Terminal
traceroute google.com

# Use ICMP instead of UDP (more like Windows behavior)
traceroute -I google.com

# Limit hops
traceroute -m 20 google.com

Reading the Output

traceroute to google.com (142.250.80.46), 30 hops max
 1  192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1)       1.2 ms   0.9 ms   1.1 ms
 2  10.1.0.1 (10.1.0.1)             8.3 ms   7.9 ms   8.1 ms
 3  core-rtr-01.isp.net (72.14.x.x) 12.4 ms  11.8 ms  12.1 ms
 4  edge-rtr-02.isp.net (72.14.x.x) 14.2 ms  13.9 ms  14.0 ms
 5  108.170.x.x (108.170.x.x)      15.1 ms  14.8 ms  15.3 ms
 6  142.250.80.46 (142.250.80.46)   15.0 ms  14.7 ms  15.2 ms

Part	Meaning
Hop number (1, 2, 3...)	Each router in the path, starting from your device
Hostname / IP	The identity of each router hop
Three time values	Latency for three separate probes (ms). Shows consistency
`* * *`	That hop didn't respond. Not necessarily a problem — many routers block traceroute probes

What to Look For

Big latency jumps. If hop 3 shows 15 ms and hop 4 jumps to 120 ms, the problem is between those two routers. This tells you exactly whose network is the bottleneck.

Reading the hops:

Hop 1 — Your router (typically 192.168.1.1 or similar). Should be 1-5 ms. High latency here means a WiFi issue
Hops 2-4 — Your ISP's network. If latency jumps here, your ISP is the bottleneck. Not much you can do except call them or switch providers
Middle hops — Internet backbone / transit providers. Latency increases naturally with physical distance
Final hops — The destination's network. If it's slow here, the website/server has the problem

Stars (* * *) are often normal. Many routers are configured to not respond to traceroute probes to reduce processing load. If you see a few rows of stars in the middle but the final destination responds fine, there's no actual problem — those routers are just ignoring your probes.

When stars at the end ARE a problem: If every hop after a certain point shows * * * and you never reach the destination, something is blocking traffic at that point. Could be a firewall, a routing issue, or the destination being completely down.

Common Scenarios

Pattern	Diagnosis
Hop 1 is 50+ ms	WiFi issue between your device and router. Fix wireless, or use ethernet
Big jump at ISP hops	ISP congestion. Call them, or wait — often a peak-hours issue
Latency spikes at one hop, normal after	That router deprioritizes traceroute but forwards traffic fine. Not a real problem
All hops after your ISP show stars	Your ISP is blocking outbound or the destination network is unreachable
20+ ms jumps in middle hops	Normal if the path crosses a geographic distance (e.g., US to Europe adds ~80ms)

Visual Traceroute Tools

For a more visual experience, these tools map the route on a world map:

MTR (My Traceroute) — combines ping and traceroute, showing continuous real-time stats. Available on Mac (brew install mtr) and Linux (sudo apt install mtr)
WinMTR — Windows GUI version of MTR. Free download, no installation needed
PingPlotter — Commercial tool with graphs over time. Great for proving ISP issues

# MTR - the best traceroute tool
# Combines traceroute + continuous ping in one view
mtr google.com

# Or on Mac
sudo mtr google.com

MTR is particularly useful because it shows packet loss per hop over time, not just a single snapshot. If your ISP tells you "everything looks fine," run MTR for 10 minutes and send them the results showing 5% packet loss at their router.