Monitor your Network with NiTO's Trace-ping

What is trace-route?

Trace-route is a network diagnostic tool that measures the speed of a connection and displays the routes, or “hops”, a connection will take to reach a destination server.

To measure the speed of a connection, trace-route sends several test packets of data to a specific destination address and lists all the routers the data passed through on its journey to reach its destination.

How does it help?

Trace-route can help troubleshoot network problems by identifying which router(s) between the source and destination are not responding or responding slowly.

NITO’s Trace-ping tool

NiTO’s unique Trace-ping tool is designed to continuously trace-route from a NiTO agent to a target address whilst it measures response times for each hop over the course of a minute. With a 1-second rest between each full trace-route, NiTO’s trace-ping tool performs half-a-dozen or more full-trace routes every minute. By tracking round-trip time (RTT) and jitter, Trace-ping is an ideal tool for monitoring realtime applications such as voice-over-IP (VOIP).

Installing NITO’s Trace-route device

Step 1 — Install an agent

Before you can download the trace-route device, make sure you install an agent on a host that can complete a trace-route to the destination address.

Step 2 — Create a Trace-ping device in NiTO’s portal

Once you have an agent, follow these steps to set up the Trace-ping device:

a. Click on the “New Device” button on the right-hand side of your dashboard.

b. Choose the ‘HTTP(S) / Email / Ping / DNS’ option

c. Once asked to choose a check type, continue by choosing the ‘Trace-ping’ option

d. Once you’re at this step, choose an agent from your account to perform the check. Give the device a name and select which folder the device will be stored in to ensure everything stays organized on your dashboard.

Step 3 — Configure your device

Once you create your trace-ping device, this screen will show up. The menu you see on the left-hand side of the box allows you to configure your device to suit your needs, whether it’s targeting specific IP addresses to choosing how often you are notified about a potential issue.

The first step is to choose a specific domain or an IP address you want to target. This will be added to the empty space provided in the ‘Address’ box. In this example, we are targeting Google.

a. Click on the ‘Advanced Options’ box to adjust how often you want NiTO to perform each check.

b. Next, choose when to receive notifications about current or upcoming issues with the Alarms & Rule Sets option.

Alarm options available in NiTO:

• Traceping Outside Loss: Referring to all IP addresses outside the agent’s network. The average loss from all outside IP addresses is gathered for this alarm threshold.
• Ping Connection Timeout: If the “Initial Ping” (described above) times-out, this alarm will be triggered
• Ping Milliseconds: If the response of the “Initial Ping” takes longer than a defined threshold in milliseconds, this alarm will be triggered.

You can choose when to receive alerts for all three alarm categories

Your Trace-ping device is ready! For more information about NiTO’s trace-ping device, you can give us a call.