Cisco® Router Configuration & Troubleshooting, Second Edition

Using Ping and Traceroute in the Internet

Effective troubleshooting cannot be accomplished without a good understanding of the tools used to diagnose problems. Many Network Operators use ping and traceroute to diagnose network-related problems. The problem that grows greater by the day is that the users of these tools do not clearly understand how the tools work and are therefore mislead at times by their responses. Ping and traceroute are discussed in depth in Chapter 12,"Tools of the Trade."

One of the hard things for Network Operators to understand when using ping and traceroute is that as more and more companies become multi-homed (connected to two or more exit points) for redundancy, the number of possible paths to and from a destination ...