How would you read out tracert info to a 5 y.o. child.

[Deleted]

Tracert found on WoW tech forums.

1 Blizzard (Blizzard) 0.314 ms 0.692 ms 0.781 ms
2 * * *
3 AMS-PE-1.megafonvolga.ru (80.249.208.125) 0.330 ms 0.359 ms 0.365 ms
4 * * *
5 85.26.196.122 (85.26.196.122) 215.349 ms 215.388 ms 215.391 ms
6 * 188.134.112.18 (188.134.112.18) 216.543 ms 216.763 ms
7 188.134.112.4 (188.134.112.4) 215.650 ms 215.675 ms 215.673 ms

I know that this guys will probably have to contact his ISP, to check out that packet loss on 6th hop. And I know that 2nd and 4th hop are behind a firewall so we are not seeing any results there. The thing I don't get about tracert results is why would 7th hop show this result and not

"7 * 188.134.112.4 (188.134.112.4) 215.675 ms 215.673 ms"?

If this packet was lost on the 6th hop, how can we see it on 7th again?

[anveena]

omg a hacker!

[PixelFox]

Because your seven step trace involves sending 3x7=21 packets, not three.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traceroute#Implementation

[Deleted]

I see. So each step sends their own three packets? And it's not like only three packets are being checked from first to last step?

[Deleted]

I think the better question is why would you read it out to a 5 year old?....

[zealo]

In ELI5 terms it works like it sends 1 package to the first router with a "time to live" value of 1, (it will always return to the source when the value reaches 0 throughout the whole chain) that is removed upon retrieval, the package is dropped and a timestamp value is sent back to the source, next time it passes this router it will have a value of 2, with 1 getting stripped off and the other part goes to the next router, has its value reach 0 and has a timestamp string then sent back. This way it builds a map of sorts on which route the packet takes, and via that it can be seen where package loses happen.

Really though, he doesn't need the how, just the why which is that there is package loses happening somewhere in the chain.

I think the better question is why would you read it out to a 5 year old?....

Its an expression meant to describe something in layman terms, not necessarily a physical five year old.

[Deleted]

I think even I can understand that Thanks zealo!

[Annoying]

Think of it like this:

You send 3 letters to your neighbor, telling them to send 3 letters to their neighbor, all the way to the end of the street. This letter also asks that they send the letter back to you with a time on it afterwards.

So neighbor 6 only got two of the letters from 5, but he still got the message to send neighbor 7 three letters.

[PixelFox]

I see. So each step sends their own three packets? And it's not like only three packets are being checked from first to last step?

Correct.

/10char

[Triggered Fridgekin]

Frodo never made it to Mordor and instead succombed to Shelob.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys. That helped a lot.

/thread

[Ryme]

Tracing route to 213-155-155-233.customer.teliacarrier.com [213.155.155.233]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     4 ms     2 ms     2 ms  BThomehub.home [192.168.1.254] 
  2   498 ms   358 ms   303 ms  217.32.146.72 
  3   703 ms   679 ms   786 ms  217.32.146.126 
  4   771 ms   852 ms   676 ms  213.120.156.210 
  5    83 ms   101 ms    97 ms  217.41.168.181 
  6   780 ms   516 ms   415 ms  217.41.168.107 
  7   259 ms   284 ms   556 ms  acc1-te0-4-0-9.l-far.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109.159.255.192] 
  8    87 ms    56 ms   160 ms  core3-te0-0-0-26.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.249.49] 
  9   147 ms   263 ms   193 ms  peer2-et-9-3-0.faraday.ukcore.bt.net [62.6.201.167] 
 10   210 ms   220 ms   510 ms  213.137.183.24 
 11   193 ms   191 ms   198 ms  ldn-b3-link.telia.net [213.248.67.97] 
 12   289 ms   224 ms   231 ms  ldn-bb2-link.telia.net [80.91.249.177] 
 13   268 ms   288 ms   290 ms  adm-bb4-link.telia.net [213.155.136.93] 
 14   304 ms   217 ms   166 ms  adm-b4-link.telia.net [213.155.137.173] 
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

.

Kill me.

[PixelFox]

 13   268 ms   288 ms   290 ms  adm-bb4-link.telia.net [213.155.136.93] 
 14   304 ms   217 ms   166 ms  adm-b4-link.telia.net [213.155.137.173] 
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Kill me.

Why? Hop 15 was probably the ingress router of your destination organization and by policy they refuse to respond to traceroute requests in order to avoid exposing any details of their internal network structure. This is fairly typical and doesn't necessarily mean there's a problem. Same goes for ping requests. You may not be able to ping or traceroute to a host, even when you can connect to it just fine on whatever service you're authorized to use. Since they're just dropping your packet on the floor, traceroute does not know when to stop so it keeps trying up to its default limit of 30 hops. Just ignore everything past the point that it stops responding permanently.

[Annoying]

I'd say that "kill me" was probably directed at the heinous latency of those hops. 700+ms hops, ouch.

[Ryme]

Yeah, that and tracerts do work normally for all 30 hops, but my ISP is facing some kind of melt down since the new year. Occasionally, the tracert will complete all 30 and I get packet loss on nearly every hop.

Fuck BT.