Post 4: Traveling Through a Network

Virtual Reality fascinates me. Despite VR being initially marked towards gaming, there are many potential and existing VR applications in various sectors and fields such as education, training, simulations, exercise, and healthcare. There are still questions surrounding VR, though, such as technological limitations regarding users feeling uncomfortable or ill while using the headset, and lack of technical standardization. 

Ping:

Google.com showed no packet losses with a minimum of 13ms, a maximum of 36 ms, and an average of 30ms round trip time.

Google.com.au showed no packet losses with a minimum of 16ms, a maximum of 37ms, and an average of 31ms round trip time.

Google.com.uk showed no packet losses with a minimum of 36ms, a maximum of 58ms, and an average of 51ms round trip time.

Traceroute:

Google.com shows 18 hops, with 11 of those timing out. I am surprised to see so many hops that were not deemed successful, which could indicate packet loss, but the final line represents the destination IP specified.

Google.com.au shows 18 hops, with 10 of those timing out. Just like Google.com, a lot of hops are timed out. Speeds for Google.com and Google.com.au are low, indicating a reliable connection.

Google.com.uk shows 15 hops, with 9 of those timing out. The speed is relatively low throughout the hops but is high by the final hop. The IP address is all that shows on the final hop, indicating the domain is not available.

No packet losses show that the ping requests were returned, and that the connection is reliable. Google.com.uk shows a much higher minimum, maximum, and average speed than the other two websites. Google.com and Google.com.au show a low minimum ping, indicating my network is responding fast with a stable connection. Google.com.uk is not extremely fast, but it is still functional. This could be because packets take a less direct path. Google.com and Google.com.au show identical hops with identical timeouts, indicating that packets could have been lost; the speed isn’t too far off. The timeouts were similar to the hop, with one happening on the first off and the others consistent with each hop. Google.com.uk had fewer hops but just as many timeouts as the other two. Ultimately, the traceroute ended with the IP address only and no domain, indicating the website was unavailable. The speed is also relatively low outside of the final hop.

Google.com and Google.com.au were identical in ping and traceroute, while Google.com.uk was on the other end. Australia is further from me than the UK, making me question the relationship between roundtrip time and geographical location. The speed was also lower until the end, making me believe the packets took a less direct path.

In traceroute, if the packet cannot reach its destination, the results will show where the failure occurred. The smooth progression shows the route destination is working. At the same time, early stops could indicate a local network problem—ping requests response from the receipt by sending packets to a specific IP address. Packet loss suggests the host is unreachable, and high pings indicate poor connection. You will receive an error message if there is a problem with the transmission and a roundtrip time for each response if the communication is successful.

A ping request or traceroute command might time out or send an error response because the server you reach may be offline or unavailable, or local firewalls may block packets.

TestOut Corp. (2024). CertMaster Learn Tech+. http://www.testout.com

Redirecting. (n.d.-b). https://uagc.instructure.com/courses/146354/discussion_topics/4016681