Exercise: Running traceroute
Heads up! You can now install the Terminal on your Windows machine so you can run the same commands as Mac or Linux users. Please install this to make your life easier if you are on Windows as you follow this course: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-terminal/9n0dx20hk701
Exercise time!
Open up the Terminal and run traceroute
on any website you want.
For Mac/Linux users you can open the Terminal this way: Instructions
For Windows users you can open the Command Prompt this way: Instructions
For Windows User that refuse to use the Terminal and want to use Command Prompt instead:
Keep in mind that on Windows Command Prompt you will have to run tracert instead of traceroute
For Windows users, to interpret tracert, check out this: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/how-to/read-traceroute.
If you see the IP addresses a little bit different than in my videos or the links above: The IP addresses you see may be IPv6. In this case, you will have to run: tracert -4 google.com
which forces IPv4 hops
If you see ***** (asterisk) in your output: If a packet is not acknowledged within the expected timeout (5seconds), an asterisk is displayed. Sometimes this can be due to your internet connection or traceroute
may show **** because of widespread use of firewalls and other security practices by the company that owns that server.
Finally, if you have any questions, reach out to our student community in the #helpme channel on Discord (Lecture 2 provides the link if you have not yet joined)!