Looking glass/ traceroute question

Phillies8607

Does anyone have any familiarity with Looking Glass web sites? I do a lot of ping tests and traceroutes when I come across speed issues that I'm trying to troubleshoot in a network. I know that traceroute is only going to give you info for the forward path. By just using my laptop is there a way to test the reverse path? I took a look at some Looking Glass website and Looking Glass servers but I think you need to have the Looking-Glass software installed on your machine. Does anyone know of a similar took or have any suggestions to troubleshoot both the forward path and reverse path a packet is traveling?

networker050184

You don't need any special software to use any looking glass that I know of. Lot's have web front ends, but I prefer the ones with CLI access.

ypark

As far as I know, getting a reverse path traceroute will require access to the remote host. I am unaware of doing it any other way. Most ISP's looking glass only allows you to use ping/traceroute utilities from some of their equipment in various geographic locations and this will not allow you to obtain a full reverse path. It may help if looking glass equipment is from a close geographic location from the remote host or if the particular equipment is one of the hops.

Also, MTRs or pathping (on Windows machines) will be much more useful than a traceroute when troubleshooting routing or path issues.

DPG

About 90% of the time I can find a route server within a few hops of any of my customers in the US. Just do a search for route server (ISP name) or looking glass (ISP name).