question on traceroute

[sandra]

hey folks  ,

I've tried traceroutes (http://www.traceroute.org/) and I keep getting lots of asterisks...

Does this mean that those "trace-servers" that I chose do not reach me?

why is that?

[dahlarbear]

1.  Tracert Asterisk(s).  The "asterisk" indicates a "request timed out".  Either a firewall is blocking the request (and/or response) or the site is unreachable (a link failure).

The link you gave is for a remote site to attempt "traceroute" to you.  Normally you would request "tracert" to them.  I guess you could compare the two outputs to see where the "problem" lies.

Windows operating system(s) uses "tracert" or "pathping".  Unix-like operating systems use "traceroute".

2.  Reference(s):
     a.  Troubleshooting Connectivity Problems on Windows Networks (Part 5) - Brien M. Posey
     b.  Using Tracert - Robert J. Shimonski
     c.  Using Pathping - Robert J. Shimonski
     d.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracert