[Mohit Daksh]

I had asked this question a month back too.. But didn't get a satisfactory answer. Please explain a bit of it to me.
If data packets don't necessarily take the same route every time then how does tracing a route help in understanding the problem with a network? I mean the packets may not follow the next time they travel

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Tracing a route shows the path data is taking through the network.
The route used is typically the most efficient if not the quickest because a lot depends on the traffic.
If one server is clogged up with requests it may be quicker to find an alternate route. Many servers act as effective bouncers to balance the load so you can end up going to a website via one of many different routes.
Likewise if you drive a car somewhere, you don't want to spend twenty minutes in a traffic jam on the normal route when you can go the long way round and get there in ten minutes.

[Neil Jones]

Tracing a route shows the path data is taking through the network.
The route used is typically the most efficient if not the quickest because a lot depends on the traffic.
If one server is clogged up with requests it may be quicker to find an alternate route. Many servers act as effective bouncers to balance the load so you can end up going to a website via one of many different routes.
Likewise if you drive a car somewhere, you don't want to spend twenty minutes in a traffic jam on the normal route when you can go the long way round and get there in ten minutes.

[Mohit Daksh]

Thank you for your reply

So it means that even if data packets can follow a number of paths but they will still go on the path for most of the times that they think is most efficient.. ?

[Mohit Daksh]

I have not been able to open this website at from my home for over 2 months. Do the "request timed out" at the last indicate dropped packets? Is there anything bad with this report


Tracing route to wolframalpha.com [140.177.205.54]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 138 ms 37 ms 34 ms triband-del-59.178.191.254.bol.net.in [59.178.191.254]
3 35 ms 34 ms 34 ms triband-del-59.179.0.120.bol.net.in [59.179.0.120]
4 82 ms 83 ms 84 ms 121.241.98.190.static-delhi.vsnl.net.in [121.241.98.190]
5 79 ms 79 ms 79 ms 59.163.55.133.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.55.133]

6 86 ms 84 ms 85 ms 59.163.16.5.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.16.5]
7 84 ms 84 ms 85 ms 59.163.16.5.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.16.5]
8 311 ms 311 ms 311 ms 59.163.55.206.static.vsnl.net.in [59.163.55.206]

9 320 ms 416 ms 401 ms if-2-11.mse1.NW8-NewYork.as6453.net [209.58.75.37]
10 328 ms 328 ms 328 ms if-7-0-0.core1.NTO-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.82.61]
11 323 ms 323 ms 325 ms Vlan14.icore1.NTO-NewYork.as6453.net [216.6.82.2]
12 324 ms 322 ms 324 ms 192.205.35.13
13 344 ms 343 ms 345 ms cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.131.98]
14 342 ms 342 ms 340 ms cr2.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.1.2]
15 345 ms 341 ms 340 ms cr2.sl9mo.ip.att.net [12.122.2.22]
16 339 ms 340 ms 340 ms 12.122.142.157
17 338 ms 338 ms 339 ms flexabit-wolfram-transit.flexabit.net [64.198.231.53]
18 337 ms 336 ms 337 ms wri-dns1.wolfram.com [140.177.203.1]
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

Edited by Mohit Daksh, 07 July 2009 - 09:33 PM.