Trace the network path to any host from global vantage points. See every hop, find where latency spikes or packets drop.
Run traceroute from global vantage points to any host. Trace network paths from North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific to identify where latency or packet loss occurs along the route.
Each line represents a network hop between your source and the destination. The columns show the hop number, IP address or hostname, and round-trip latency. Increasing latency is normal as hops increase. Look for sudden large jumps or asterisks (timeouts) to identify problem areas.
Asterisks mean the router at that hop did not respond to the traceroute probe within the timeout. This is common and usually not a problem. Many routers are configured to deprioritize or drop ICMP/UDP probe packets while still forwarding real traffic normally.
Not necessarily. Some routers report high latency for probe packets because they process them with low priority, but still forward real traffic at full speed. A problem exists only if latency stays high for all subsequent hops after the spike.
Traceroutes run from multiple global locations across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Running from multiple vantage points helps distinguish between localized routing issues and global problems.
Ping measures round-trip time to the final destination. Traceroute shows every intermediate hop along the path, with latency at each one. Traceroute helps you identify where in the network a problem occurs, while ping only tells you whether the destination is reachable and how fast.