How to Run a Traceroute

When you are unable to access your site, or if it’s loading very slowly, support may ask you to run a “traceroute” to help us figure out where the problem is. A trace route will “trace” the “route” that the information follows from your computer to the server when you view your website.

Or, for a more technical definition, let’s look to Wikipedia:

traceroute is a computer network tool used to determine the route taken by packets across an IP network.

How to Run a Traceroute on a Windows PC
- Click on your Start button, then choose Run.
- In the box, enter cmd
- At the command line prompt, enter tracert yourdomain.com
For example: tracert elementalmuse.com
- Press the enter/return key.
- Now you’ll see the results. This is what you want to copy and paste into an email or ticket for the support team.

How to Run a Traceroute on Mac OS X
- Go to Applications
- Choose Utilities
- Choose Network Utility
- Click on the Traceroute Tab
- Enter the domain name and click Trace
- Now you’ll see the results. This is what you want to copy and paste into an email or ticket for the support team.

What Traceroute Results Look Like
Here is an example of what traceroute results look like:

(Click to Enlarge)