johnny@thespot.gov writes:

Dear Uncle Pat,

Lots of times when I'm on-line, I get real slow connections in some places. Apparently there are lots of computers along the path from the page I'm trying to access, and my computer. Is there any way (some service or something) I can see which part of the path is causing me trouble? I'm using Windows 95, if that helps.
Yes there is, Johnny. Select the MS-DOS prompt from your program menu. This'll give you a little DOS window, waiting there patiently with the prompt: C:\WINDOWS> Just type in tracert www.whatever.com (whatever site you're trying to access), and traceroute will display a list of all the computers you hopped across along the way, and the time (in ms) it took. Another useful little tool is "Ping." From the DOS prompt, type ping www.whatever.com, and you can send a ping (a little packet of information, kinda like the sonar ping in those submarine movies) to a site. If the site is active and alive, your ping'll come back. If the site is dead, it won't. Incidentally, some destructive folks are now getting their jollies by sending the "ping of death" at one place or another. Basically, instead of sending a little packet, these folks blast a huge number of bytes at the server, that it just can't deal with. Depending on the type of computer and its OS, it'll shut down and wait for a reset, reboot, or just ignore the thing. Why people get a kick out of doing this kind of thing is beyond Uncle Pat.

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