Alright BID people out there- What's a trace route?

[daveleau]

I just got hit with a trace route. i read about it on the netice page. But why would anyone want to traceroute me from Canada? This IP is from Alberta Canada! Wierd!

[smokin1]

A trace route checks an ip and it's source..
there are a number of ways to do it. Here is
a site that will give you an idea http://network-tools.com/5/

[daveleau]

Good site. Thanks Smokin1.
Dave

[chipbgt]

SWEET site. that is cool.

[desmocat]

Whats up peeps, new to the board, but have been coming here for a while,cool site..
another cool tool is VisualRoute, it does the same thing as a trace route,but also gives you all the hops in between,and who owns/admins them,(whois) along with a map of how you get where you are trying to go. I called my ISP one day and told him where he was having packets dropped from one of his upstream providers when I couldn't get past his hop,and he sounded kinda' rattled when I told him which provider and the IP address that was blocking traffic! Can't remember off the top of my head, but I think it is a product of datametrics corp . They have a trial version on the site,but after using it for a while,I bought it, cost is about 30 dollars U.S. Kinda long-winded, bad habit... got busted in school alot for talking when I was a kid

[Axel]

To answer the original question - a trace-route is typically done by a network admin to track down the source of a transmission error on a network. It identifies the I.P. route taken by the trace-route packet to get from the sender to the receiver. It also identifies any packet loss and the offending equipment.

So - if you aren't part of a LAN and you get hit by a trace-route over the internet, some firewall software will see that as a threat - I.E. - you might become the target of an attack as someone is trying to positively identify you.

Also, some SPAM providers will track down POP3 servers on the net that way so they can target an e-mail campaign at a group of users.

If you were in a heated CHAT with someone you might have pissed off, I'd be worried. If you were browsing a business area looking at new toys, it's probably a SPAM SCAN. If you were hacking the pentagon at the time, I'd get your affairs in order and prepare for an all expense paid stay on the government.

That's about the size of it.

[Serge]

Personally I like PingPlotter (http://www.nessoft.com/pingplotter/), but you can always check online. One such place is this (http://www.lamoree.com/troubleshooting_utils/).

[reddog4629]

This one is cool too! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif http://www.neotrace.com/
Has maps.


[This message has been edited by reddog4629 (edited 01-03-2000).]

[daveleau]

Axel-
Actually I found out after I posted this that it was a friend who had his email automatically trace routing when he sent out email. Thanks.
Dave

[Axel]

is it just a setting he forgot he turned on or something??!?!?! Good grief - if he were on my network, I'd hang him! How to make enemies and influence people - he must be a poster-child or something...... Talk about adding a bit of network traffic to everything you do...... What e-mail program is he running so I can turn people away from it as a matter of policy?

[This message has been edited by Axel (edited 01-03-2000).]

[daveleau]

No I think he set it up himself. Good guy, though. I wasn't mad when I found out it was him. He didn't mean any harm by it and has since shut it off after I posted this.
Dave