Alexis Kestler
Hey there! As an experienced network analyst and technology geek, I wanted to provide you with a comprehensive guide on online traceroute tools. These tools are invaluable when you need to diagnose network issues and pinpoint exactly where things are breaking down.
I‘ll explain what traceroute does, why it‘s important, how the top tools work, and share plenty of tips from my years of troubleshooting experience. My goal is to equip you with the knowledge to become a traceroute pro!
Let‘s get started.
What is Traceroute and Why It Matters
When you access a website or application online, your data has to traverse through many different networks and systems to reach its destination. This path often includes your local network, your ISP‘s network, transit networks, the hosting provider‘s network, and more.
Traceroute is a diagnostic tool that reveals the exact route your data packets take to get from point A to point B. It identifies each hop along the path by IP address and provides latency measurements (the time taken) at each hop.
This information is hugely beneficial when trying to diagnose connection problems, high latency, packet loss, routing issues and more. By looking at traceroute results, you can pinpoint exactly where along the path the problem is occurring – whether it‘s on your local network, your ISP‘s network, or somewhere further upstream.
It‘s an indispensable tool for any network engineer troubleshooting connectivity issues. Many times I‘ve been able to immediately spot the culprit for slowness or packet loss by glancing at a traceroute. It saves you from blind troubleshooting and makes the network transparent.
Now let‘s look at some of the best online traceroute tools available today.
1. Dotcom-Tools
Dotcom-tools offers a simple yet powerful traceroute tool alongside various other network diagnostic utilities.
To use it, enter your target IP address or domain name, select the location(s) you want to initiate the test from, and hit Run Test. I recommend tracing from multiple geographically diverse locations to get a broader picture.
Within seconds, you‘ll see a traceroute result that displays every hop between you and the destination, along with response times at each hop.
This makes it easy to visualize the path and pinpoint any problematic network segments that show high latency or packet loss. I like how Dotcom-Tools lets you pick test locations – it‘s useful when diagnosing issues specific to certain geographies.
Some other handy tools you get with a free Dotcom-Tools account: website speed test, DNS propagation checker, mail server test, and more.
2. Geekflare
Another fast and reliable traceroute tool is Geekflare. Just plug in your target domain or IP address and hit Traceroute.
Within seconds you‘ll see a result that includes total hop count, response times at each hop, and percent packet loss per hop if any.
Geekflare uses Paris as the test location by default, but also gives you the ability to trace from Singapore, London, San Francisco, and more. This again provides visibility into how geography impacts the route and latency.
According to my tests, Geekflare‘s traceroute tool is one of the quickest and most reliable out there. It uses the latest mtr utility under the hood which produces very accurate results.
An exclusive feature Geekflare offers is the ability to schedule automated traceroutes of your website and receive email/Slack notifications if latency crosses a threshold you set. This can serve as an early warning system for network issues.
3. ThousandEyes
If you‘re looking for enterprise-grade network diagnostics, I highly recommend ThousandEyes.
It‘s not free, but offers very powerful traceroute visualization and intelligent network path analysis. Routing outages, ISP issues, DNS errors – ThousandEyes can detect them all.
Some cool features include:
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Traceroutes from hundreds of global agents giving complete topology visibility
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Automatic alerts on network infrastructure issues
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Historical traceroute reporting to see changes over time
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BGP route analytics to detect ISP routing problems
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Packet loss and latency heat maps for easy problem identification
While the pricing may be high for individual use, ThousandEyes is an invaluable tool for large enterprises managing business-critical infrastructure and applications.
4. PingPlotter
PingPlotter is a free traceroute tool focused on network troubleshooting for gaming, streaming, VoIP applications where lag is unacceptable.
It tracks latency metrics like jitter and packet loss in real-time and alerts you the moment thresholds are crossed. This helps identify brief network glitches that cause lag spikes during online gaming or video streaming sessions.
PingPlotter also offers useful visual hop-by-hop analysis to uncover exactly which segment is responsible for the lag or packet loss.
For users like gamers and companies offering latency-sensitive services, PingPlotter is an excellent free traceroute tool focused on identifying intermittent issues affecting real-time traffic.
5. IPLocation
IPLocation has a simple traceroute tool that‘s very handy when you quickly want to test connectivity to a site.
