Occasionally you may be asked by a Webafrica support agent to run a Traceroute or ping test and send us a screenshot of the results.
These tests help us to isolate exactly what the problem is with your slow connection.
Trace Route Tests
A “traceroute” is a nifty little tool that traces the path of the connection ‘hops’ from one network to another. A traceroute can be an effective diagnostic tool for speed issues and provide information that can help isolate the source of the issue.
The traceroute test MUST be performed while the connection issue is being experienced, from the actual computer and connection which is experiencing the problem.
How to Run a Trace Route Test on Windows:
Steps to follow for Windows:
Click on Start
Type: cmd search bar
Press Enter or click OK
In the DOS command window type in the command and chosen domain
E.g. tracert www.webafrica.co.za
What you’re looking at:
- The first column shows the hop count. This represents the number of stops the trace request has made along the route to attempt to contact the server of the domain.
- The next three columns are the round-trip times in milliseconds for three attempts to reach the destination. The last column is the name of the host that responded to the request.
What you need to do with this:
- Take a screenshot and send it through to the support team when you create your ticket.
How to create a ping test for Windows
- Click on Start
- Type: cmd in the search bar
- Press Enter or click OK. In the DOS command window type in the command and chosen domain
E.g. ping www.webafrica.co.za
How to create a ping test for Windows
Ping is a computer network tool used to test whether a particular host is reachable and whether the host reacts to the ping test. Ping can test the speed of your connection, “distance” to target, and whether or not your connection is up and running. The traceroute given above also covers this however a traceroute gives a lot more information that may be redundant. Ping tells you how long a packet of data takes to travel from your computer to a specified host and back again.
The screenshot below shows whether or not the host replied, with how many bytes (size of packet), round trip time (in milliseconds), and the TTL is how many routers the packet will go through before giving up trying to find the host.
Click on Start
Select Run
Type: cmd
Press Enter or click OK
In the DOS command window type in the command and chosen domain
E.g. ping www.webafrica.co.za
How to Test Ping and Trace Route on your Mac
Steps to follow for MAC:
Here is How to Test Ping on your Mac with Network Utility:
Open “Applications” followed by “Utilities”
Choose “Network Utilities” and click on “Ping”
In the space provided below the option “Enter the network address to ping”, enter the IP address or web URL for which you want to set the “ping test”
Press “Ping”
Here is how to test ping on your Mac with Terminal
Go to Applications and then select Utilities
From there, click on “Terminal”
When a new Terminal window pops up, type: ping <IP_ADDRESS/URL> (replace <IP_ADDRESS/URL> with an IP address or a web URL) and hit return/Enter
The ping will run. If the network works fine and the pinged IP is responding, you will start to see multiple entries coming up in the terminal
To stop, press Ctrl+C
To Perform a Traceroute in Mac
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