How To Perform A Traceroute In Windows, Mac OS, And Linux

What Is A Traceroute?

Whether you are having trouble connecting to your website or you are experiencing slow network performance, our tech support team may ask you to perform a “traceroute” to make sure there isn’t a connectivity problem between your internet service provider and our server.

A traceroute shows the route you take over the Internet to reach Zalvis’s servers. This information can help us diagnose a possible network issue.

How To Perform A Traceroute In Windows

Windows 7 And Older

  • Click on the “Start” menu and type “cmd” into the search field (where it says “Search programs and files” or “Start search”).
  • Push the Enter key on your keyboard. A DOS prompt window will open up.
  • Type the following command in the command window and press ‘Enter’:
tracert -d yourdomain.tld

(remember to replace yourdomain.tld with your actual domain name)

Make sure to let the traceroute task finish completely; it can sometimes take several minutes.

Windows 8.X And Newer

  • Use the search window, type command prompt and click on the Command Prompt result.
  • Type the following command in the command window and press ‘Enter’:
tracert -d yourdomain.tld

(remember to replace yourdomain.tld with your actual domain name)

Make sure to let the traceroute task finish completely; it can sometimes take several minutes.

  • You can copy and paste the traceroute results into an email by selecting the upper-left hand icon and selecting “Edit -> Mark”
  • You can now “select” the text of the window using your mouse cursor. Select the text of the results and hit “enter”. This will put the text on the clipboard. You can then use your keyboard and press Control + V to paste the information your e-mail client or in a Client Area ticket reply.

How To Perform A Traceroute In MAC OS

  • Open up the Terminal by using Command + Space and type ‘Terminal’
  • In the new terminal window, type the following command and press ‘Enter’
traceroute -n yourdomain.tld

(remember to replace yourdomain.tld with your actual domain name).

Make sure to let the traceroute finish completely; it can sometimes take several minutes.

You should see similar information to the following when it finishes:

MacBook-Pro:~ zalvis$ traceroute -n zalvis.com
traceroute to zalvis.com (35.177.119.203), 30 hops max, 52 byte packets
 1  10.8.0.1  54.835 ms  54.611 ms  54.580 ms
 2  * * *
 3  173.199.113.193  68.678 ms  65.984 ms  66.133 ms
 4  * * *
 5  62.115.58.193  62.412 ms  60.931 ms  54.802 ms
 6  62.115.122.190  55.464 ms
    62.115.122.178  57.065 ms
    62.115.122.190  55.653 ms
 7  62.115.134.27  64.443 ms  65.791 ms
    213.155.136.98  67.438 ms
 8  62.115.143.27  60.872 ms
    62.115.136.194  56.683 ms
    62.115.143.27  62.513 ms
 9  213.248.79.242  61.373 ms
    213.248.104.222  63.181 ms  62.904 ms
10  * * *
11  52.94.35.57  63.644 ms
    52.94.35.23  64.577 ms
    52.94.35.55  63.117 ms
12  52.94.35.4  68.327 ms
    52.94.35.40  79.591 ms *
13  52.94.33.149  68.923 ms
    52.94.33.157  64.314 ms
    52.94.33.153  65.193 ms
14  52.94.33.88  63.566 ms
    52.94.33.76  62.424 ms
    52.94.33.84  62.313 ms
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

How To Perform A Traceroute In Linux

  • Open a Terminal window using Ctrl + Alt + T.  Simply hold all three keys at the same time, and a terminal window will open.
  • In the new terminal window, type the following command and press ‘Enter’
traceroute -I yourdomain.tld

(remember to replace yourdomain.tld with your actual domain name).

Make sure to let the traceroute finish completely; it can sometimes take several minutes.

We hope this article has made this topic clearer and if you still have a question or need help, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our support team!

If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll love Zalvis's Cloud Hosting platform. Turbocharge your website and get 24/7 support from our veteran team. Our world-class hosting infrastructure focuses on auto-scaling, performance, and security. Let us show you the Zalvis difference! Check out our services.