[clue-tech] a network mystery - traceroute

[Bruce Ediger]

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007, Collins Richey wrote:

> One of the bits of data they like to see posted is a traceroute to the
> comcast.net site. Here comes the mystery. I get different results on
> window and Linux. Both computers re on a hub behind the cable modem,
> so only the private ip address of each is different.

I hope I'm not repeating what someone else has posted, I tried to follow
all the other emails in this thread, but...

Doesn't Windows "tracert" use ICMP packets, which Linux "traceroute"
uses UDP packets (at least by default)?

On Slackware 10.1, traceroute has these options:
 	−I     Use ICMP ECHO instead of UDP datagrams.
     −p     Set  the  base  UDP  port  number  used  in  probes
            (default  is 33434).

This difference would explain why Windows and Linux give different answers
about the "path" an IP packet might take.

And just a small side note, "ping" has a "-t ttl" option, which you can
use "at work" to find the path to another "at work" host if/when the
Majestic, All Knowing Network Engineers turn off the ability to do
real traceroutes, or when the Majestic All Knowing Sysadmins take off
the "x" bits on traceroute itself.  Hostility to authority? Me? No!