Traveling Through a Network

    A packet is simply a piece of information traveling through a network. To begin with a packet arrives at the router which is responsible in determining the IP address of the packet, the IP address usually centers back to the original device used having been placed by the IP protocol. When the router has determined the packet’s IP address then it is sent to that address. If the IP address is not found then the packet is sent to a backup router where hopefully its destination is determined if not then it is passed to another router until the destination’s IP is found.

    A ping can be explained as a signal sent to a site that requires response. The ping sent to google.com brought positive feedback as shown in the diagram 1 below, it shows the ping reached its destination and feedback has been sent back. The trace route to amazon.jp is shown in diagram 2 whereby we see the ping having trouble reaching its destination hence the timed out error at the end. Finally the trace route shown in diagram 3 for the kmart.com.au, the ping had trouble once reaching the destination but it finally arrived.

Figure 1 diagram showing the ping/trace route for google.com  

Figure 2 Diagram showing the trace route of amazon.jp

    

 Figure 3 Diagram showing the trace route for kmart.com.au

In regards to the path taken for google.com, amazon.jp and kmart.com.au are 9, 30 and 15 hops respectively.

The further the geographical location the higher the number of round-trip times taken. There are several ways in how this limitation is countered one of them being bring the host closer and another by bring the CDN cache content close to users.

A ping can help a user to determine his/her network connectivity to a computer or any device. By simply sending a signal and waiting for response a ping can able to determine if the connection is viable. The following procedure is an example that can be used on Windows to determine if the connectivity is good;  

-Open windows and key in this command in the command line window

Start->run->type command-> press enters

-You can the type this command in the terminal window ping 64.207.129.35.

More than often, these will bring several results such as a time out error response. In cases where you see a different response than a time out means that the internet connectivity is well. You might also get many responses because the ping is usually run about 4 times to the where it is supposed to go.

There are other failure responses that can be sent to your computer for example; “no feedback from the destination” which will mean that there may be a problem with the destination even though there is connection. “The destination cannot be reached”, this will mean that the computer used may not know how to get to the destination. This may imply that the device’s network may be low. As mention above there are various reasons why a ping request may time out including the destination having a problem, the destination routers may be in good shape but the main destination itself having problems and therefore the timeout response. In addition, the computer’s server may not know how to get information to the designated destination due to the servers’ network being down.

References:

Vahid, F., & Lysecky, S. (2017). Computing technology for all. Retrieved from zybooks.zyante.com/

Hooda, S. K., Krishnamurthy, V., Patel, T. J., & Bhat, G. S. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,729,422. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.