what is a trace route? how can i use it? how can i explain trace route to a new user of unix or windows like myself what it does and how it is used?

thanks....

Very simply, traceroute is a utility that shows you a route your packets will take to get from point A (probably your house or work) to point B (say, www.google.com).

Say you are surfing to the web. First you go to google, which is located in California. Then you go to www.linux.de, which (I think) is in Germany. You suppose that sound engineering principles are used to route packets from your computer to those remote computers- it's not magic! :-)

How are they routed? ...Not so simple. Where are they routed? Traceroute will show you. However, traceroute is a snapshot of *a* route your packets *may* take. It's not guaranteed to be *the* route your packets are taking *right now*. In other words, if you go to www.google.com, a moment later run traceroute www.google.com, then a moment later go to www.google.com (again in your web browser), your packets did not necessarily all go through the same devices each time. However, traceroute gives you a good general idea about where your network packets are flying in the wondrous ether of the Internet.
-Mike

thanks man for the information you gave me. it has given me a good knowledge of how the trace route works.

thanks again...