Every website you open is a relay race between routers. See who carries your traffic.
Websites can't trace this path for you, but your computer can, with one command. Run it, paste the result here, and this page explains each step in plain words.
Your phone's hotspot,Your phone shares its mobile connection. Every request starts here.
traceroute -I -m 20 -w 2 ip5.ioOpen Terminal: press ⌘ Space, type Terminal and press Return. Paste the command and press Return. It takes up to a minute.
Still running after a minute with only * * *? Press Ctrl C to stop it.
Your route is explained in your browser. To name the networks on the way, only the routers' public addresses are looked up on ip5.io. Nothing is stored.
A tool that lists the routers your traffic passes on its way to a website. It sends test messages that expire one step further each time, and every router where one expires answers with its address and how long the answer took.
That router didn't answer. Many routers are set to ignore traceroute or answer it last, but they still pass your traffic on. If every step shows * * *, a VPN or firewall is usually blocking the answers.
How long the round trip to that router took, there and back. Light in fiber needs about 1 ms for every 100 km there and back, so a jump of 80 ms or more often means your traffic crossed an ocean. A later step can look faster than an earlier one, because routers answer traceroute with low priority.
Networks spread traffic over several paths and change them when one gets busy or fails. Two runs a minute apart can show different routers, especially in the middle of the route.
Mostly. It shows your provider's routers and roughly where your traffic leaves your country, about as much as your IP address already tells websites. It doesn't contain passwords or what you browse. The first lines can reveal your router's name, so remove them if you like.