"This diagnostic utility determines the route taken to a destination by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo packets with varying Time-To-Live (TTL) values to the destination. Each router along the path is required to decrement the TTL on a packet by at least 1 before forwarding it,
so the TTL is effectively a hop count. When the TTL on a packet reaches 0, the router is supposed to send back an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the source system. Tracert determines the route by sending the first echo packet with a TTL of 1 and incrementing the TTL by 1 on each subsequent transmission until the target responds or the maximum TTL is reached.
The route is determined by examining the ICMP Time Exceeded messages sent back by intermediate routers. Notice that some routers silently drop packets with expired time-to-live (TTLs) and will be invisible to tracert."
The command syntax is:
tracert \[-d\] \[-h maximum_hops\] \[-j computer-list\] \[-w timeout\] target_name
where:
| -d | Specifies not to resolve addresses to computer names. |
| -h maximum_hops | Specifies maximum number of hops to search for target. |
| -j computer-list | Specifies loose source route along computer-list. |
| -w timeout | Waits the number of milliseconds specified by timeout for each reply. |
| target_name | Name of the target computer, domain, or IP Address. |
Example:
tracert www.jsiinc.com Tracing route to www.jsiinc.com \[216.144.1.126\] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 140 ms 141 ms 125 ms tnt1.atlanta2.ga.da.uu.net \[206.115.155.208\] 2 125 ms 125 ms 125 ms 206.115.188.177 3 125 ms 141 ms 140 ms 108.ATM12-0-0.HR1.ATL1.ALTER.NET \[152.63.80.18\] 4 125 ms 141 ms 125 ms 101.ATM2-0.XR2.ATL1.ALTER.NET \[146.188.232.6\] 5 125 ms 125 ms 140 ms 194.ATM2-0.TR2.ATL1.ALTER.NET \[146.188.232.98\] 6 125 ms 156 ms 141 ms 109.ATM6-0.TR2.CHI4.ALTER.NET \[146.188.136.10\] 7 141 ms 140 ms 157 ms 198.ATM6-0.XR2.CHI6.ALTER.NET \[146.188.209.1\] 8 156 ms 203 ms 141 ms 190.ATM8-0-0.GW1.CLE1.ALTER.NET \[146.188.209.45\] 9 156 ms 172 ms 141 ms nls-gw.customer.ALTER.NET \[157.130.104.94\] 10 203 ms 172 ms 156 ms www.jsiinc.com \[216.144.1.126\] Trace complete.
