Running TraceRoute (tracert)
Contributed by AlexTheBeast 
October 15, 2003 
Tagged: Windows
Trace Route (tracert.exe) command reports the path from you to the destination computer. It is commonly used to test the path to a particular system for debugging purposes.
Frequently web addresses appear to be dead. Is it that particular computer that is gone or is the problem within your or your ISP’s network? Is it somewhere in between?
When you have this problem, running tracert is an excellent method to see what is causing the problem.
You may run this command from the command line. The command structure is typically the following:
tracert anywebaddress.com
Or if you want to save this information to a text file:
tracert anywebaddress.com > textfile.txt
Hackers will use tracert to search for computer targets “nearby” or “upstream” to the box they want to access.
Typical output will this:
...
...
16 * 89 ms 43 ms border11.ge3-0-bbnet2.mia.pnap.net [216.52.160.79]
17 51 ms 51 ms 53 ms futurequest-1.border11.mia.pnap.net [216.52.162.126]
18 63 ms 47 ms 47 ms core-01-2.futurequest.net [63.239.113.253]
19 49 ms 63 ms 47 ms tech-recipes.com [69.5.24.242]
The remainder of the options can be found below.
Usage: tracert [-d] [-h maximum_hops] [-j host-list] [-w timeout] target_name
Options:
-d Do not resolve addresses to hostnames.
-h maximum_hops Maximum number of hops to search for target.
-j host-list Loose source route along host-list.
-w timeout Wait timeout milliseconds for each reply.