Windows Tracert Network Path Diagnostic Guide

Windows Tracert Network Path Diagnostic Guide | Generated by AI

Home 2025.09

On Windows, tracert (short for trace route) is a diagnostic command-line tool used to trace the path that packets take from your computer to a destination host (like a website or IP address). It’s mainly used to identify where delays or connection problems occur in a network route.

Here’s how it works step by step:

1. ICMP Echo Requests with Incremental TTL

tracert sends ICMP Echo Request packets (similar to ping).
It manipulates the Time-To-Live (TTL) field in the IP header.
TTL starts at 1, then increases (2, 3, 4, …) with each probe.

2. TTL Expiry and “Time Exceeded” Responses

When a router receives a packet, it decrements TTL by 1.
If TTL reaches 0, the router discards the packet and returns an ICMP Time Exceeded message to the sender.
This lets tracert know the identity (IP/hostname) of that router.

3. Building the Route

For TTL = 1, you see the first hop (your default gateway).
For TTL = 2, you see the next router, and so on.
This continues until:
- The destination host responds with an ICMP Echo Reply, or
- The maximum hop limit (default 30) is reached.

4. Measuring Latency

tracert sends three probes per hop (by default).
It shows the round-trip time (RTT) in milliseconds for each probe.
If a router does not respond, you’ll see * instead of a time.

5. Example Output

Tracing route to example.com [93.184.216.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms    <1 ms     1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2    10 ms     9 ms    11 ms  isp-gateway.example.net [203.0.113.1]
  3    25 ms    23 ms    24 ms  core-router.example.net [198.51.100.1]
  ...
  8    45 ms    46 ms    47 ms  example.com [93.184.216.34]

6. Notes on Behavior

Some routers may block or deprioritize ICMP responses, causing * * *.
tracert in Windows uses ICMP Echo Requests, whereas traceroute on Linux/Unix often uses UDP probes (though it can be changed).
Firewalls or ISP filtering can sometimes hide parts of the route.

👉 Do you want me to also explain how to interpret cases like * * * or large delays in a tracert result, so you can use it for real troubleshooting?

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