If you’re curious about how data on the internet tracks from your computer to where it needs to go, specifically if you’re having trouble connecting to a specific website, you can run a traceroute. A traceroute, which you can initiate from any Mac, like a MacBook Pro M3 or even an older model, is simple to do. It can help you determine what might be causing a slowdown or preventing you from accessing a website altogether.
What is a traceroute, and how does it work?
This computer diagnostic tool shows the path taken from your local computer to a specific destination, like a website. It sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) packets to every router involved in the transfer process. Using this can help you locate any points of failure within the path and what routing hops are taken.
How is a traceroute different from a ping?
A ping only tells you if a specific server is reachable and how long it takes to transmit and receive data without showing all the steps and hops required to get there. With traceroute, you can see the specific route, each router it passes, and how long it takes between each hop. Here’s how to do it.
How to run a traceroute on a Mac
- Open the Finder window and the Applications folder on your Mac.
- Open the Utilities folder.
- Open the Terminal app.
- Type “traceroute” followed by a space and the website or IP address you want to test (without the “www” at the beginning of the URL.)
- Hit Enter and wait. The process can take up to a few minutes.
- A series of IP addresses and a time in milliseconds beside each will appear in a list. The list ends when you see the name of your computer.
How to interpret the results of a traceroute
The traceroute feature used on all Mac models running older and newer software like macOS Sonoma will show several lines of information. Each one represents a different hop made en route to your destination website. You’ll see them either as an IP address or a hostname. It begins with the router closest to your computer (the router in your own home) and ends at the last destination point.After each line, there will be a time in milliseconds the computer took to get to that point and receive a successful reply. If you see asterisks listed under certain steps, the program didn’t receive a response from the router at that point (or hop) and timed out. This could be because the website blocked the packet with a firewall or was set up to discard them versus sending a reply. If the router is busy, it might also prioritize responding to standard data packets versus replying to your request for a traceroute. But it could also point to an issue in the chain with a router that isn’t responding.If you notice many steps and hops between your computer to the destination, if the request times out, or if the number of milliseconds to get to your final destination is high, you can infer that there might be an issue and can take the necessary steps from there.
Traceroute is a useful feature
Being able to run a traceroute at any time is useful, especially for travelers who want to figure out why there’s a slowdown in connecting to a specific site. You might need to take additional steps once you recognize where the particular issue lies, if there is one related to the travel path from your computer to a destination. But running a traceroute from your Mac is a good first step in troubleshooting connectivity issues with a particular website or from a specific location.