Trace Results

First of all there are various panes available that show different data, these panes can be switched off and on using the views section in the toolbar for a particular traceroute, as shown below.

The different panes include:

Analysis
World Map
Route Graph
Table
Traceroute Ping Plot (Advanced edition and above)
History
OmniPath

For more information on using the various options available to you click here.

Below is an example of a completed traceroute and a close up of each pane.

The five numbered panes shown above are explained in more detail below:

1. Analysis Pane

The analysis pane will analyze the test that has just been performed. The analysis will give an indicator as to how the route performed and how long the route took, pin pointing hops that performed below average.

2. OmniPath

The OmniPath^TM feature works in a different way to the regular traceroute performed by VisualRoute. The route in blue, as shown in the image below, shows you the route from your machine to the end location, along with alternate routes that maybe taken to get to the same location. For more information click here.

3. Traceroute Ping Plot Pane (advanced edition and above only)

The traceroute ping plot pane plots the response times for each hop at each stage of the traceroute.

As you can see in the image above each hop has its own line on the graph. If you mouse over a point on the line a pop will show you the hop number, the response time and the ping time. The default pings per hop is 5 (set in preferences --> Advanced tab) so there are 5 different values for each hop in the example above. If you change this value then you will get more values etc. For more information on this feature click here.

4. History Pane

The history pane summarizes every traceroute you have done to a specific IP address/domain. As you can see above they are sorted by the most recent and displays the number of hops, the max and end loss and the max and end ms. This view can be useful if you want to pin point a specific time of day/week when a problem occurs or just want to monitor a specific route for anomalies etc.

5. Map Pane

The map pane shows the route the traceroute has taken on a world map. Right clicking and left clicking will allow you to zoom in and out of the map.

6. Table Pane

The table pane, as shown above, gives you various information for the different hops in the traceroute. Node names and network names can be clicked on to view Whois information.

7. Route Graph Pane

The route graph pane shows you the traceroute based on the round trip time of each hop. You can get more information on each hop by hovering the mouse cursor over a hop. Doing this will cause a pop up to appear, as shown above. This pop up will give you more in depth information for that hop.

What is TTL?

TTL stands for Time To Live. All IP packets have a TTL field and as IP packets get passed around the Internet, this TTL value is decreased, usually by one at every hop. If this field ever gets down to zero, the IP packet is discarded and does not reach its destination.