There are different tools available to help in the configuration and troubleshooting of networks. TRACERT and Ping are two of them. This assignment will be discussing troubleshooting procedures of both. These two tools of troubleshooting are among the most popular and can be used on Windows as well as other platforms. They are very simple to use and give out a lot of output but very little input.
TRACERT decides the route by sending the first echo packet with a TTL of 1 and incrementing the TTL by 1 on each subsequent transmission until the target replies or the full TTL is reached. The TRACERT command determines where a packet stopped on the network. Default gateway found there was not a valid path for the host. Could possibly have a configuration problem with the router or network where several paths can be taken to arrive at the same place, or where several intermediate systems which can include a router or bride can be involved. Time Exceeded message is a command that is used by the TRACERT along with IP TTL field letting it be known that each router has a successive router in a route. A Port Unreachable message is a message that the traceroute command that the complete route has been found, and the command can quit. In conclusion of the TRACERT command, this tool is much better because it determines if the route works, and it can supply the IP address of each router in the route.
Ping allows computers to talk between each other’s and this helps narrow down the cause of the problem that is occurring. Ping lets the programmer know whether or not a destination host can be accessible. A packet is sent out onto a network in hopes of getting a response back. If an answer is replied then the host can be reached but if no answer then a problem has happened. Configuration of ping command is normally done by a professional responsible for the internal network like firewall. It can also be used to tell if routers, switches, and hubs have connectivity. Some of the troubleshooting ping commands are as follows: -l Size lets the programmer regulate the size of the packet which default size is 32 bytes, /? Allows the computer operator to ask for help, and -w Timeout lets the timeout be adjusted and the default is four second timeout; there are many more commands but for time sake could not be listed in this paper. In conclusion of ping command, it supplies to the computer tech many creative ways to use Echo Requests and Replies.
ICMP Redirect is a device for routers to convey routing information to hosts saying an error has occurred. Redirects are used when a router thinks that a packet is being routed sub optimally, and it would like to update the sending host that it should forward succeeding packets to that same destination using a different gateway. It tells the host to do an update of the routing information. “Redirects are most often used in source routing environments where the source host calculates routing paths to all destinations itself. - See more at: http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/internet/icmp/redirect.shtml#sthash.UfbiL9kN.dpuf” (InetDaemon, ICMP Redirect, 03-Apr-2013, retrieved from http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/internet/icmp/redirect.shtml).