The Solaris "traceroute" command lets you trace the route your packets are taking to get from your current workstation to a remote workstation you're trying to reach.
For instance, suppose you're on the Internet and you're not getting an HTTP response from a remote server named
zdtips.com. You try to "ping" the
remote site like this:
ping
www.abc.com
but get no answer. Is the remote server down, or is there a broken link between you and the remote site? Issue the following command to see where
the problem lies:
traceroute
www.abc.com
The traceroute command works its way through the network, and tells you the path it's taking to get to the destination site as it goes along. Watch for
the point traceroute fails to learn more about the network segment that has failed. Of course you can also try this on working connections to learn more about how your Internet packets get from one site to another.