Post # 4 - Traveling Through a Network

Pings and Traceroutes

Pings - Just because I ping does not mean I will get a pong.

A ping command is a command used to test the ability of a source computer to reach a specified destination computer (Fisher, 2019). The overall meaning of the ping command can be compared to underwater sonar pulses. The ping is that pulse that is trying to reach a specific computer and when the ping finds it, the pulse is bounced back to the user’s computer. If the ping is trying to reach a server or computer that is farther away there is a greater chance that the pulse could be interrupted or disrupted.

Pinging Google.com vs Toreba.jp
When I pinged google.com, four packets were sent and four packets were received with a loss of 0 or 0%.

Another website I pinged was to a Japanese crane game site called Toreba, the link is www.toreba.jp (Links to an external site.). When I tried to ping this website which is hosted from a Japanese server all four packets timed out, so zero were received and the loss was 100%. I tried this a second time with the full website address but the results were the same.

Traceroute - Tracing the route to a server

A traceroute command is used to show more details about a path that a packet takes from the user’s computer to a specified destination (Fisher, 2019). The traceroute shows not only the route the packet is taking it shows what servers it is hitting along the way. By using a traceroute the user can find out where there along the route a connection could be disrupted. One way a ping request or traceroute could be disrupted is the geographical location of the computer or server trying to be pinged. For example, when I tried to ping the toreba.jp site in Japan the ping and traceroute timed out, this could be because of the geographical location. This ping has to hop between several servers before it can reach its destination. Comparatively, the traceroute to the bbc.co.uk site had to hop between fewer servers, even though geographically it is just as far away. Another reason why a ping or traceroute could be disconnected is that the server might be down due to a power outage or scheduled maintenance. Servers will go down at any time for maintenance but the companies that own the server will try to let their customers know.

Traceroute Google.com vs Toreba.jp

The traceroute I did for google.com took 9 hops to reach the Google IP. My observation of these hops is that most of the hops were through my main internet service provider. Then it timed out for a few microseconds before reaching the main Google IP address.

When I did a traceroute for toreba.jp, the trace was able to make 21 complete hops before timing out. After going through my internet provider the site hopped to a server in Chicago before hopping to Seattle. Since this is a Japanese site I find it odd that the site would have to go through servers in Chicago, IL in the Midwest before going to Seattle, WA on the west coast. Then the trace continues almost 100 milliseconds later to reach the servers in Osaka, Japan before timing out completely.

References:

Fisher, T. (2019, September 27). How to Use the Ping Command in Windows. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/ping-command-2618099 (Links to an external site.).

Fisher, T. (2019, June 24). How to Use the Tracert Command in Windows. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/tracert-command-2618101.