Another geekmail coming your way!!
I was browsing the net and found this tip interesting.
Smoothening Internet Experience!!
==================================
The tracert command is the best method we have of telling how well
we are connecting to something on the Internet.
Tracert basically uses ping to make its measurements.
Ping is an even simpler way to tell whether you can connect
to a site. For example:
C:\WINDOWS>ping www.ugeek.com
Pinging ugeek.com [205.181.128.179] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 205.181.128.179: bytes=32 time=69ms TTL=246
Reply from 205.181.128.179: bytes=32 time=58ms TTL=246
Reply from 205.181.128.179: bytes=32 time=59ms TTL=246
Reply from 205.181.128.179: bytes=32 time=54ms TTL=246
Ping statistics for 205.181.128.179:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 54ms, Maximum = 69ms, Average = 60ms
If you type this under Windows 95, 98 or NT (or Linux, Unix, etc.),
ping will try to contact the site www.ugeek.com 4 times (or more for Unix)
and give you a list of times in ms (milliseconds) that it took for the site to respond.
Type "ping" by itself for a list of switches you can use with ping.
On fast networks or T1's you should get times between <10ms and 20ms.
That's pretty good. On cable modems and ADSL, anything under 50ms is good.
For 56K modems, as long as you're under 200ms, you're doing OK.
If it is taking longer to contact a site, FTP server,
or router, then there may be a communications problem in between.
That's where tracert really comes in handy.
So, now if I do a tracert to www.ugeek.com,
I can see how many servers or routers
I'm passing through to get there (referred to as hops). Let's take a look:
C:\WINDOWS>tracert www.ugeek.com
Tracing route to ugeek.com [205.181.128.179] over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 59 ms 119 ms 61 ms 192.168.20.1
2 135 ms 57 ms 49 ms fe1-0-0.gw1.sbo.ma.rcn.net [10.65.92.2]
3 63 ms 64 ms 86 ms fe1-0-0.core1.sbo.ma.rcn.net [10.65.92.1]
4 140 ms 70 ms 57 ms poet3-1-0.core1.nyda.ny.rcn.net [207.172.9.185]
5 108 ms 79 ms 57 ms poet2-0-1.core1.phda.pa.rcn.net [207.172.9.125]
6 180 ms 104 ms 120 ms h0-1-0.core1.blba.md.rcn.net [207.172.9.57]
7 97 ms 148 ms 50 ms poet0-1-1.core1.tco.va.rcn.net [207.172.9.213]
8 44 ms 46 ms 50 ms fe1-1-0.border1.tco.va.rcn.net [207.172.9.230]
9 41 ms 55 ms 47 ms fe3-0-0.border1.tco.va.rcn.net [207.172.9.218]
10 73 ms 50 ms 49 ms ibr01-s6-1-0.hrnd01.exodus.net [209.185.9.57]
11 63 ms 46 ms 40 ms bbr01-p0-2.hrnd01.exodus.net [209.185.249.38]
12 89 ms 51 ms 49 ms bbr01-p5-0.jrcy01.exodus.net [209.185.249.213]
13 67 ms 140 ms 96 ms bbr01-p5-0.jrcy01.exodus.net [209.185.249.213]
14 50 ms 53 ms 114 ms bbr02-p5-0.wlhm01.exodus.net [216.32.132.50]
15 97 ms 82 ms 68 ms dcr02-p01000.wlhm01.exodus.net [209.1.169.221]
16 83 ms 54 ms 57 ms 209.67.246.206
17 69 ms 68 ms 123 ms 209.67.246.206
18 148 ms 56 ms 56 ms lynn2-cr1-f2-0.wharf.shore.net [207.244.95.34]
19 122 ms 69 ms 62 ms lynn2-cr1-f2-0.wharf.shore.net [207.244.95.34]
20 218 ms 159 ms 48 ms infob-gw1.wharf.shore.net [207.244.122.95]
21 57 ms 83 ms 65 ms ugeek.com [205.181.128.179] Trace complete.
So, we see that it takes me 21 hops to get to the ugeek.com server.
That's a lot, considering I live within 20 miles of it.
But then, you may find that most trips to sites take about 20 hops.
Now, if you look at the ms times, you see that I got no timeouts - which is good.
Tracert puts an asterisk (*) instead of a ms rating for timeouts. Also,
to find out all the tracert switches, just type "tracert" by itself at the command prompt.
If you have trouble contacting a server, look for a particular
router along the way where the slowdown starts
(usually ms times of 300ms or more and some * action as well).
Then, if the router has a name such as "blah.exodus.net,"
you can go to www.exodus.net and send them an e-mail about it.
Important Note: Not all web servers and routers will respond to pings or tracerts.
If you are ping'ing a site behind a firewall,
such as www.microsoft.com, you will get timeouts.
That doesn't mean that there is a problem,
it just means that Microsoft is being smart and blocking pings.
As well, it affects tracert's.
If you tracert to a site that you can contact fine,
and you hit a point where you get a bunch of "* * *" responses,
then you probably are hitting a firewall.
Another Note: Some routers are programmed to respond slowly to pings,
so a high ms rating at one point of a tracert isn't a problem,
unless it's slowing down the rest of the route. Then again,
if a router is so taxed that the ISP has to put ping at a lower
priority, you may be heading for trouble anyway.
There you have it - tracert and ping, the only commands that keep
me sane on the Internet, and even then, they leave much to be desired.
On the plus side, they are built into the OS, so use them.
Also, be careful about ping'ing and tracert'ing government sites.
Ping can be used as a "denial of service" attack,
so try to leave the government alone, or you may get your priviledges revoked.
Ping can also be misused with the dreaded "ping of death"
where you send a server a ping that is too large for it to handle and crash it.
Of course, I only tell you this so that you won't do it by
accident and get into trouble.
Take care, and be the master of your web connection!
===============================================================================================
I found this from www.geek.com
hope you liked it.
vaishaksuresh
vaishaksuresh@mailnew.com
http://geocities.com/vaishaksuresh
(
geocities.com/vaishaksuresh)