TRACERT -- a basic TCP / IP tool for checking your route to a host.
Tracert.exe (which is the DOS version of the Unix "traceroute" tool) is also
found in your C:\WINDOWS directory. Like Ping, tracert uses ICMP packets to
furnish you with some information about your connection. Specifically,
tracert reports the route that your packets take in getting to the host
you're trying to reach. It lists each host, or gateway, you have to pass, and
shows you three Ping times to each of those hosts. The distance between one
host and the next is called a "hop."
Tracert output looks like this:
C:\WINDOWS>tracert gamers.gamestorm.com
Tracing route to gamers.kesmai.com [208.152.217.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 241 ms 190 ms 167 ms usr10.mix2.Atlanta.mci.net [166.55.48.53]
2 195 ms 174 ms 175 ms mix2-ethernet1-0.Atlanta.mci.net [166.55.48.33]
3 184 ms 190 ms 349 ms core2-fddi-0.Atlanta.mci.net [204.70.86.49]
4 190 ms 241 ms 300 ms core2.Greensboro.mci.net [204.70.4.57]
5 341 ms 221 ms 203 ms borderx2-fddi-1.Greensboro.mci.net [204.70.80.68]
6 198 ms 186 ms 172 ms kesmai-corp.Greensboro.mci.net [204.70.80.126]
7 197 ms 182 ms 195 ms 208.152.217.2
8 208 ms 174 ms 182 ms gamers.kesmai.com [208.152.217.106]
Trace complete.
The first column is the hop number. The next three columns show Ping times
between you and that particular host. The last column shows the name of that
server, or gateway, and its IP address.
You should always run tracert a couple of times, as the first iteration
usually reports artificially long Ping times. If you run tracert and your
average Ping times for any given hop are greater than 450ms, you might
experience lags, or delays in your game connection. If you run tracert a few
times, and are seeing Ping times that are greater than 1000ms (one full
second), or get "asterisks" ( * ) you are almost certain to experience lags
or warps, and may experience dumps or disconnects. This is a congestion
problem somewhere in your connection. That congestion might be on your ISP's
network, or anywhere in the Internet between your computer and GameStorm.
Congestion doesn't necessarily mean a bad gateway, or a network problem. It
simply means more people are moving data than the Internet can support at
that particular instant. Usually, such problems are transient and clear
themselves up.
SUMMARY: Tracert, like Ping, can tell you when your network connection is
congested. However, it cannot pinpoint the exact point of congestion with
enough certainty to take action or place blame. Just like Ping, the results
reported by tracert may or may not present a true picture of how your regular
TCP connection is performing, so be wary of treating the results as if they
were gospel
