Traceroute utility uses the TTL field in the IP header to achieve its
operation. For users who are new to TTL field, this field describes how
much hops a particular packet will take while traveling on network.
So, this effectively outlines the lifetime of the packet on network. This field is usually set to 32 or 64. Each time the packet is held on an intermediate router, it decreases the TTL value by 1. When a router finds the TTL value of 1 in a received packet then that packet is not forwarded but instead discarded.
After discarding the packet, router sends an ICMP error message of “Time exceeded” back to the source from where packet generated. The ICMP packet that is sent back contains the IP address of the router.
So now it can be easily understood that traceroute operates by sending packets with TTL value starting from 1 and then incrementing by one each time. Each time a router receives the packet, it checks the TTL field, if TTL field is 1 then it discards the packet and sends the ICMP error packet containing its IP address and this is what traceroute requires. So traceroute incrementally fetches the IP of all the routers between the source and the destination.
So, this effectively outlines the lifetime of the packet on network. This field is usually set to 32 or 64. Each time the packet is held on an intermediate router, it decreases the TTL value by 1. When a router finds the TTL value of 1 in a received packet then that packet is not forwarded but instead discarded.
After discarding the packet, router sends an ICMP error message of “Time exceeded” back to the source from where packet generated. The ICMP packet that is sent back contains the IP address of the router.
So now it can be easily understood that traceroute operates by sending packets with TTL value starting from 1 and then incrementing by one each time. Each time a router receives the packet, it checks the TTL field, if TTL field is 1 then it discards the packet and sends the ICMP error packet containing its IP address and this is what traceroute requires. So traceroute incrementally fetches the IP of all the routers between the source and the destination.
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