Traceroute

From FiranMUX

Traceroute is a tool that displays the network path between one computer and another, and lists diagonostic information about the path from the starting point and each step to the destination. You may want to use Traceroute if you want to check network lag between your computer and legendary.org, the computer that hosts Firan.

There are programs available that basically make a traceroute check a point and click operation, but most people don't have those. However, just about every Windows 95/98/NT/2000 machine has a command-line program called "tracert". Just about every Mac that has TCP/IP in the control panel has traceroute ability, too.

Windows

If you have a Windows machine, these instructions should show you how to run a traceroute from your machine to legendary.org.

1. Click on the Start button and click "Run".
2. In the text box where it says "Open:", type "command" (on an NT or 2000 system, type "cmd" instead). Enter it. An MS-DOS Prompt window will open up.
3. In the MS-DOS Prompt window, type "tracert legendary.org" and press Enter. A traceroute will start running.
4. Look for high numbers (anything over 500ms is a bit slow... anything over 1000ms is very slow). Look for *'s. The first place these start occurring is likely the source of any net lag. If the entire path looks pretty good, there's probably not any net lag. The problem might be lag on the game, a db save, or some other problem.
5. When you are done reading the traceroute session, type "Exit" to close the MS-DOS Prompt window.

Mac

These instructions are for any Mac running OSX.

1. Open Applications->Utilities->Terminal
2. At the prompt, type "traceroute legendary.org" and press return. The traceroute will start running.
3. Look for high numbers (anything over 500ms is a bit slow... anything over 1000ms is very slow). Look for *'s. The first place these start occurring is likely the source of any net lag. If the entire path looks pretty good, there's probably not any net lag. The problem might be lag on the game, a db save, or some other problem.
4. When you are done reading the traceroute session, you can quit the Terminal.