PING and Traceroute Test

 

When I run ping tests, I prefer to run rapid tests over the conventional plain ping test. The rapid command makes the test send a total of 5 packets every test. Compared to a traditional plain ping test, it will send packets continuously until the user stops the test manually. 

Being in Arizona, the ping tests to Google and Cloud Flame in California were around 20-33 milliseconds round-trip. Tokyo, Japan, was an average of 135 milliseconds, and Perth, Australia, was 166 milliseconds round-trip. Respectively, the traceroutes to California had seven hops, whereas Japan and Australia had eleven hops. Your geographical position outlines a significant role in connectivity. This is why servers for major corporations are strategically located in several parts of the world. This placement accommodates faster connection speeds as data does not need to travel thousands of miles. Network topologies also play a role in these turnaround times, such as who your internet company is and their contracted local loops. 

Ping tests are something I use every day for my current position. As a NOC Tech, when companies call in to report a down circuit, my first step is to see if I can ping the routers on site. Another form of troubleshooting is if I can get to the router on site. I then log in to the router to see if I can ping out to the internet (i.e., Google) or ping my equipment in the data center from the customer premise. 

Traceroutes are used to determine how long it takes for data to get somewhere and if it’s possible to route data differently. We use this at work to determine if VPN tunnels and BGP routings are working correctly and other products of a similar nature. 

Something that can cause these tests to fail will be if ICMP is blocked, which is a command to tell routers or servers not to waste time responding to pings or traceroutes outside designated IP blocks. Another reason would be congestion and the router being physically off. These causes would be a reason for the tests to give errors or time out, indicating a failed test. Below are some results from the tests I conducted. 

Google DNS Server in California

ping 8.8.8.8 -c 5   

PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=0 ttl=117 time=18.421 ms

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=32.516 ms

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=13.864 ms

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=15.049 ms

64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=102.479 ms

--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---

5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 13.864/36.466/102.479/33.670 ms

traceroute 8.8.8.8       

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets

 1  modem (192.168.0.1)  12.284 ms  6.002 ms  4.869 ms

 2  tcso-dsl-gw26.tcso.qwest.net (75.160.240.26)  23.943 ms  4.928 ms  7.125 ms

 3  tcso-agw1.inet.qwest.net (75.160.241.201)  6.108 ms  44.087 ms  6.630 ms

 4  4.68.73.122 (4.68.73.122)  9.697 ms  9.248 ms  8.357 ms

 5  74.125.32.26 (74.125.32.26)  9.552 ms  9.993 ms  8.796 ms

 6  192.178.111.55 (192.178.111.55)  22.831 ms

    192.178.107.155 (192.178.107.155)  37.442 ms

    192.178.107.119 (192.178.107.119)  15.285 ms

 7  142.251.255.91 (142.251.255.91)  31.213 ms

    108.170.236.3 (108.170.236.3)  8.543 ms

    142.251.255.91 (142.251.255.91)  48.026 ms

8  DNS. google (8.8.8.8)  9.790 ms  34.727 ms  12.980 ms

TOKYO, JAPAN DNS Server

ping 150.31.249.103 -c 5

PING 150.31.249.103 (150.31.249.103): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 150.31.249.103: icmp_seq=0 ttl=245 time=140.057 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1

64 bytes from 150.31.249.103: icmp_seq=2 ttl=245 time=133.251 ms

64 bytes from 150.31.249.103: icmp_seq=3 ttl=245 time=139.361 ms

64 bytes from 150.31.249.103: icmp_seq=4 ttl=245 time=128.011 ms

--- 150.31.249.103 ping statistics ---

5 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 20.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 128.011/135.170/140.057/4.909 ms

traceroute 150.31.249.103

traceroute to 150.31.249.103 (150.31.249.103), 64 hops max, 40-byte packets

 1  modem (192.168.0.1)  12.508 ms  13.397 ms  36.765 ms

 2  tcso-dsl-gw26.tcso.qwest.net (75.160.240.26)  11.246 ms  17.653 ms  7.004 ms

 3  tcso-agw1.inet.qwest.net (75.160.241.201)  6.041 ms  6.086 ms  54.453 ms

 4  4.68.73.122 (4.68.73.122)  8.797 ms  8.419 ms  11.162 ms

 5  ae3.15.edge2.losangeles9.level3.net (4.69.153.133)  19.341 ms  18.338 ms  15.929 ms

 6  4.68.68.154 (4.68.68.154)  53.480 ms  20.049 ms  59.473 ms

 7  tky001bb00.iij.net (58.138.88.145)  125.564 ms  123.525 ms  165.477 ms

 8  tky001lip30.iij.net (210.138.115.210)  123.945 ms  127.574 ms  124.527 ms

 9  tokyo10-ntteast0.flets.2iij.net (160.13.162.2)  123.431 ms  124.809 ms  125.447 ms

10  tokyo10-n402.flets.2iij.net (210.148.159.82)  124.963 ms  125.631 ms  135.103 ms

11  103.249.31.150.bn.2iij.net (150.31.249.103)  128.960 ms  127.232 ms *