Just enter your target IP/domain, hit Trace Route and within seconds you‘ll get a result showing the routing path and response times at each hop.
It‘s not the most fully-featured traceroute tool but does the basics well. IPLocation also offers IP lookup, ping, DNS lookup, WHOIS search and other essential networking utilities on their website. It‘s worth bookmarking when you need a quick network diagnostic tool.
6. WebSitePulse
WebSitePulse is a useful website for monitoring website uptime and performance from global locations.
Their free traceroute tool provides visibility into the network path and latency between their worldwide monitoring agents and your target website.
This gives you a broader perspective of your website‘s connectivity beyond testing from just one location.
WebSitePulse is also helpful for continuous monitoring – you can set up uptime and performance checks from over 50+ locations and receive alerts if issues are detected.
7. Traceroute.Org
Traceroute.org lets you run a simple traceroute test from their server in Germany by entering your target IP/domain.
It displays an easy-to-read result showing each hop‘s host name, IP and response time.
Traceroute.org also has a "Traceroute from Server" option where you run a traceroute from the website‘s server to any destination you enter. This can help diagnose connectivity issues specific to that network.
It‘s a no-frills yet reliable traceroute service when you need to quickly test a network path.
8. Proofpoint
Cybersecurity company Proofpoint offers a neat traceroute tool that maps out each hop on Google Maps.
This provides at-a-glance visibility into the geographic path your traffic is taking. You can also filter to the country level for clearer analysis.
In addition to easy network mapping, Proofpoint‘s tool displays latency metrics in an intuitive timeline chart. This helps pinpoint any sporadic lag spikes or packet loss events.
If you do security analysis, Proofpoint has many other useful tools for identifying threats and risks – but the traceroute utility can come in handy for network diagnostics as well.
9. Auvik
Network management platform Auvik offers a free traceroute tool that lets you trace the path between any two destinations.
This is useful when you need to diagnose network issues between office branches, cloud services, data centers, etc.
Auvik provides both a hop-by-hop table view and global network map to visualize the routing path. Latency metrics are displayed clearly as well.
Their network topology mapping capability is quite powerful and can provide insight into the way your infrastructure is interconnected.
10. TraceRoute6.com
As IPv6 adoption grows, you may want to trace routes over IPv6 infrastructure specifically.
TraceRoute6.com is a simple tool that lets you do just that. It traces IPv6 routes between their server and any IPv6 address you specify.
This can help diagnose connectivity issues that may be IPv6-specific, since routing paths may differ from IPv4.
Though IPv6 adoption is still growing, sites investing heavily in IPv6 can benefit from a traceroute tool dedicated to diagnosing v6-related issues.
11. BTRACS
BTRACS offers a full-featured network diagnostic suite including their Network Pathfinder traceroute tool.
This provides an interactive global network map that lets you visualize the geographic path between source and destination. Hop-by-hop details and latency metrics are also displayed.
BTRACS has over 1000 test nodes worldwide, allowing full topology visibility. It also offers useful features like email and SMS alerts on network anomalies detected.
While it‘s a paid tool, the advanced diagnostics can be worthwhile for network engineers and NOCs managing large scale infrastructure.
Traceroute Pro Tips
With so many powerful traceroute tools at your disposal, here are some pro tips to use them effectively:
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Trace from multiple locations – This gives topology visibility from different vantage points. Often routing issues affect some paths and not others.
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Compare working and failing tests – Compare traceroute results when a service is up vs. down. This makes the anomaly obvious.
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Lookup IPs – When a high-latency hop appears, lookup the IP to identify the owner. This tells you where to report an issue.
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Monitor over time – Set up periodic automated traceroutes to establish a latency baseline, and get alerts on anomalies.
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Follow up with providers – When a problematic network segment is identified, follow up with that provider by opening a ticket.
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Learn to read traceroute – With experience, you can interpret results at a glance. Training your brain pays dividends.
Mastering the art of network troubleshooting with traceroute takes time and practice. But it will give you the superpower to visualize the internet‘s routing topology and diagnose all kinds of connectivity issues.
I hope you found this guide helpful! Let me know if you have any other traceroute tips and tricks to share.
