A Journey into the Network - Ping and Traceroute

     There are a few simple commands you can use to verify if your connection to a site is functioning properly: Ping and Traceroute. I found running the Ping and Traceroute commands rather interesting.  It was not something I had ever done before.  I think often we take for granted how lucky we are to have the internet.  When you stop to think about it, it's rather amazing it works at all.  The internet works via sending packets of information through various computers and routers across the world.  Different service providers grant the ability to access the internet and connect with IP addresses or domains all over the planet in an instant.  Defined protocols allow for a seamless transfer of multiple packets to get to their destination and be viewed as a complete file.  Very rarely does this fail. 

      The three sites I ran ping and trace on were Google, BBC.co.uk, and English.president.go.kr. Somewhat surprisingly, the quickest ping return was the BBC site in the UK.  The site in South Korea was the slowest and that somewhat makes sense, but the UK is also very far away, so it was surprising that it was quicker than Google here in the US.  That may be owed to the fact that Google is a much more popular site and was under a greater demand at the time.  Google made the most hops (stops along the route) at twelve.  Google is the closest domain to me in terms of distance but made the most stops for some reason.  The Korean site is furthest away and made eleven stops.  The BBC UK site only made 7 stops, which would partially explain having the quickest return.

     Ping and Traceroute are both very helpful for basic connection troubleshooting.  Ping will help determine if the host site is active and functioning.  Traceroute is helpful because it will confirm that there is a pathway (or route) between the user and the host site.  In short, Ping and Traceroute combined will help determine if the host site is working and that there is a reliable pathway to access the host site.