The PathPing tool is a route tracing tool that combines features of Ping and Tracert with additional information that neither of those tools provides. PathPing sends packets to each router on the way to a final destination over a period of time, and then computes results based on the packets returned from each hop. Since PathPing shows the degree of packet loss at any given router or link, you can pinpoint which routers or links might be causing network problems. Pathping can be a very effective tool when troubleshooting a network connectivity or a performance issue in Windows. Pathping first traces the route to the final destination as done by the Tracert command and then send packets to each individual nodes in the path over a period of time (25sec per nod) and upto 100 packets. It then calculates the node/link performance at the end of it To use, simply type pathping from the command prompt:
C:\>pathping http://www.google.com/
Tracing route to http://www.l.google.com/ [64.233.183.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 mypc.test.local [192.168.0.2]
1 192.168.0.1
2 cr1.lwfel.uk.easynet.net [87.87.250.213]
3 80.238.38.161
4 * ip-89-200-134-117.ov.easynet.net [89.200.134.117]
5 ge2-1-0.er3.tclon.uk.easynet.net [89.200.130.0]
6 195.66.226.125 7 209.85.252.42 8 64.233.174.27
9 209.85.248.80
10 72.14.233.79
11 216.239.43.34
12 nf-in-f103.google.com [64.233.183.103]
Computing statistics for 300 seconds…
Source to Here This Node/Link Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 mypc.test.local [192.168.0.2] 0/ 100 = 0% |
1 10ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 192.168.0.1 0/ 100 = 0% |
2 76ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% cr1.lwfel.uk.easynet.net [87.87.250.213] 0/ 100 = 0% |
3 67ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 80.238.38.161 0/ 100 = 0% |
4 — 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% ip-89-200-134-117.ov.easynet.net [89.200.134.117] 0/ 100 = 0% |
5 — 100/ 100 =100% 100/ 100 =100% ge2-1-0.er3.tclon.uk.easynet.net [89.200.130.0] 0/ 100 = 0% |
6 75ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 195.66.226.125 0/ 100 = 0% |
7 71ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 209.85.252.42 0/ 100 = 0% |
8 72ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 64.233.174.27 0/ 100 = 0% |
9 79ms 1/ 100 = 1% 1/ 100 = 1% 209.85.248.80 0/ 100 = 0% |
10 84ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% 72.14.233.79 24/ 100 = 24% |
11 88ms 24/ 100 = 24% 0/ 100 = 0% 216.239.43.34 2/ 100 = 2% |
12 85ms 26/ 100 = 26% 0/ 100 = 0% nf-in-f103.google.com [64.233.183.103]
Trace complete.
A best option would be to use "-n" to avoid the DNS lookups which makes the trace run a bit faster. There are other additional switches that one can use to tune the trace.
Some of them are,
-n : No DNS Lookup
-h: Number of hops (Default: 30)
-g: Specifiy route list
-p: Milliseconds between pings
-q: Number of queries per hop
-R: Check RSVP Support
-T: Attach a L2 tag
-w: Time-out period for Ping reply (Default: 3000ms)
A detailed Microsoft page for pathping