What is Traceroute?
Traceroute is a command-line utility in Linux that provides a detailed analysis of the route data packets take from the source to a specified destination on a network. By sending a series of Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets with increasing Time-to-Live (TTL) values, Traceroute reveals the successive network hops, or routers, that the packets traverse. As each packet reaches its TTL limit, an ICMP “Time Exceeded” message is sent back, allowing Traceroute to identify and display the IP addresses and response times of each intermediary node. This information is invaluable for diagnosing network issues, assessing latency, and understanding the specific path data follows across the Internet.
Traceroute Implementation on Python
In Network information discovery, the traceroute tool is a fundamental utility in a Linux environment. Although the tool is already developed for the command line utility, we can still make our own Traceroute tool using Python language. We will explore the fundamentals of ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) and utilize Python’s socket programming. So in this article, we will see the detailed implementation of the Traceroute tool in Python Language.