Hands-On Networking: What Ping and Traceroute Taught Me

Before this assignment, I only knew ping and traceroute as networking terms. Running them myself on steampowered.com and google.com revealed how data actually travels.

Ping Results
Steam:

• 0% packet loss
• 26ms average response (fast)

Google:

• 44ms average latency (slower than Steam)

At first I wondered: Why is Steam faster than Google? Traceroute explained it. 

Traceroute Findings
Steam's Route:

• 13 clean hops
• Path: My Spectrum ISP → Akamai servers (Houston)
• No timeouts

Google's Route:

• 10 timeout occurrences mid-route
• Learned from CertMaster: Google hides internal routers for security
• Those * * * timeouts? Normal for protected corporate networks

Key Takeaways

1. Physical distance ≠ faster speed
2. Big companies hide their network paths
3. New troubleshooting skills: 

• High ping? Check local network first
• Timeouts? Could be destination's firewall

Real-World Use

When my game lagged last week, I now know to:

1. Ping game servers to test connection
2. Traceroute if packets drop to find where they fail

Question:

Anyone else trace routes through CDNs like Akamai?