Module 1 Task - Traceroute Compare

Now that I have tracert working on my desktop, I can compare that with the one performed using the nwtools.com website. As expected the results just confirm that in terms of hops I am closer to the curtin server than the nwtools server is. I'd have to put that down to the fact that I am in Perth where as Nwtools is in the US.

As an excercise I thought I would try to confirm the physical location of Nwtools.com. The net can be a confusing place, you can't necessarily tell by a domain or even a sites business where a website is actually physically hosted. I went on a bit of a Net search spree and have recorded my journey as best I can here

First stop InterNic.net
The InterNIC website is operated by ICANN to provide the public information regarding Internet domain name registration services. (http://www.icann.org/faq/#WhatisInternic)
Some interesting reading and I find out how there are a set of organisations that control IP address allocation for different regions throughout the world.

From there I was able to do a domain name whois query http://www.internic.net/whois.html
and get the nameserver ( a name server pretty much tells people what IP address to use for your domain) for nwtools.com. The nameserver was NS.KEYWORDFACTORY.COM. the ip address was 66.98.244.116.

Next stop http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space this tells me that the 66 address space is controlled by ARIN (66/8 Jul 00 ARIN (whois.arin.net) (American Registry for Internet Numbers). As they control th allocation of IP address in the North American Region, I safely say that nwtools.com is hosted on a server located somewhere in North America. I guess I could go a bit deeper, but that will do for now!

Module 1 Task - Tracert locally cont..

Well worked it out had a feeling it was my new ADSL router firewall settings, so I just played around with the settings until one of them worked (yes I have been called a cowboy in the past!). So removing the ICMP redirection checking from the firewall settings allowed me to run the tracert command from my desktop. The results are below.


Normally I would leave it at that, after all it worked didn't it. However in the spirit of learning I dedcided to go that one step further and find out why disabling this setting fixed my initial problem (oh and there was a slight after thought that perhaps disabling that setting was a security risk being a firewall and all ;-).

So a quick search in google for ICMP redirection checking, immediately gave me the result I was looking for, so to all you out there with a D-Link DSL-G604T, you may want to check out the following post http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/408681.html

Module 1 Task - Tracert locally

Had some problems running the tracert command from my PC to curtin.edu.au, keep getting a message "Destination protocol unreachable". I think it has something to do with the setup of my ADSL router, will investigate a bit further over the next day or two. Shouldn't be too much of a brain bender!

Module 1 Task - Ping

Ok could not ping webct.curtin.edu.au, guessing that the Curtin firewall blocks pinging of this address?
Pinged curtin.edu.au instead
- from the nwtools.com site the average round trip time was 248.7ms
- from my PC the average round trip time was 72ms

As expected the response time from nwtools.com site was slower, its hosted in another country so it makes sense it has a lot more routers to bounce through before it reaches its destination.

Module 1 Task - Traceroute

Following is the results of the trace to curtin.edu.au using nwtools.com

134.7.179.10 is from Australia(AU) in region Oceana
TraceRoute to 134.7.179.10 [curtin.edu.au]
Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name
1 0 0 0 66.98.244.1 gphou-66-98-244-1.ev1servers.net
2 1 0 0 66.98.241.16 gphou-66-98-241-16.ev1servers.net
3 1 0 0 66.98.240.13 gphou-66-98-240-13.ev1servers.net
4 1 1 1 129.250.11.137 ge-1-11.r04.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
5 2 1 1 129.250.2.230 xe-0-1-0.r21.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
6 2 2 2 129.250.3.62 xe-0-0-0.r20.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
7 37 37 37 129.250.4.112 p64-1-3-0.r21.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
8 37 37 37 129.250.3.159 p16-1-0-0.r02.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net
9 196 196 196 198.172.90.102 so-2-1-0.a00.lsanca02.us.ce.verio.net
10 199 199 200 202.158.194.153 so-3-2-0.bb1.b.syd.aarnet.net.au
11 212 211 211 202.158.194.33 so-2-0-0.bb1.a.mel.aarnet.net.au
12 221 220 220 202.158.194.17 so-2-0-0.bb1.a.adl.aarnet.net.au
13 248 248 248 202.158.194.5 so-0-1-0.bb1.a.per.aarnet.net.au
14 248 248 248 202.158.198.178 gigabitethernet0.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au 15 248 248 248 202.158.198.186 gw1.er1.curtin.cpe.aarnet.net.au
16 248 248 248 134.7.250.18 -
17 248 248 248 134.7.248.65 te1-1.b309-sr.net.curtin.edu.au
18 248 249 248 134.7.179.10 prodweb1.curtin.edu.au
Trace complete

There were 18 hops and the average time in milliseconds from the tools site to the curtin server was 248.
When looking up the IP for webct.curtin.edu.au, a lookup or a ping returns 134.7.34.197.