When you need to determine at which point on the route between your computer and any node on the Internet, packets of information are lost, a trace operation becomes necessary. How to perform such an operation is described below.
Instructions
Step 1
A program for tracing the routes of information packets is included in almost every network operating system. On Windows it is called tracert, and on GNU / Linux and Mac OS it is called traceroute. The principle of operation of this program is as follows: The program sends packets of information to the address indicated to it, setting deliberately impracticable delivery conditions - a very short packet lifetime (TTL - Time To Live). When sending the first packet, it is equal to 1 second. Every server on the way from your computer to the correct address must decrease this value by at least one. Therefore, the packet lifetime will expire already on the first node of the route, and the latter will not transmit it further, but will send a notification to the sender about the impossibility of delivery. In this way, the tracer will obtain information about the first intermediate node. Then it will increase the packet lifetime by one and retry sending. This request will live up to the second node and the situation will repeat itself. Thus, the tracing program will compile a list of all intermediate nodes, and if it does not receive a notification from any, then this will mean one of two things - either the packet is still delivered to the recipient, or this node does not perform its function. To find out this, the program will send a request with another defect - a deliberately non-existent port number will be indicated. If this packet returns with an error indication, then the node is working normally and it is the recipient, and if not, then the packet delivery chain is broken at this node. In any case, the tracing procedure will be completed at this point.
Step 2
In Windows, the executable file of this program (tracert.exe) is stored in the WINDOWSsystem32 folder on the system drive of your computer. But to run the program there is no need to search for the file. This program is only controlled from the command line, so you need to start the command line terminal first. To do this, in the main menu (on the "Start" button) select the "Run" item to open the "Run Program" dialog box. You can also open it by pressing the WIN + R key combination. Then type "cmd" (without quotes) and press the "OK" button (or press Enter). In the terminal that opens, type tracert and, separated by a space, the address of the node on the network to which you want to trace. This can be either an IP address or a domain name. You do not need to specify the http protocol. After the tracing is finished, the result can be copied - press CTRL + A to select everything and Enter to copy the selection to RAM. Then you can paste the copied into any document of any text editor.
