Task: Traceroute to curtin.edu.au. Cut and past the entire list of ‘hops from there to Curtin. How many ‘hops’ are there? What is the average time in milliseconds from the tools site to the Curtin server?
Log entry: Using the online traceroute tool at http://hexillion.com [70.84.211.98], I did a traceroute to curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.53]…
|
hop |
rtt |
rtt |
rtt |
ip address | domain name |
|
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
70.84.211.97 | 61.d3.5446.static.theplanet.com |
|
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
70.84.160.162 | vl2.dsr02.dllstx5.theplanet.com |
|
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
70.85.127.109 | po52.dsr02.dllstx3.theplanet.com |
|
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
70.87.253.21 | et3-1.ibr03.dllstx3.theplanet.com |
|
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
157.238.225.5 | xe-4-4.r03.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net |
|
6 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
129.250.2.153 | ae-2.r20.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net |
|
7 |
* |
* |
* |
|
8 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
129.250.3.25 | ae-0.r21.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net |
|
9 |
49 |
49 |
49 |
129.250.3.121 | as-1.r21.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net |
|
10 |
49 |
49 |
49 |
129.250.5.90 | xe-0-1-0.r03.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net |
|
11 |
50 |
50 |
50 |
198.172.90.102 | p4-1-1-0.r03.lsanca03.us.ce.gin.ntt.net |
|
12 |
195 |
195 |
200 |
202.158.194.157 | so-3-3-1.bb1.b.syd.aarnet.net.au |
|
13 |
207 |
211 |
211 |
202.158.194.33 | so-2-0-0.bb1.a.mel.aarnet.net.au |
|
14 |
220 |
220 |
220 |
202.158.194.17 | so-2-0-0.bb1.a.adl.aarnet.net.au |
|
15 |
244 |
249 |
247 |
202.158.194.5 | so-0-1-0.bb1.a.per.aarnet.net.au |
|
16 |
244 |
249 |
247 |
202.158.198.178 | gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au |
|
17 |
244 |
248 |
244 |
202.158.198.186 | gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au |
|
18 |
244 |
244 |
247 |
134.7.16.46 |
|
19 |
244 |
247 |
247 |
134.7.248.65 | te1-1.b309-sr.net.curtin.edu.au |
|
20 |
247 |
250 |
249 |
134.7.179.53 |
There were 20 hops in total, and the average time from the tools site to the Curtin site was 248 milliseconds.
I also did a visual traceroute to curtin.edu.au using WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.
Visual Traceroute Results
Tracing route to 134.7.179.53
| Hop | Time | Host | IP | Location |
| 1 | 10.44 | wsip-70-183-59-1.oc.oc.cox.net | 70.183.59.1 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 2 | 74.479 | rsmtdsrc02-gew03020996.rd.oc.cox.net | 68.4.15.5 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 3 | 10.537 | wsip-64-58-132-114.oc.oc.cox.net | 64.58.132.114 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 4 | 11.537 | wsip-64-58-132-101.oc.oc.cox.net | 64.58.132.101 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 5 | 9.052 | ip68-4-13-241.oc.oc.cox.net | 68.4.13.241 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 6 | 9.28 | rsmtdsrj01-ge600.0.rd.oc.cox.net | 68.4.14.253 | Irvine, CA, United States |
| 7 | 23.279 | paltbbrj01-so000.0.r2.pt.cox.net | 68.1.0.199 | Mission Viejo, CA, United States |
| 8 | 26.532 | so-1-0-0.0-sjbr2.global-gateway.net.nz | 203.96.120.217 | , , New Zealand |
| 9 | 36.437 | so6-0-1.labr5.global-gateway.net.nz | 202.50.232.90 | Auckland, 00, New Zealand |
| 10 | 185.703 | so1-1-2.sybr5.global-gateway.net.nz | 202.50.232.74 | Auckland, 00, New Zealand |
| 11 | 184.158 | so-4-1-0.cre1.hay.connect.com.au | 202.10.4.93 | , , Australia |
| 12 | 195.851 | as0.cre1.syd.connect.com.au | 202.10.0.58 | , , Australia |
| 13 | 236.522 | as3.cre1.per.connect.com.au | 202.10.0.53 | , , Australia |
| 14 | 240.693 | so-0-0-0.dst1.per.connect.com.au | 202.10.0.160 | , , Australia |
| 15 | 228.39 | gigabitethernet0-1.cor1.per.connect.com.au | 203.63.171.19 | Perth, 08, Australia |
| 16 | 235.183 | DAMC140915-1.gw.connect.com.au | 210.9.196.33 | Perth, 08, Australia |
| 17 | 233.831 | gigabitethernet0-1.cor1.per.connect.com.au | 203.63.171.19 | Perth, 08, Australia |
| 18 | 229.086 | 203.161.115.6.static.amnet.net.au | 203.161.115.6 | Perth, 08, Australia |
| 19 | 237.52 | ge1-3.cr01.wa.amnet.net.au | 203.161.64.14 | Perth, 08, Australia |
| 20 | 228.882 | 134.7.16.46 | 134.7.16.46 | , , Australia |
| 21 | N/A | 134.7.179.53 | 134.7.179.53 | Perth, , Australia |
This exercise was useful to show the various steps that packets of information need to make to get to the target URL. In this case, it shows that about half of the steps were in Australia. This has implications for broader internet policy and use - for example, if users are sourcing their Internet content from international sources, the time taken will be higher, albeit marginally in some cases.
Task: Download an internet tools client. Ping the webct site and compare the time with the time taken to ping from the net tools site.
Log entry: I downloaded the A-ToolBar and used this to ping the webct site. This pings took 68-70 milliseconds, compared to 216-218 milliseconds from the Network tools site. The latter probably took longer because the webct server is located in Australia – so it didn’t need to be routed through as many sites.
Task: Traceroute from your computer to curtin.edu.au. Compare the number of hops with the earlier traceroute.
Log entry: I used the A-toolbar to Traceroute to curtin.edu.au. It took 14 hops, and 78 ms. Compared to the earlier traceroutes, it took less hops and was quicker than from the net tools site. Again, this is probably because both the webct and my server are located in Australia – so it didn’t need to be routed through as many sites/servers. One observation is that if I click on ‘resolve IP address’, it seems to take a lot longer, although the outcome recorded in the traceroute is similar. Seeing the word-based IP address is useful, as it help give a better idea of the path the trace takes.
