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Ping and Traceroute FAQ
We put together this post to answer common questions and misconceptions about ping and traceroute tests. This post is closed to comments, if you need assistance please make a new post. Make sure to include the symptoms you are experiencing, what troubleshooting you've already completed, and your test results.
What is a ping?
A ping is a network test that sends a small packet of data to a server and measures how long it takes to receive a response. It is useful for diagnosing connection issues such as high latency or packet loss.
What is a traceroute?
A traceroute is a network test that tracks the path data takes to reach a server, pinging each network device along the way. This test can help identify where connection issues, such as high latency or packet loss, originate.
When to run a ping or traceroute test?
When experiencing connection issues such as high latency, packet loss, timeouts, or inability to connect to only certain servers despite other internet activity working normally. A ping test should be run first to identify the problem, then a traceroute to narrow down where the problem is coming from.
How to ping?Windows
Press Windows+R, type cmd, and press enter to open the Command Prompt. Type ping then the IP address or url (eg., ping 8.8.8.8 or ping www.google.com) and press enter. This will send 4 packets of data and measure the time it takes to get a response. You can add -t to your test (eg., ping 8.8.8.8 -t or ping -t 8.8.8.8) which will make it continuously run until you press Ctrl+C to end it.
MacOS
Open Applications > Utilities > Network Utility. Select the Ping tab. Enter the IP address or URL and click Ping. You can choose to send a set number of packets or run a continuous test.
It’s recommended to run a continuous test for at least a few minutes, especially when testing for packet loss or intermittent issues.
How to interpret ping results
Results come in live, each line showing if there was a reply from the server and the time it took measured in milliseconds (ms, 1/1000th of a second, lower is faster). Once the test ends it will give you a summary showing the minimum, maximum, and average of the response times. They are largely impacted by your distance to the server. If the server is in the same region as you a response under 25ms is considered excellent, under 50ms is good, and even up to 100ms is acceptable.
It will also show you how many packets were lost, when the server did not reply at all before the request timed out. Any number of lost packets can be a problem, but one stray lost packet on occasion is normal. You can watch the live results of a continuous ping to see if any dropped packets or ping spikes correlate to the problems experienced.
Servers may block or deprioritize ping requests. A poor ping response does not necessarily mean there is an issue with the servers normal functions. These results are a data point only.
How to traceroute?Windows
Press Windows+R, type cmd, and press enter to open the Command Prompt. Type tracert then the IP address or url (eg., tracert 8.8.8.8 or tracert www.google.com) and press enter.
MacOS
Open Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
Type traceroute then the IP address or url (eg., traceroute 8.8.8.8 or traceroute www.google.com) and press enter.
How to interpret traceroute results
The traceroute will list each network device your data was routed through on its way to the destination server. Each step is numbered and called a “hop”. Each hop is pinged three times, the response times and IP address of the hop are listed on each line. We are looking for a large increase in latency or timeouts that begins at some point and persists all the way through to the destination.
Please note again ping requests may be blocked or deprioritized.
If a high response time or timeout occurs on one hop but not on subsequent hops, it is likely not an issue. This suggests that the hop is deprioritizing ping responses rather than it having a problem. This is very common. It can’t take 1,000ms to get to hop 6 but only 29ms to hop 7. It can’t fail to reach hop 8 and still make it to hop 9. A problem is only significant if it persists all the way to the destination.
If there is an issue on the first few hops which persists, that is an issue at/near your home which calls for further troubleshooting or appointments with a Spectrum technician.
If there is an issue on the last few hops or destination server only, that is an issue on the servers end who you should contact directly for assistance.
If the issue is happening somewhere in the middle, especially hops that still show “charter.com”, and that issue persists all the way to the destination, that may warrant escalation to one of our engineers for investigation.