PING and Traceroute explanation?

[modric]

Can someone explain what is usability of PING and TRACEROUTE checking in deciding which hosting service to use?

I've heard that ping time is of great importance showing how fast will your site open if you will host it on a particular server. I've also heard that long distance between user and hosting server can greatly affect PING, but am not sure if this is true. Can someone explain this?

[d3v]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

I think ping is used to check whether a server is reacheable by a client and if yes then how long does it take to respond. Traceroute is used to diagnose network problems since it identifies the path a packet of data takes.

[modric]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

THere are many sites which provide quick PING test, but I don't how reliable they are. The same for traceroute.

Is it true that long distance bettween client and hosting server affects PING? Any reliable test? Which PING times are considered as acceptable? They say under 150ms...

I'm trying to collect some tools to test potential webhosting, I'm not sure if all this has sense. I mean - you can buy a reputable hosting and then will all run slow...

[PsychoDude]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

Ping displays the time it takes for client to reach host, multiple factors can influence this, like:

• distance
• connection speed
• connection stability

There are more factors of influence, but these are the main three. Speed and stability on both sides is of importance. If the host speed or your speed is slow, ping will tend to take longer. If your connection stability or the host's stability is low, either due to you downloading or the host working on overload ping can be affected.

And then there's ofcourse distance between client and host, imagine an electrical pulse traveling through a wire, as if with a phone call. There's a certain delay in this before it arrives, this delay gets greater if distance increases. Same goes with ping, since the connection basically takes a bit in order to get there, in example from Europe to US ping would be around 80~120 in most optimal occasions.

An acceptable ping sort of depends on what you want to do though, for gaming you'ld want to have as low as possible, preferably not even over 30 since otherwise you'll notice te effect instantly. When browsing though, 0.03 second is something you would say "go to hell with that" against, no-1 would care and even notice. For a lot of cases ping isn't even enough to be annoying anymore, although preferably you wouldn't want to have a host with a ping over 500 for your main audience, keep in mind though the following: There will ALWAYS be at least one person in the world for which the ping is dramatically high!

Comon high pings can be seen between EU/US connections with the eastern asian countries and backwards in example. So if your audience lies in eastern asia and you live in the US yourself, don't got for a host which is good for YOU, but select a host which would be good for your AUDIENCE.

Traceroute lays out a pathway for you, it informs you on how the host is reached, preferably in as least steps as possible, this reduces the ping. Traceroutes can also make clear on why pings can sometimes be high even though the host is in the same country as you. Some ISPs have their DNS set up weird, causing things to happen rather unlogical.

In example when you would want to acces the host of your nextdoor neighbour, which has a server running at home, you would expect to go to him within several steps. In example "your LAN -> router -> modem -> Your ISP -> His ISP -> his IP", this is not always the case though, but the most weird things can show up. In example if you'ld live in the UK you and traceroute to a UK host you suddenly see the traceroute going from your ISP to germany -> south africa -> USA -> Australia -> China -> Germany -> and finally back to the UK. Although this is an extreme case for within country, it does make clear on how it goes wrong.

I am not completely sure why it goes wrong, but it does increase the distance which matters for ping. Since the distance used isn't distance between the 2 locations in a straight line, but the distance which the traceroute travels by.

[modric]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

O.K., that describes a path of a signal. Thanks for PING time examples also. Do you recomend any reliable PING test tool?

I have a forum, I'm interested in fast operation. This is a reason I'm asking about PING, but I'm interested in ALL ASPECTS which can affect the speed of the forum (server processor, RAM...whatever).

If I find a fast running forum and ask its admin, where he host it, is there a chance that the same hosting will work fast for me also?
I'm aware of audience...they will come mostly from south and east Asia and I'm from Europe, I want that server will run fast for me and them...

[Cheapquality]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

it also works in windows like ping 333.144.133.444 -t

[sb225]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

I used to ping IP when i am using cable connection and it is used for connection checking whether it is working or not

[infinitomagazine]

Re: PING and Traceroute explanation?

Well for example weeks moth ago 1 of my istes was totally down
i did a ping test using: ip -t and server was available my my site didt