Post #4 – Traveling Through a Network [CLO: 6]

        The Ping command verifies the connectivity of your computer to another device over internet or ethernet. Ping will access the other device very much like you make a phone call on a land line. You need to know the recipient’s number (in this case it is the internet protocol (IP) address or domain name) to complete the connection. When you ping a valid IP address or domain name, the computer will display your destination’s 32-byte IP address or domain name, the size of the packet, the time it took to make a round-trip connection, and the TTL (time to live) limit which is the number of rebroadcasts each host can make. 

        Traceroute tracks the number of networks (hops) a message must pass through to go from the host computer to its’ destination. Traceroute will display each network name, IP address, and the time it takes for a message to go from a host to the recipient. By looking at the traceroute results, you can see if there are delays, a connection failure, and sometimes it will tell you if there are problems with the network.

Ping

        The first part of the interactive assignment was to ping “Google.com” and two other websites outside the country.  

        Pinging Google.com sent an “echo” request to IP address 142.251.33.78. To make sure there is a good connection four packets were sent and returned with 0% loss. Each message was 32-bytes of data, the average time to complete the round trip was 40ms, and the TTL was 92.

         The second ping I sent was to gov.uk, IP address 151.101.192.144. This is the official site for the United Kingdom website. Four packets were and returned with 0% loss. Each message was 32-bytes of data, the average time to complete the round trip was 42ms, and the TTL was 34.

 

        The third ping I sent was to amazon.jp, IP address 99.86.128.253. This Amazon’s website for Japan. Four packets were and returned with 0% loss. Each message was 32-bytes of data, the average time to complete the round trip was 32ms, and the TTL was 230.

Traceroute

        The second part of the interactive assignment was to do a traceroute on “Google.com” and two other websites outside the country.

        The first requirement was to send a traceroute to Google.com. With traceroute, three packets are sent versus four for ping, the results for the round-trip-times (RTTs) are displayed in columns 2, 3, and 4. Column one displays the hops number and column five lists the domain name or IP address. When the “traceroute” command was executed for Google.com, the results showed that it took twenty-eight hops to complete the task, four requests timed out, and on the 23rd hop, only the second RTT was successfully. The average time for each hop was about 42ms.

 

        When the traceroute was executed for gov.uk, the results showed that it took 30 hops to complete the task, six requests timed out, and on the 28th attempt the third hop failed. The average time for each hop was about 44ms. 

        When the traceroute was performed on amazon.jp, the results showed that it took 30 hops to complete the task, four requests timed out. The average time for each hop was about 44ms. Note how the time ranges from a low of 31ms to a high of 73ms and packets. This is mainly because of the longer times are needed for overseas connections.

Reflection Essay on Using Ping and Tracer

        In summary, using the “ping” and “traceroute” commands in the is exercise has helped to learn how devices connect over the internet. I have connected computers and networks in the pass using an RG-45 cable for the connection. Some RG-45 cables have LED lights that show if the connect was good or bad. This made checking the status easy. Using the ping and tracer commands, I now understand more about what’s happening then just looking at LED lights. These commands show what types of packets are being sent, where the packet goes, how long it takes, and how to troubleshoot connection problems.

         Ping checks the status of a connection between the source and destination. It displays the number of packets sent and received back, the time it takes to make the round trip, and returns a blank cursor if no connection was made or the destination has put up a” firewall”. 

        I was able to send pings successfully to three different websites with 0% lost. If a packet is lost, then most likely there was congestion on the network or a hardware failure. The “traceroute” request returned information about the hops needed send three packets from the source to the destination. My computer displayed a list of networks that the traceroute packets passed through, the total number of hops heeded to connect to the destination (the maximum hops was set to not exceed 30), the RTT, and the domain name or IP address for each hop. In performing a traceroute to websites like Google.com, gov.uk, and amazon.jp, I noted that 30 hops are not always needed to make a connection. However, I did get several request timeouts, so multiple attempts are needed to ensure a good connection. It seems that the further from the source, the more timeouts occurred. From the comments I receive in the discussion, most of my classmate experienced the same things I did, such as timing delays in messages going to the same location may vary a little because of other senders trying to connect to the server. And the number of hops will also depend on the fastest available path to get the message thru. If some servers are down, busy, or put up a Firewall, then the request message will search for the next link that is free to receive the message. Sending packets overseas it took more time to complete the RTT and I had more request time outs. If a request is timed out it usually means that the device is turned offline, or a firewall has been put up to block unauthorized access. Analyzing the displayed results, you can see how many hops were made, how long it takes to connect to a website, and if there are issues making the connection. For example, connecting to Google.com it took 28 hops with 5 RTOs, gov.uk it took 30 hops with 6 RTOs, and amazon.jp took 18 hops with 5 RTOs. Connecting to longer distances doe does not mean you will have to use more hops. Connecting to amazon.jp in Japan took less hops than with Google.com, which is thousands of miles closer. With these new tools I can be more effective in troubleshooting network problems on my computer.

References:

TTL (Time To Live) Definition (techterms.com)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/