How to read a traceroute

A traceroute shows the path your data takes from one computer to another, one step at a time, and how long each step takes. It looks cryptic at first, but with a few rules you can use it to see roughly where a delay or a break begins. You can run one with our traceroute tool.

What it does

Every message on the internet carries a counter, called a time to live, that goes down by one each time the message passes through a router. When the counter reaches zero the router discards the message and sends a small error back. Traceroute uses that. It sends messages with a counter of 1, then 2, then 3 and so on, and records which router replies at each step. The result is a list of the routers, called hops, between you and the destination.

Reading the output

Each line is one hop. It normally shows the hop number, the name or address of the router that replied and several times in milliseconds, usually three, because three probes are sent per hop. A typical journey starts with a router in your own home, then your provider’s equipment, then the networks that carry traffic between providers, and finally the destination’s network.

• The first hop is usually your own router. If this one is slow or lossy, the problem is in your home network.
• The next few hops belong to your provider.
• The middle hops belong to larger networks that carry traffic between providers.
• The last hops belong to the destination.

What to look for

The key thing is whether the times stay high from some point onwards.

• If the time jumps at one hop and every later hop is also high, the delay begins at or just before that hop.
• If one hop is high but the hops after it are normal, that router is probably just slow to answer traceroute messages and is not actually causing a delay.
• A gradual increase over several hops is normal. Distance adds time, and a big jump when the route crosses an ocean is expected.

Stars

A line of stars, * * *, means no reply came back for that hop. This is often harmless, because many routers are configured to ignore these probes. It matters only if the stars continue to the end and the destination is never reached. Then something along the route, or at the destination, is blocking or dropping the traffic.

Where the trace stops

• It stops at your first hop or two. Your router or the line to your provider has a problem.
• It stops inside your provider’s network. Report it with the trace attached.
• It stops in the middle of the internet. Often a transient routing issue that fixes itself. Retry in a while.
• It reaches the last hop and then stars. The destination’s network may be dropping or filtering your probes. Many servers deliberately do not answer them, so this does not prove the site is down. Check with the website checker, which tests the real page rather than the probe.

Limits to keep in mind

• Traceroute shows the path to the destination. Return traffic can take a different path, so the picture is incomplete.
• Routes can change from one run to the next, because networks balance traffic across several paths.
• Times at middle hops can be misleading, because routers give these replies low priority.
• A clean traceroute does not prove a website works. A site can answer probes and still return errors to real visitors.

Getting the most from it

1. Run the trace a few times and compare the results, not just one.
2. Run it at a time the problem is happening and again when it is fine.
3. Try both Wi-Fi and a cable if you can.
4. Save the full text, not a screenshot of part of it.
5. If you contact your provider, include the destination, the time and the trace.

Summary

A traceroute is a list of the steps between you and a destination, with the time taken at each step. Look for the point from which times stay high or replies stop, and remember that a single slow or silent hop in the middle is usually normal. It is one clue among several, best combined with our ping test and a check of the site itself.

Related guides

• Latency, packet loss and jitter explained
• How to fix ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
• Is it my Wi-Fi, my router or my internet provider?

Last updated 2 November 2026. Written by the siteupdown.com team. Spotted a mistake?

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