When you use the traceroute command, the Traceroute Results Web page shows whether the command was successful or not. The following sections describe successful and unsuccessful traceroute results.
Successful traceroute results
If the traceroute command runs successfully, the Traceroute Results Web page displays a summary similar to the following:
traceroute to server.mycompany.com (192.168.1.126), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 server1.mycompany.com (192.168.1.254) 0.324 ms 0.226 ms 0.206 ms
2 server2.mycompany.com (192.168.2.254) 0.446 ms 0.372 ms 0.288 ms
3 server.mycompany.com (192.168.1.126) 0.321 ms 0.227 ms 0.212 ms
As shown in the example, the traceroute output in the first line differs from the output in the subsequent lines. The following sections describe the traceroute output:
First line of output
The first line of traceroute output describes the parameters within which the command was run.
The output shows:
Destination host name and IP address: server.mycompany.com (192.168.1.126)
Maximum number of hops: 30 hops max
Packet size: 38 byte packets
Subsequent lines of output
The subsequent lines of traceroute output describe each hop completed for the traceroute. These lines show:
Hop number: 1, 2, and 3
Address of the gateway computer, which is the host name, followed by the IP address. For example, server.mycompany.com (192.168.1.254).
If you selected to print the addresses numerically, no host name appears in the output. For example:
1 192.168.1.254 0.778 ms 0.590 ms 0.216 ms
2 192.168.2.254 0.507 ms 0.449 ms 0.311 ms
Round-trip time to the gateway computer. For example, 0.324 ms 0.226 ms 0.206 ms.
Note Each hop is measured three times. If you see an asterisk (*) in the round-trip time part of the output, the * indicates a hop has exceeded the limit.
Unsuccessful traceroute results
If the traceroute command does not run successfully, the Traceroute Results Web page displays information about the error, as follows:
traceroute: unknown host www.unknown.com. This is because the host www.unknown.com cannot be reached.