trace route not working

Question

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

trace route not working

I did do a search, but no joy

Regardless if I use terminal traceroute command or network utilities, I get nothing:

traceroute to 12.168.209.68 (12.168.209.68), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 1.242 ms 1.232 ms 1.245 ms

2 * * *

3 * * *

it does not matter what site or company I run the trace route on, the results are the same.

$ traceroute -I comcast.net

traceroute to comcast.net (69.252.80.75), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 0.670 ms 0.669 ms 1.304 ms

2 * * *

3 * * *

^C

Something strange going on. Comcast, aka xfinity was no help

I am wondering what is going on here.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), Wants to be a Mac Pro!!

Posted on Jun 18, 2015 12:14 PM

Reply

Answer 1

cdhw

Level 4

3,594 points

Jun 18, 2015 4:59 PM in response to danuke

Is your router firmware up to date?

Does 'ping' work? If not, something (probably your router or your ISP) is probably blocking ICMP.

On my Mac (OS X 10.10.3) your test 'traceroute -I comcast.net' gets me to urlrw01.cable.comcast.com in 14 hops.

C.

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Answer 2

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jun 18, 2015 5:33 PM in response to cdhw

Howdy,

I appreciate your time on this concern

Regarding ping:

PING comcast.net (69.252.80.75): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=0 ttl=55 time=33.568 ms

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=32.049 ms

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=35.916 ms

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=3 ttl=55 time=32.606 ms

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=4 ttl=55 time=33.368 ms

64 bytes from 69.252.80.75: icmp_seq=5 ttl=55 time=32.875 ms

trace route remains as is.

By router, I am guessing that you mean the one that comcast / xfinity supplied? With regard to that, I have no idea.

Evidently except for safari, my OS is up to date.

I spent a long time with comcast live chat, but it seems that this was over their head. They told me to call their home networking security people. Seeing as how this iMac is directly connected to the ethernet and not really involved in the home wi-fi network, I am not sure what they can do.

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Answer 3

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,700 points

Jun 18, 2015 5:39 PM in response to danuke

Some routers are configured not to respond to these requests. There's nothing much you can do about it. Some third party utilities and some web sites that perform traces can work around this to a degree, but if you don't control the network, there is no way to completely "fix" the problem.

I'm not surprised that this was over comcast's head (funny aside, my spell checker initially autocorrected "comcast" to "compost"... seems appropriate).

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Answer 4

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jun 18, 2015 5:54 PM in response to KiltedTim

Howdy,

I appreciate the reply. Alas, I do not remember if I was using this particular router in the past, but trace route and ping was working fine before, but it has been a while. Heck I think that the last time I used it was when I was using my old PPC, i.e. G5

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Answer 5

cdhw

Level 4

3,594 points

Jun 18, 2015 6:00 PM in response to danuke

I think that your comcast-supplied router, or possibly the next one upstream, is probably not transmitting your traceroute packets and if comcast can't, or won't, play ball you're SOL. If you're a domestic customer connecting via an ISP ping is all you really need to confirm and report a connectivity problem.

C.

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Answer 6

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jun 18, 2015 6:07 PM in response to cdhw

ok, thank you.

In a kinda related question. Why in the world is the Network Utility application hidden so deeply? I could access it via spotlight search but that did not show where it was. I had to use the terminal to locate it. Strange.

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Answer 7

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jun 19, 2015 4:32 PM in response to cdhw

That is possible. I am running the ethernet cable through an airport time capsule when running the trace route in the examples given above.

However, when I connect directly to the comcast router,

the trace route looks like this"

traceroute to 12.168.209.68 (12.168.209.68), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1 * * *

2 * * *

etc.

At this point I am thinking that the router does indeed kill my trace rout, but allows pings.

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Answer 8

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 19, 2015 6:56 PM in response to danuke

Login to the router to see if it has a network tools section. It may allow you to run a trace from the device.

I was under the impression that a traceroute sends pings with increasing 'time to live' values, so you see the expected path. It's not clear to me why one fails but the other suceeds.

See the comment that uses ping with the ttl…

http://superuser.com/questions/278952/why-can-i-ping-an-ip-address-but-not-trace route-it

It may allow you to get results?

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Answer 9

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jul 16, 2015 5:04 AM in response to danuke

AH HA!!!

Evidently, the root cause of the problem was that I had Intego Protection Software installed on the iMac. Now, I did not have full time scanning activated, but only scanned manually. However, when I removed Intego, trace route works again, and the box, flat(?) seems to be faster. Which seems to fall in line with most of the comments I have seen in the communities regarding the use of AV software on Macs. So I am back to depending on the firewalls, and I do confess to using a VPN now (a comforter perhaps)

Thank you for your replies.

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Answer 10

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jul 16, 2015 5:38 AM in response to danuke

Yep that figures 🙂

AV & internet security software can make a mess of things sometimes. ClamXAV is a lightweight antivirus scanner if you are trying to avoid passing bad files to others (Macs can pass on Windows viruses etc). http://clamxav.com/

A VPN just moves where you enter the internet. You are still just as exposed, but your local network & ISP can't see you traffic so you are safer on open/ public WiFi etc.

Good luck with it.

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Answer 11

KiltedTim

Level 10

224,700 points

Jun 18, 2015 5:56 PM in response to danuke

The problem isn't necessarily your router. More likely, it the routers upstream of you on the path between yourself and whatever you're trying to trace route to.

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Answer 12

danuke Author

Level 3

886 points

Jul 1, 2015 9:47 AM in response to Drew Reece

Thank your for your answer. I am not sure how one logs into the comcast router; alas

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Answer 13

MadMacs0

Level 5

5,233 points

Jul 16, 2015 1:24 PM in response to danuke

danuke wrote:

do confess to using a VPN now (a comforter perhaps)

There are some new issues with that, as well: VPNs are so insecure you might as well wear a KICK ME sign.

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