very new to unix whats the trace route command

traceroute shows you the route packets take to reach the destination address. it shows you the hops or router packets goes through before reaching destination address.

Give it an Ip to follow. Say from your UNIX box to your laptop. it will show you the path it takes to get there.

Pretty good for diagnostic checking of Network problems.

does it work it laptop has 10/100 mbps ethernet and unix box 10mbps ethernet????

That doesn't matter. Just run traceroute from any UNIX system to any other IP address. It will work. However, their may be some firewall issues or if you are on a private network it may not be able to complete.

For the most part, it should work.

in my case , i have dell machine and unix box .
dell ip. 198.1.1.6 ethernet is 10/100mbps
unix ip 198.1.1.3 ethernet is 10mbps.
they r connected through 10/100 workgroup switch.
telnet , ping , ftp works fine from dell to unix.
from unix ping says no answer or connection refused?
traceroute gives 1 ***.... ..and so on.
can u help?
raju

It may very well be a network-design issue (ie firewalling, etc).

From the man page on traceroute:
Therefore, if your net admin restricts UDP in any direction, or ICMP in any direction, you may very well be impacted by this...