Ping and traceroute demonstration

Skills: Use Ping and Traceroute and Query the Whois database

IT concepts: network transit time, router hops, IP registration database, the Internet as a network of networks, backbone network

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Network connection and display characteristics

• Internet concepts– Applications– Technology (connectivity)– Implications for

• Individuals• Organizations• Society

• Internet skills– Application development – Content creation

• Text• Images• Audio• Video

Ping and traceroute

• Ping– measure the time for a packet to travel to a

remote host and back– The server sends back an acknowledgment

when the packet arrives

• Traceroute– list the router hops between the client host

and a remote host.– The IP address and domain name (if there is

one) of each router is returned to the client

Ping clients

• Windows comes with a Ping client• It has a command line interface, not a

graphical user interface• It is run from a DOS command line

window

For more on command line versus graphical user interfaces see:http://bpastudio.csudh.edu/fac/lpress//471/hout/misc/guivcli.htm

Open a command line window

Start > Run

Command line prompt (>) with a blinking cursor

DOS is ready for an operating system command or execution of a program – type the command or program name

The prompt shows the current directory

Ping command line

Program name

Remote host domain name

Ping results

1

3

4

2

1. The command to ping www.pepperdine.edu four times

2. The replies took between 36 and 38 milliseconds

3. No packets were lost

4. The average ping time was 37 milliseconds

Prefixes for small quantities

Prefix Meaning Fraction

Deci One tenth 1/10

Centi One hundredth 1/100

Milli One thousandth 1/1,000

Micro One millionth 1/1,000,000

Nano One billionth 1/1,000,000,000

Pico One trillionth 1/1,000,000,000,000

After these prefixes come femto, atto, zepto, and yocto, each 1,000 times smaller than the previous.

A windows Ping client

Traceroute command line

Program name

Remote host domain name

Note the abbreviated program name tracert – early DOS was limited to 8-character file names.

Traceroute results

Hop 1: my home LAN routerHops 2-7: Verizon (my ISP) networkHops 8-10: the Yahoo LAN

How do I know the IP address 130.81.17.229 and 130.81.14.98

belong to Verizon?

Query the Whois database for the owner of 130.81.x.x

OrgName:    Verizon Internet Services Inc. OrgID:      VRISAddress:    1880 Campus Commons DrCity:       RestonStateProv:  VAPostalCode: 20191Country:    USNetRange:   130.81.0.0 - 130.81.255.255 

http://www.dnstools.com

A longer route

Hop 1: my home LAN routerHops 2-4: Verizon (my ISP) network (a backbone ISP)Hops 5-6: Alternet (a backbone ISP)Hops 7-11: Level 3 (a backbone ISP)Hops 12-14: the Google LAN

Request timed out

This message indicates that the router security settings keep it from revealing its identity or the router and connection are slow.