
And at last, the source receives ICMP error message sent by the router. In this case, as the packet is sent back and forth between the looping points, the TTL keeps getting decrement until it becomes zero. This could be possible when there is a routing loop. In typical condition, a network doesn’t have such a diameter that lead the TTL=0. The TTL time exceeded ICMP message is sent after the TTL value of a UDP packet gets zero. Thus Traceroute makes a list of the router’s address and the time taken for the round-trip.

Data packets pass through bridges, routers, and gateways as they travel between source and destination. Hop: A hop is one portion of the path between source and destination. TTL: The time-to-live value, also known as the hop limit, is a mechanism that limits the lifespan or lifetime of data in a computer or network. It uses the ICMP error-reporting messages –Destination Unreachable and Time exceeded.

Traceroute sends a UDP packet to the destination by taking benefit of ICMP’s messages. It traces the path of a packet from the source machine to an Internet host such as by calculating the average time taken each hop. Traceroute or Tracert: It is a CUI based computer network diagnostic tools used in UNIX and Windows-like system respectively. In this Post, we are going to discuss working with traceroute using UDP/ICMP/TCP packets with the help of Wireshark.
