What is a Traceroute?

A traceroute is a diagnostic test that you perform from your Windows, Mac, or Linux device. The traceroute results reveal the path across the network (Internet) that data takes from your device to its intended destination.

Typically, that intended destination is a web server. Traceroutes are performed to help identify why a website is slow or unresponsive. The different line items on a traceroute result indicate the computer and the various “hops” it takes from your computer to its desired location. This is done when troubleshooting is necessary to understand problems that may arise due to potential slow connectivity, disconnections, or inability to connect at all.

Traceroute on Windows

You can perform a traceroute in any flavor of Windows, be it 95/98/XP/Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and of course, Windows 10. Here’s the process:

Click the Windows icon and type cmd
Click the Command Prompt link or icon
Type tracert followed by the domain name that you want to trace to, such as tracert ggexample.com. Hit the Enter key on your keyboard
The traceroute will run and the results will be displayed

Traceroute on a Mac

On a Mac, you can use two methods to trace route:

Using Terminal

Use the Spotlight Search function and launch the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities)
Type traceroute, followed by a space, then the domain name for which you want to run a traceroute
Press Enter

Using Network Utility

Use Command+Spacebar and launch Network Utility
Head over to the CoreServices folder (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/)
You may access this folder by going to Finder > Go > “Go to Folder”
Select Traceroute
Enter a domain name
Click Trace

Traceroute on Linux

Getting to the traceroute utility on a Linux device differs based on which distribution you are currently running. Generally, the process to access it is more or less the same way you would access it on a Windows device.

You’ll usually type the full name, traceroute, rather than the Windows name, tracert. So for example:
# traceroute ggexample.com
If traceroute is not available in your Linux installation, you may have to install it.
Some Linux distributions require you to specify the protocol after -I:
# traceroute -I ICMP example.com