Traveling Through a Network

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I used the ping and traceroute commands to see how data travels across the internet. These tools helped me understand how long it takes for information to move between my computer and websites in different parts of the world.

When I pinged Google.com, all four packets were sent and received with no loss. The times were between 28 ms and 65 ms, with an average of 39 ms. This showed that Google’s servers are quick and easy to reach. But when I pinged Yahoo Australia (au.yahoo.comLinks to an external site.), all four requests failed. This means either the server blocks ping requests or there’s a network problem somewhere in the path.

Next, I used the traceroute command to trace the path the data took to each website. For Google, it only took 8 hops to reach the server, and the times were pretty fast. For Yahoo Australia, it took more hops, and many of them timed out. Even though it eventually reached the website, the many “Request timed out” messages showed that some servers along the way don’t respond, which is common for security reasons.

This activity showed me that distance can affect how fast data travels, and also that some websites may have stricter settings that block ping or traceroute. These tools are helpful for figuring out why a website might not load, or where the problem is along the way.

Two reasons a ping or traceroute might fail are: (1) a firewall or server is blocking the request, and (2) there is too much traffic or a problem on the network. Overall, I learned a lot about how the internet works behind the scenes and how to check for problems.

 

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