Trace the network path to any public IP or hostname from probes around the world. See every router hop, detect where latency is introduced, and diagnose routing issues.
See every router hop from probe to destination with RTT at each step
Runs from the Globalping community probe network, not a single server
Trace any public IP address or resolve a hostname per region
Trace the network path to any host from global probes and see per-hop latency across the internet.
Tracing route — this takes 10–20 seconds...
| # | IP Address | Hostname | RTT |
|---|
* * * means the router at that hop does not respond to traceroute probes — this is normal and does not indicate a problem.
Every IP packet has a TTL (Time to Live) field — a counter that starts at a value like 64 or 128 and decrements by 1 at each router. When TTL reaches 0, the router discards the packet and sends back an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the sender, including its own IP address.
Traceroute exploits this by sending a sequence of probes starting with TTL=1, then TTL=2, TTL=3, and so on. The first router on the path drops TTL=1 and reveals itself. The second router drops TTL=2 and reveals itself. This continues until the probe reaches the destination host, which responds normally.
# Basic traceroute
tracert 8.8.8.8
# Resolve hostnames (slower)
tracert google.com
# No DNS resolution (faster)
tracert -d 8.8.8.8
# Max 30 hops (default)
tracert -h 30 8.8.8.8# Basic traceroute (UDP)
traceroute 8.8.8.8
# ICMP mode (like Windows)
traceroute -I 8.8.8.8
# No DNS resolution
traceroute -n 8.8.8.8
# IPv6 traceroute
traceroute6 2606:4700::1111# Live combined ping+trace
mtr 8.8.8.8
# Report mode (100 packets)
mtr -r -c 100 8.8.8.8
# No DNS, wide display
mtr -n -w 8.8.8.8
# IPv6
mtr -6 2606:4700::1111Traceroute maps the path packets take from a source to a destination by sending probes with incrementally increasing TTL (Time to Live) values. Each router that drops a packet due to TTL=0 sends back an ICMP 'Time Exceeded' message, revealing its IP address and the round-trip time to that hop. The result is a list of all routers (hops) on the path.
Many routers are configured to not respond to traceroute probes for security or performance reasons. They still forward the packets — they just don't send back ICMP Time Exceeded messages. A * * * hop does not mean the path is broken; packets continue past silent routers. Only if all subsequent hops also show * * * would it indicate a real routing problem.
Ping measures the end-to-end round-trip time and packet loss to a single destination. Traceroute reveals every router along the path, showing where delays accumulate. Use ping first to check if a host is reachable and how fast. Use traceroute to find which hop introduces the most latency or where packets stop reaching.
Tracert is the Windows name for the traceroute command. On Linux and macOS the command is 'traceroute'. Both do the same thing but use different default protocols: Windows uses ICMP echo requests, while Linux/macOS use UDP probes by default (though 'traceroute -I' switches to ICMP).
Routers prioritise forwarding traffic over responding to ICMP probes. A router may respond to TTL-expired probes slowly (high RTT at that hop) while still forwarding normal traffic fast. This is called 'ICMP rate limiting'. It does not mean that hop is a bottleneck — look at the RTT trend across multiple hops for a more accurate picture.
RTT should generally increase with each hop as packets travel further. A sudden large increase indicates the hop with the most latency on the path, often a long-distance fibre link (e.g. crossing an ocean adds 100-200 ms). If RTT decreases after a high-RTT hop, the high-RTT hop is rate-limiting its responses, not the actual bottleneck.
Measure latency and packet loss from global probes — start here before traceroute.
Check whether a TCP port is open or filtered on any public host.
Query A, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME and other DNS records for any domain.
Identify the country, city, and ISP behind any IP address.
Simulate routing table lookups and understand longest-prefix matching.
Detect overlapping CIDR prefixes across multiple subnets.