Traveling Through a Network

Hey all!

  This week I learned that when a computer attempts to access the internet, it sends data through packets that contain the destination's address, the size of the data, and the data itself (Vahid & Lysecky, 2017). Vahid and Lyseky (2017) explain that packets communicate through "links" or wires, fiber optic cables, and wireless satellites that connect to other computers. Packets must travel through various paths or computers with I.P. addresses to reach a destination. Computers understand to send the packet to the right place; however, they may follow different directions depending on internet traffic flow (Vahid and Lysecky, 2017).

      Based on the assignment results, the number of hops needed to trace google.com (U.S.) was 12 hops, significantly lower than the hops required to reach amazon.co.jp (Japan) at 30 pings. However, the hops needed to get to news.com.au (Europe) was also 12 hops, the same required to reach Google.

      When looking round trip time in tracing, it took 40ms to reach google.com, while news.com.au took a total of 99ms roundtrip. Despite having the same number of hops in networks, accessing google.com was significantly quicker than accessing news.com.au. Unfortunately, the round trip time to reach amazon.co.jp was unsuccessful at 325ms. There are many reasons why the tracing might have been unsuccessful, including high traffic levels and longer server response time (Vahid and Lysecky, 2017). Although I attempted to restart the tracing several times, the connection to amazon.co.jp remained unsuccessful.

      It is confusing why the tracing was nearly the same for google.com (U.S.) and news.com.au (Europe) but significantly different from amazon.co.jp. Based on the results, the time needed to reach a destination in Europe nearly doubled the time it took to access a U.S. site. Another conclusion is that the number of network hops required to reach a network destination does not depend solely on the distance of the server but also on internet congestion. When there is a higher amount of people accessing the same server, the round trip time increases.

      Ping and traceroute commands are used to troubleshot internet connection problems by determining if a host is available and testing its packet destination. If there is a problem reaching a network destination, users can use the traceroute command to learn what is causing the network issue. Knowing exactly where the problem persists helps users determine the best course of action when troubleshooting the issue. An example where a ping request might take time out is when firewall protection blocks the connectivity for safety reasons. A traceroute command might return an error response and fail connectivity because a router or network rejects the packets sent. I provided the results of the pings and traceroutes of the websites below.

Ping Activity:

Google (U.S.)

 

1.Ping to google.com

2.Pinging to com [2607: f8b0:4007:813: :200e]

3.Reply from 2607: f8b0:4007:813: :200e: time=24ms

   Reply from 2607: f8b0:4007:813: :200e: time=18ms

   Reply from 2607: f8b0:4007:813: :200e: time=14ms

   Reply from 2607: f8b0:4007:813: :200e: time=15ms

4.Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

5.Round trip: Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 24ms, Average =17ms     

Amazon (Japan)

1.Ping to amazon.co.jp

2.Pinging to amazon.co.jp [52.119.167.121]

3.Reply from 52.119.167.121: bytes = 32 time=43ms TTL=221

   Reply from 52.119.167.121: bytes = 32 time=41ms TTL=221

   Reply from 52.119.167.121: bytes = 32 time=41ms TTL=221

   Reply from 52.119.167.121: bytes = 32 time=42ms TTL=221

4.Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

5.Round trip: Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 43ms, Average = 41ms

 

ABC News (Europe)

 

1.Ping to news.com.au

2.Pinging to com.au [96.7.212.111]

3.Reply from 96.7.212.111: bytes=32 time=20ms TTL=53

   Reply from 96.7.212.111: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=53

   Reply from 96.7.212.111: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=53

   Reply from 96.7.212.111: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=53

4.Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss)

5.Round trip: Minimum = 18ms, Maximum = 24ms, Average = 20ms

 

Traceroute:

Google (USA)

1.Tracert to google.com

2.Tracing route to google.com [2607: f8b0:4007:816: :200e]

3.Number of hops: 12

4.Round Trip Time: 1ms-40ms

5.Trace: Completed

Amazon (Japan)

1.Tracert to amazon.co.jp

2.Tracing route to amazon.co.jp [52.119161.5]

3.Number of hops: 30

4.Round Trip Time: 1ms to 325ms

5.Trace: Not complete

 

ABC News (Europe)

1.Tracert to news.com.au

2.Tracing route to news.com.au

3.Number of hops: 12

4.Round Trip Time: 1ms-99ms

5.Trace: Complete