Module 1 - Further Exploration

I decided that although this was more like an extra for the module that anything extra is probably worth exploring!

Firstly i downloaded the A-Tool bar (freeware) which seems to have attached everywhere freeware tool and resource imaginable with it. I did a trace to the webct.curtin.edu.au which took 22 hops at approx 89ms. I then decided to discuss this further with a fellow student Greg.

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: did you use the toolbar to get the trace program installed?

greg says: i actually did, but there is a much easier way, the command is in dos. Are you using win xp?

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: aye

greg says: if you go to the command prompt... hold down the windows key on your keyboard and press 'r' then type 'cmd' and press enter...

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: aye

greg says: type 'tracert'

greg says: gives you a list of your options

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: got that

greg says: type 'tracert' followed by a space then the site, cant remember what it is off the top of my head greg says: and that will give you all the required info

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: cool i know the site on my head ~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: sweet! is tracing it now

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: that IS easier!

~~Mekala**Belyssa~~ says: (something else for my learning log)

The result that i got from the command prompt was 21 hops at approx 90ms, however i believe that it timed out before achieving the last hop.

Traceroute from your computer to curtin.edu.au: compare the number of hops with the earlier traceroute.

What sort of differences can you observe?

The main difference is probably the most obvious and links in with the comments below about pinging (yes i have not necessarily done all these activities in the same order as listed) in that the message only needs to travel within australia to get from my computer to webct. When the message traveled from the net tools site it first moved through the server that I'm guessing that the net tools site is attached to, then to another server, before coming over to .au servers. I also could see that when going from my computer that most of the hops were within Telstra servers, first in Brisbane, then to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and finally Perth. Once in Perth in then went over to the curtin.edu.au server. Following through the Telstra servers makes sense as Telstra (bigpond) is my ISP, but i never before thought about the number of servers that Telstra would have!

Ping the webct site and compare the time with the time taken to ping from the net tools site. Is it less or more than you expected?

Why?

Firstly i went back and used the net tools site to ping and got the following results:

[curtin.edu.au]

Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 251 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 246 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 251 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms
Round trip time to 134.7.179.53: 250 ms

Average time over 10 pings: 249.8 ms

I expected that it would be much quicker to ping to the webct site from my computer then from the net tools site as i figured it would be less "hops". Both my computer server and the webct computer server are in Australia, whereas looking at the net tools site i would say that it has an american server. Although the time that we are talking about is just in ms, it still has a lot further to travel then just across the country.

To check the ping results from my computer to the webct site i firstly used the A-tool bar, which told me that it takes 87ms to ping webct, and i guessed that to use ping in the command bar would be similar to using it for tracing. I guessed that "ping webct.curtin.edu.au" would be the way to go and i was correct. Using the command bar the ping result i got was 87ms and this was averaged over 4 goes.

I notice as i'm writing this that i am not always sure of the correct words to express myself - leaps, jumps, moves, goes, servers, computers, etc! - hopefully this will come as i progress further in this course.

Until Module 2 (or perhaps before)
Kellie.