What is a traceroute?
A request doesn’t travel to your server in one jump. It is passed from router to router: out of one network, across one or more carriers, and into the network where your server lives. Each router on the way is called a hop.
A traceroute lists those hops in order, with the time each one took to answer. It shows which networks a request crosses, how many steps the journey has, and roughly where the time is spent.
How this test works
We trace the route from our server’s side to the server behind the address you enter. Our own server isn’t allowed to trace routes, so a test server close to it does: one that belongs to Globalping, an open measurement network.
It sends packets that are allowed to pass one router, then two, then three, and so on. The router where a packet runs out answers back, and that is how each hop is found. The time shown for a hop is the average of the answers from that router.
The report shows the hops in order, how many there are, and the time to the last one that answered.
Two methods
The classic method uses ICMP, the same kind of packet as ping. Many servers and firewalls don’t answer it, so a route can seem to stop before the server. The other method uses TCP to the port your site is served on, which is what a browser uses, and gets through more firewalls. If the classic method doesn’t reach your server, try TCP.
How to read the result
Times normally rise from hop to hop, since each router is further away. A hop marked “no reply” is a router set up not to answer; it still passes traffic on, and it is not a fault. A single hop with a high time is not a fault either if the hops after it are fast again: routers often answer these packets slowly on purpose while forwarding real traffic at full speed.
What does matter is a rise that stays: if the time jumps at one hop and every later hop is at least that slow, the delay is real and starts there. Long distances show up this way, for example where a route crosses an ocean.
For the time to the server we use Seokla’s own guide, the same as in our Round Trip Time test: up to 100 ms is short and over 200 ms is long. There is no official limit, and distance alone accounts for much of the time.
What this test can’t tell you
This is one route, from one starting point. The route from your visitors will be different, and so will its length. A traceroute also shows the way there, not the way back, and the two often differ. Networks change routes all the time, so a second run can show other hops.
If your site is behind a CDN such as Cloudflare, the route ends at the CDN’s nearest location, not at your own server. It tells you nothing about the path from the CDN to your server.
The measurement network has an hourly limit. If no route comes back, try again later.