traceroute (or tracert, as it is known under Windows) is a network diagnostic tool for IP networks. Its purpose is twofold: to display the path of packets, as well as the transit delays along each step (known as a hop). The RTT of each hop is recorded, and the sum of the mean times in each hop is a measure of the total time to establish the connection. By default, traceroute outputs the results of each hop, as well as the final results. traceroute sends three packets, and it proceeds unless all three are lost more than twice. In this case, the connection is considered lost and the route/path cannot be evaluated.
traceroute is available at the Windows command prompt (as tracert), but it is not part of most default Linux installations. ...
