How to run a ping and traceroute test

What are ping and traceroute?

Ping is like shouting "Are you there?" across a field and timing the echo. Your computer sends a tiny message to a server. The server answers. Ping shows how long the trip took, in milliseconds (ms), and if any messages got lost.

Traceroute shows the path your message takes. The internet is a long chain of stops, like bus stops. Each stop is called a hop. Traceroute lists every hop and the time to reach each one. If something breaks, you can see where.

Run a ping test on Windows

1. Click the Start button, type cmd and press Enter. This opens the Command Prompt.
2. Type this and press Enter:

ping example.com

Replace example.com with your website name or server IP address. Windows sends four messages.

Run a ping test on Mac or Linux

1. Open Terminal.
2. Type this and press Enter:

ping -c 4 example.com

The -c 4 part sends only four messages. Without it, ping runs until you press Control and C.

Read the ping result

• time= is the trip time. Lower is better. Under 100 ms is usually fine.
• Packet loss is the percent of messages that did not come back. 0% is good. Higher means a poor connection.
• Request timed out means no answer. The server may be down, or it may block ping on purpose.

Run a traceroute test

On Windows, in Command Prompt:

tracert example.com

On Mac or Linux, in Terminal:

traceroute example.com

Each numbered line is one hop. You see three times per line, one for each try.

Read the traceroute result

• Steady, small times mean a healthy path.
• A line with * * * means that stop did not answer. This is often fine. Some routers ignore these tests.
• If the times jump high at one hop and stay high after it, the problem is probably near that hop.
• If the trace stops and all later lines are * * *, something is blocking the path.

Send results to support

If you think the problem is on Hostvento's side, copy the full result and add it to a ticket on the support ticket page. Say the time and date you ran the test too.

Quick recap

• Ping checks if a server answers and how fast.
• Traceroute shows each hop on the way.
• Use ping and tracert on Windows, ping -c 4 and traceroute on Mac and Linux.
• Look for high times and lost packets.
• Send the results to support if you need help.