Microsoft DOS tracert command

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About tracert
Availability
Syntax
Examples

About tracert

The tracert command is used to visually see a network packet being sent and received and the amount of hops required for that packet to get to its destination.

Users with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP who need additional information network latency and network loss should also consider using the pathping command.

Availability

The tracert.exe command is an external command that is available in the below Microsoft operating systems.

MS-DOS 6.2
Windows 95
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows NT
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows Vista
Windows 7

Syntax

tracert[-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host-list] [-w timeout] target_name

Options:

-dDo not resolve addresses to hostnames.
-h maximum_hopsMaximum number of hops to search for target.
-j host-listLoose source route along host-list.
-w timeoutWait timeout milliseconds for each reply.

Examples

Below is an example when we used tracert on www.computerhope.com. As you can see in the below example, we had a very short list and time to get to its destination because of the location we are.

tracert computerhope.com

1169 ms190 ms160 msslc1-tc.xmission.com [166.70.1.20]
2159 ms160 ms190 mscisco0-tc.xmission.com [166.70.1.1]
3165 ms189 ms159 mswww.computerhope.com [166.70.10.23]