How do you use extended traceroute?

Author: David Davis

Just as you can use the extended ping command to determine what kind of connectivity problems you’re having, you can use the extended traceroute command to narrow down where the problem is happening. The basic traceroute command tests for the same thing as ping, but its benefit is that it lists the routers at each hop of the route to the destination. Extended traceroute goes much further, allowing you to tweak how it works.

Here is an example:

Router# traceroute 1.1.1.1

Source address: 2.2.2.2

Numeric display [n]:

Timeout in seconds [4]:

Probe count [3]:

Minimum Time to Live [1]:

Maximum Time to Live [30]:

Port Number [33434]:

Loose, Strict, Record, Timestamp, Verbose[none]:

Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to 1.1.1.1

  1 3.3.3.1 16 msec 16 msec 16 msec

  2 3.3.3.2 28 msec 28 msec 32 msec

  3 2.2.2.2 32 msec 28 msec *

For more information on extended route, please see Cisco’s documentation “Using the Extended Ping and Extended Traceroute Commands.”

For more information on these commands, also see my TechRepublic article “Implement Regular Monitoring and Improve Cisco Router Performance.”