Impact Of Network Latency On Websites And The Importance Of Traceroute Check

Network latency is one of the main reasons for a slow website. Sometimes these issues increase the load times of any website. You can test this by accessing the site from a different network.

Traceroute is a tool that allows you to check for network latency. It traces the path from the computer to the server you are accessing.

Running traceroute on Linux:

Open a Terminal window and type: traceroute -I yourdomain.com

The -I option is necessary so that the traceroute uses ICMP. You can also use traceroute with an IP, i.e. traceroute -I 1.2.3.4

Running traceroute on Mac OS X:

Launch Network Utility. This can be done through Mac OS X Spotlight by typing Network Utility, and then clicking the Top Hit.

Follow these steps:

  1. Click Traceroute.
  2. Enter the domain name for which you want to do a traceroute. For example email.coolexample.com
  3. Click Trace.
  4. Select the results, and then right-click and select Copy or press COMMAND+C to copy the text.
  5. Paste the text into a text editor (TextEdit, etc.) and save the file.

Running traceroute on Windows:

On Windows 10, click the Start menu and type cmd then press the Enter key. This will take you to the MS-DOS Prompt or Command Prompt where a window will display with something similar to the following:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\windows>

Now follow these steps:

  1. Type tracert your domain name and press Enter.
  2. After the traceroute has completed, right-click anywhere on this window and click Select All.
  3. Press Enter and the information will be copied to the Windows clipboard.
  4. Paste this into a text document (Notepad, WordPad, etc.).

For accessing the same thing on Windows 7 & Vista, click Start menu and search CMD whereas on Windows 8 – Right-click the Start menu, select Run then enter CMD and press OK.


When reviewing traceroute, look at the time it takes each hop to complete. This number should be fairly consistent. Any extreme variations can indicate a network problem. Contact your Internet Service Provider for assistance reviewing the traceroute if needed.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.