Traceroute from http://www.colocationamerica.com/ to your web browser at 38.107.179.206 (host with no DNS entry)

How to use Traceroute

Performing a traceroute will give you a detailed look of the route a packet will take as it travel from one network system to another. Colocation America provides this traceroute page to show the connectivity of its dedicated servers to other networks. Type in any website address (ex. www.colocationamerica.com, no need for http://) or IP address to get a list of all the connection points in between, along with 3 round trip times (RTTs) to determine latency. This list shows how our servers connect to the Internet by listing all the "hops" it will take for a packet to get from one point to another before reaching a final destination. Traceroute is useful for identifying where potential connection problems exist or giving you insight into where a connection speed starts to drop if you are having latency issues.

Seeing how our servers connect to other websites will give you a good idea of the connectivity we have to offer. Having a dedicated hosting server in our data center lets you take full advantage of our vast ISP networks, peering contracts with other ISPs, and our MMR which connects our data center clients with each other. We provide a way for your server to get a better connection by limiting the "hops" it takes to connect to another network. With such network redundancies, we offer superior connectivity with direct connections to top networks that can limit the latency and potential connection problems. Check out our managed services, co-location and dedicated servers plans and to see how a premier colocation provider can help you.

Reading the Results

After you click send, you will see the name of the target system, its IP address, the number of hops that is allowed (usually 30), and the packet size. Directly below is a list of all the "hops" or point of presence (POP) that the packet goes through as it makes its way to the target system. These POP are listed with their name, IP address, and 3 RTTs. These RTTs shows how long it took the packet to reach the point and back and is measured in milliseconds. Sometimes a point will not have all 3 RTTs listed but only have 1 with the other 2 space occupied with an asterisk (*) instead. This is normal and does not mean the connection timed out. However, if there is no name or IP address and just three asterisk (* * *) then the connection might have timed out or there is something blocking the packet from reaching that point.

The results can also reveal potential peering issues that might arise. If the target system the packet is being sent to is in the United States but one of the point of presence is in Europe then that leaves room for a high RTT. This is because the packet will have to travel to Europe and then back to the US to complete its connection. Latency issues will occur but can be solved or mitigated with proper peering. Although there are other issues to consider before deciding if peering is the right solution.