I know it is an advanced ping command that traces the exact route a packet takes to get to the destination IP, but where actually are these routers that it’s making the hops to get there?
For example if I tracert google.com I know my IP address is my router in my house, it then makes hops to my ISP and then 4 more IP addresses are shown – where are the physical location of these?
In: Technology
Somewhere between you and a Google data center. The last few might be inside the data center. (it’s not like I can magically see which IP addresses you see so I have no way of knowing exactly where those are)
Note that tracert doesn’t show all routers in the route any more. A lot of networks, especially the really big ones, use a technology called MPLS, which sets up VPNs between routers that are really far apart, and the VPN is invisible to tracert (it can only see the router where it begins and the router where it ends)
You are connected to an isp, that isp connects to an internet exchange.
That is a big datacenter that handles a lot of internet traffic. For a list/map https://www.internetexchangemap.com/
The first one is often an ix (internet exchange) that is ran by your isp so all isp customers in a region first hop to this one.
Your isp has peering agreements with other internet exchanges. Agreements that say if you accept my traffic I will handle yours. Or handle my traffic for x amount of money per petabyte.
So for example if you do a tracert to your workplace it wil go from your pc > router > isp gateway > isp internet exchange > local ix > workplace isp ix > workplace isp gateway > workplace router > workplace server.
Depends of course how far away your workplace is and the peering agreements between the isps.
For google/netflix/amazon/aksimet it is a bit different, they don’t work with isps like you or me but they work directly with internet exchanges. They place content delivery servers at or near internet exchanges so that the massive amounts of traffic stay local and your isp doesn’t have to pay for all that traffic.
My most of my traffic gets routes through the ams-ix (amsterdam ix) but last year my isp tought it would be benificial for them to route everything though the German dtag (Deutsche Telcom ix).
Wat cheaper for T-Mobile but it had a negative effect on the speeds for all Dutch customers. So after a week and a lot of backlash the routing was returned to the old routes.
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