Question 1

How does traceroute use the IP TTL (Time-To-Live) field?

Accepted Answer

Traceroute sends packets with incremental TTL values starting at 1. Each router along the path decrements the TTL by 1. When TTL reaches 0, the router discards the packet and sends back an ICMP 'Time Exceeded' message, revealing its IP address and latency.

Question 2

Why do some hops show an asterisk (*) in traceroute?

Accepted Answer

An asterisk means the intermediate router or firewall did not return an ICMP response within the timeout window, often due to ICMP rate-limiting or security filtering.

Question 3

How does this traceroute tool operate without a backend server?

Accepted Answer

The tool connects directly to global measurement nodes via the open Globalping API to execute live traceroute probes, with an in-browser DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) fallback engine.

Question 4

Can traceroute identify network routing loops?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If the same router IP address appears repeatedly in subsequent hops, it indicates a BGP or routing loop between nodes.

Visual Traceroute & Route Analyzer

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