Traceroute Example
This is an example of running a traceroute back to my webserver from my laptop using my Verizon card. You can see where the packets are traversing several Verizon links (myvzw.com), the going onto a Sprint backbone, then Drexel's ISP in Philadelphia, then onto the campus network (144.11.1.10), then to the server. The lines with just asterisks indicate that the machine did not respond to the traceroute probe.
joe@alice ~ $ traceroute gicl.cs.drexel.edu
traceroute to gicl.cs.drexel.edu (129.25.6.234), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 5.sub-66-174-209.myvzw.com (66.174.209.5) 260.024 ms 255.815 ms 259.954 ms
2 * * *
3 114.sub-66-174-209.myvzw.com (66.174.209.114) 444.484 ms 259.675 ms 419.975 ms
4 145.sub-66-174-35.myvzw.com (66.174.35.145) 260.080 ms 260.034 ms 259.778 ms
5 129.sub-66-174-35.myvzw.com (66.174.35.129) 279.978 ms 279.899 ms 520.170 ms
6 * 242.sub-66-174-32.myvzw.com (66.174.32.242) 260.016 ms *
7 193.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.193) 279.970 ms 279.910 ms 259.895 ms
8 sl-gw29-ana-2-3-0.sprintlink.net (160.81.175.217) 484.007 ms 472.021 ms 300.027 ms
9 sl-bb20-ana-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.1.145) 319.854 ms 295.985 ms 280.025 ms
10 sl-bb24-ana-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.1.138) 279.943 ms 299.983 ms 463.775 ms
11 sl-st21-la-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.20.69) 276.066 ms 280.295 ms 359.536 ms
12 p12-3.core01.lax05.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.13.41) 300.085 ms 760.123 ms 319.764 ms
13 * * *
14 t3-4.mpd01.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.6.189) 596.124 ms 311.705 ms 423.963 ms
15 t2-2.mpd01.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.3.37) 1952.030 ms 639.860 ms 300.003 ms
16 te2-4.mpd01.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.2.165) 368.115 ms 339.942 ms 359.925 ms
17 g11-0-0.core01.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com (154.54.5.53) 339.932 ms 340.110 ms 339.776 ms
18 p4-0.core01.phl01.atlas.cogentco.com (66.28.4.18) 339.966 ms 343.799 ms 342.446 ms
19 DrexelUniversity.demarc.cogentco.com (38.112.8.158) 333.512 ms 340.202 ms 343.652 ms
20 144.118.1.10 (144.118.1.10) 584.225 ms 399.979 ms 419.875 ms
21 gicl.cs.drexel.edu (129.25.6.234) 339.975 ms 347.967 ms 351.815 ms
joe@alice ~ $
The following is another traceroute following my connection to GMail. It's similar, except that after going through the Sprint links it enters an unidentified ISP and then presumably a Google datacenter. Also of note is the first line, reporting that google.com has multiple possible addresses to use. The name actually resolves to many different machines, just one part of the way they handle the load by splitting requests off to datacenters around the world.
joe@alice ~ $ traceroute google.com
traceroute: Warning: google.com has multiple addresses; using 72.14.207.99
traceroute to 72.14.207.99 (72.14.207.99), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 5.sub-66-174-209.myvzw.com (66.174.209.5) 259.924 ms 259.755 ms 259.957 ms
2 * * *
3 114.sub-66-174-209.myvzw.com (66.174.209.114) 340.160 ms 299.863 ms 259.885 ms
4 * * *
5 129.sub-66-174-35.myvzw.com (66.174.35.129) 440.151 ms 256.038 ms *
6 242.sub-66-174-32.myvzw.com (66.174.32.242) 280.070 ms 263.813 ms 415.993 ms
7 * * *
8 * * *
9 * sl-bb20-ana-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.1.145) 476.007 ms 279.801 ms
10 sl-bb24-sj-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.20.101) 280.040 ms 530.122 ms 369.566 ms
11 sl-bb21-sj-12-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.3.201) 280.087 ms 279.933 ms 279.783 ms
12 sl-st20-sj-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.9.58) 300.025 ms 280.017 ms 319.869 ms
13 sl-googl1-4-0.sprintlink.net (144.223.242.66) 319.948 ms 443.957 ms 276.031 ms
14 72.14.236.3 (72.14.236.3) 280.018 ms 280.247 ms 279.765 ms
15 216.239.46.45 (216.239.46.45) 684.304 ms 443.984 ms 72.14.233.146
(72.14.233.146) 351.845 ms
16 72.14.233.146 (72.14.233.146) 351.821 ms 599.917 ms 355.832 ms
17 66.249.94.94 (66.249.94.94) 364.151 ms 66.249.94.92 (66.249.94.92) 355.864 ms
580.033 ms
18 66.249.94.50 (66.249.94.50) 335.842 ms 72.14.236.134 (72.14.236.134)
360.085 ms 66.249.94.50 (66.249.94.50) 339.935 ms
19 72.14.207.99 (72.14.207.99) 355.944 ms 336.095 ms 467.767 ms
joe@alice ~ $
Sadly, I couldn't get a full traceroute through to any machines I could think of easily on the other side of the world.