Question 1

What is traceroute?

Accepted Answer

Traceroute shows the path packets take from a source to a destination. Each hop is a router. It helps identify where latency or packet loss occurs and diagnose routing issues.

Question 2

Why does traceroute take so long?

Accepted Answer

Traceroute sends packets with increasing TTL. Each hop responds with "time exceeded." The test runs from a remote probe (Globalping network), so results reflect the path from that probe to your target, not from your device.

Question 3

What do asterisks (*) mean?

Accepted Answer

Asterisks indicate a hop did not respond. Some routers block or rate-limit traceroute responses for security. This is normal and does not always mean a problem.

Question 4

Why is the path different from my location?

Accepted Answer

This tool runs traceroute from Globalping probes worldwide. The path shown is from the probe to the target, not from your computer. For your local path, run traceroute from your terminal.

TracerouteTrace Network Path to Any Host

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