What Is Ping?

Ping is a network diagnostic tool that measures the round-trip time for packets to travel from one computer to another and back. It sends ICMP Echo Request packets to a target host and waits for Echo Reply packets in return. The result shows how long the trip took — known as latency — and whether any packets were lost along the way.

Network administrators use ping to verify that a host is reachable and to measure connection quality. A fast, consistent response indicates a healthy connection, while high latency or packet loss points to congestion, routing issues, or an unreachable destination. Ping is typically the first tool used when diagnosing network problems because of its simplicity and universal availability.

What Is Traceroute?

Traceroute maps the network path that packets take from one point to another. It works by sending packets with incrementally increasing TTL (Time To Live) values. Each router along the path decrements the TTL by one; when it reaches zero, the router sends back a "Time Exceeded" message, revealing its identity. This builds a hop-by-hop picture of the route, showing every router between the source and the destination.

It is important to note that this online traceroute runs from our server, not from your device. It shows the route from our infrastructure to the destination you specify. Your own path to the same destination may differ significantly depending on your ISP, geographic location, and the peering arrangements between networks. To see the path from your own device, you would need to run traceroute locally using your operating system's command-line tools.

How to Read Ping Results

When you run a ping test, the results include several key metrics that tell you about the quality of the connection:

• Latency (ms) — The round-trip time measured in milliseconds. Under 20ms is excellent and suitable for real-time applications like gaming. Between 20–100ms is good for most purposes. 100–200ms is noticeable in interactive applications. Over 200ms may cause perceptible lag in video calls, gaming, and other real-time activities.
• Packet Loss (%) — The percentage of packets that were sent but never received a reply. A healthy connection shows 0% loss. Any loss above 0% indicates a network problem — congestion, faulty hardware, or misconfigured routing. Even 1–2% packet loss can degrade voice and video quality significantly.
• Jitter — The variation in latency between successive packets. Even when average latency is acceptable, high jitter causes choppy voice and video calls because packets arrive at irregular intervals. Consistent, low jitter is especially important for real-time communication protocols like VoIP and video conferencing.

How to Read Traceroute Results

Traceroute output shows a list of hops — each line represents one router between the source and the destination. Here is what each part means:

• Hop number — The position of the router in the path, starting from 1 (the first router after the source).
• IP address — The address of the router at that hop. This identifies which network device handled the packet at that point in the route.
• Round-trip time — How long it took for the probe packet to reach that hop and for the response to return. This helps identify where delays are introduced along the path.
• Stars (*) — Indicate that a router did not respond to the probe. Many routers are configured to drop or deprioritize ICMP packets for security or performance reasons. A few stars in the middle of a trace are common and usually do not indicate a problem — the important thing is whether the final destination is reached.
• Large latency jumps — If the round-trip time increases dramatically at a specific hop, that point in the network may be experiencing congestion or the hop may involve a long-distance link (for example, an undersea cable crossing).

Learn More

Read our in-depth guide to understand the concepts behind this tool:

• What Is Ping & Traceroute? — How ping and traceroute work, reading results, and diagnosing network issues.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good ping time?

For general browsing, anything under 100ms is good. For online gaming, under 50ms is ideal, and under 20ms is excellent. For video conferencing, under 150ms is acceptable. Latency depends on physical distance, network congestion, and the number of hops between you and the server.

Why does traceroute show stars (*) for some hops?

Stars indicate that a router didn't respond to the traceroute probe. Many routers are configured to drop or deprioritize ICMP packets for security or performance reasons. This is common and usually not a sign of a problem — the important thing is whether the final destination is reached.

Why is my ping high?

High ping can be caused by physical distance to the server, network congestion, a slow or overloaded ISP connection, Wi-Fi interference, or too many devices sharing your bandwidth. Try connecting via ethernet and closing bandwidth-heavy applications to rule out local issues.

Does this traceroute show my network path?

No. This traceroute runs from our server, not from your device. It shows the path from our infrastructure to the destination. Your own path will be different because your ISP routes traffic differently than ours.