Post #4: What I Learned About Network Traffic with Ping and Traceroute

Before this project, I had heard of the ping and traceroute commands, but I had no idea how they actually worked or what they were used for. After trying them out myself, I was surprised by how much they revealed about how data moves across the internet.

Starting with Ping

I tested three websites using the ping command: google.com, facebook.fr, and amazon.co.uk. The ping command sends small packets of data to a website and measures how long it takes to get a response. This round-trip time is measured in milliseconds and gives you a quick idea of how fast or slow a connection is.

Google gave me some inconsistent times and even lost a few packets, which I didn’t expect. In contrast, Facebook and Amazon responded much more consistently and didn’t lose any packets.

Exploring Traceroute

Next, I used the traceroute command, which breaks down the path data takes from your computer to the website. Each stop along the way is called a hop, and the tool shows how many routers the data passes through.

Some hops responded with times, while others just showed asterisks. I learned this usually means that the router either blocked the response or didn’t reply due to its settings. Amazon’s traceroute showed more delays and timeouts, which made sense since the server is located in the United Kingdom. The distance affected the response times.

What I Discovered

The main takeaway for me was how location impacts connection speed. Servers that are farther away tend to take longer to respond. That made it clear why sites hosted in other countries might feel slower.

I also realized how helpful these tools are for troubleshooting internet issues. Ping tells you if a site is up and how responsive it is. Traceroute helps figure out where the slowdown or failure is happening. If either command shows a timeout, it could be due to a firewall, a router dropping the request, or a network problem.

Final Thoughts

After completing this assignment, I feel like I have a much better understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes when I visit a website. Data doesn’t just travel in a straight line. It moves through multiple steps, and there are many points where delays or errors can happen.

Using ping and traceroute gave me a hands-on way to see that process in action. These tools are simple but powerful, and I can definitely see how they would be useful if I ever run into internet issues again.