Traveling Through a Network

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 Part 1: Ping Activity

1. Google

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2.yahoo auctions japan

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3. news Australia

Screenshot 2025-09-11 at 7.31.25 PM.png

Part 2: Traceroute Activity

1. Google

Screenshot 2025-09-11 at 7.36.15 PM.png

2. Yahoo auctions japan

Screenshot 2025-09-11 at 8.12.24 PM.png

3. News Austrailia 

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Part 3: Traveling Through a Network Reflection Essay

   While completing the ping and traceroute activities on my MacBook, I gained a clearer understanding of how packets travel through a network. A ping essentially measures the time it takes for a packet to travel from my device to a destination and back, providing roundtrip times and success rates. Traceroute, on the other hand, breaks down the journey into each “hop” along the way, showing the different routers and servers that handle the packet before it reaches its final destination. Together, these commands illustrate the complexity of internet communication and the number of systems involved in connecting to websites around the world.

   When I tested Google, Yahoo Auctions Japan, and an Australian news site, I noticed distinct differences in both ping times and traceroute paths. Google, being highly optimized with servers distributed worldwide, had the fastest response and the fewest hops. Yahoo Auctions Japan showed significantly higher roundtrip times, reflecting the distance and the number of intermediary systems between the United States and Japan. The Australian news site also had longer response times than Google but varied slightly compared to Japan, depending on the routing path. These results confirmed that the path packets take depends on the network infrastructure, routing agreements between internet service providers, and geographical distance.

   From the comparison, I concluded that roundtrip time is closely related to geographical location. The farther away the destination server is, the longer the roundtrip time generally becomes. However, efficient routing and server distribution can minimize delays, which explains why Google performed better than the international sites despite their physical distance.

   Ping and traceroute can also be useful tools for troubleshooting internet issues. Ping helps determine whether a destination is reachable and how stable the connection is, while traceroute can identify where a packet is being delayed or dropped. For example, if traceroute shows excessive delays at a specific hop, it may indicate a problem with that router or region.

   There are also cases where these commands may fail. A ping or traceroute request might time out if a firewall is blocking ICMP traffic, which is common for security reasons. Additionally, a server may be configured not to respond to these requests at all, leading to an error even if the site itself is still accessible.

   Overall, this exercise highlighted not only how data moves across the internet but also how simple commands can provide valuable insights into connectivity, performance, and potential issues.

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