Network Troubleshooting Techniques: Ping, Traceroute, PathPing

Network Troubleshooting is a way to maintain your computer network, ensuring optimal performance, and addressing issues that may disrupt connectivity. when any problems arise, network administrators and IT professionals use tools such as Ping, Traceroute, and PathPing to identify and solve a problem.

Ping is a command that sends a small packet of data to any network device and waits for its response. Traceroute traces the route from source to destination and it helps identify any delay or bottleneck. PathPing combines the functionality of both Ping and Traceroute commands to troubleshoot the network. In this article, we will learn about Ping, Traceroute, and PathPing tools, and how to use them to troubleshoot the network.

Ping

A Ping stands for Packet Internet Groper. It is a widely used command for identifying connectivity between two network connections. It uses Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) to send a request to the target host and wait for a response. It measures the round-trip time for data packets to travel from the source to the destination and back.

Example

ping www.geeksforgeeks.org

Explanation

It shows that we have sent 4 request (packet) and received acknowledgment of all the requests and there is Zero loss. and It shows a minimum, maximum and average round trip time in milliseconds.

Traceroute

Traceroute is also called as a tracert. It traces the route from source to the destination. It is achieved by using ICMP to send a request. It revels the all routers between source and destination by displaying their IP Address to detect where the packet loss or latency occurs.

Example

tracert www.geeksforgeeks.org

Explanation

Each lines shows a route with round-trip time. the first line shows a router has 2409:4080:8e1b:cf24::7f IPv6 address and round-trip time is 1ms. and the second line has a timeout. This means that the router at hop 2 did not response to the ICMP request within the time limit.

PathPing

PathPing command is a combination of ping and tracert command. It sends request to each routers that comes between source and destination and compute result based on response from each router. It provide continues monitoring of the network path which allow network administrator to observe changes in performance.

Example

pathping www.geeksforgeeks.org

Explanation

It shows Hop 0 is a source with no packet loss, Hop 1 with round-time of 4ms with no packet loss and Hop 2 shows a timeout with * * * indicating that there was no response from this Hop (Router).

Conclusion

Learning of Troubleshooting commands such as Ping, Traceroute, PathPing is necessary for Network Administrator and IT Professional to maintain computer network and solve a problems.