Do you know how we access information posted on the Internet? And how is the data exchange? Here you write a message and send it. In what form do you think it goes from one computer to another?
It’s no secret to anyone that all electronic information is based on a binary (binary) code. Its interpretation at the level of electrical engineering is reduced to elementary: 1 - there is a current, 0 - there is no current. Further this code is collected in bits, and they are added in bytes - the minimum addressable units of information. Over the network, these bytes are already transmitted in the form of data packets.
Data packets are not in the air. To
store information about Internet pages using servers, and even entire server networks. Add the provider servers here now. Sometimes, to open a site on your computer, you have to go through more than a dozen of these servers. And, unfortunately, this does not always work out.
If you are unable to log into your VKontakte profile, then you are unlikely to want to know which server on the path crashed. You just close the tab and do something else. But it will be important for the site administration to know why users cannot access. And then they primarily use a tool such as tracing the route to the site.
On Windows, this procedure is performed using the console command "tracert". To trace, we need to know the web address of the site or the server you need. Next, in the "Start" menu, call the command line from the "Run". Enter “cmd”, and in the window that appears, type “tracert desired_address”. After some time, we will have a complete list of servers through which our packets of information pass, and also the response time of each of them will be indicated.
If the transmission of information is slow, we can determine which server is slowing it down. If you are using a router, then the first address on the list will be its address. It should appear instantly at the beginning of the operation, if this did not happen, then the whole problem is in it. Reboot the device or connect directly, then try starting again.
Route tracing will show all problems. If some server does not respond to requests, then this will be said. Take a close look who owns the server - site or your provider. If the second, then it's time to call and complain, let them fix the problem. Better yet, first trace the path to the DNS and VPN servers (if used) in order to know for sure that the provider is out of order.
For example, the google.com site trace looks like this for me:
As a result, the route trace was successful. As you can see, the data first passes through several servers of the Internet service provider before switching to other people's servers.
You may have heard of a feature such as network tracing. What it is? This is not the same as the route trace discussed above. This rather useful feature helps to track the traffic used by the application, and provides a detailed report on the application’s operation with the network. This tool will be useful for network application developers.