Using VisualRoute 
Using the VisualRoute ProgramTracing a Host/IP Address
VisualRoute Analysis
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| TIP: You can use your mouse to resize the table columns by dragging the right edge of a column. |
| NOTE: In general, text that is displayed in purple is non-authoritative (from a local cache on your hard drive maintained by VisualRoute, this option can be changed under the Caching Tab in Options | Preferences...) and text displayed in black is authoritative. Non-authoritative information is validated as soon as possible, but is displayed immediately to speed up the display of information to you. |
Hops are graded by changing the background color of the Route Table. The range is green --> amber --> red, where a hop colored red either takes too long to respond or has serious packet loss problems. The color coding for the Trace Route Table is a user-configurable parameter set within the VisualRoute Aplication Preferences Display/GUI tab. IP addresses are shown in either black or red, with red denoting packet loss between itself and the next hop.
| TIP: Clicking an item in the 'Node Name' column will show a domain whois, if available, for that hop's domain. Similarly, the network whois for a hop can be accessed by clicking the relevant item in the 'Network' column. |
The columns in the Route Table are:
| Hop | The trace route hop count. |
| % Loss | This shows the percentage of ping packets that have been lost at this hop level. This number is red if a host is detected at this hop level. This means that ping packets are being lost. Otherwise, this number is black, because the host may just be ignoring all of our ping packets. This number is updated as the trace is completed, however if you should stop a trace before completion this value may not be totally accurate as VisualRoute may still have been waiting for responses from some of the ping packets that it had sent. |
| IP Address | The IP address of the host at this hop level. It is red if a recent ping packet was lost. The IP Address is bolded if it is the host that you are tracing to. |
| Node Name | The reverse DNS lookup of the IP Address. |
| Location | The geographical location of the node. It is black if we are fairly certain of the node's location. Otherwise it is purple, meaning that the location is a best guess based upon information from various WHOIS databases. Click on the location for details. |
| Tzone | If the location of the node has been resolved then the time difference to your selected time zone will be displayed. You can change the base time zone that VisualRoute uses in Options | Preferences | Analysis Columns |
| ms | The average number of milliseconds (roundtrip) that it took for a ping packet to go from your machine to this hop level and back to your machine (just like the system 'tracert' program). |
| Graph | The blue line is a graph of the 'ms' column. The grey horizontal bar in each hop line represents the minimum and maximum millisecond times for that hop level. |
| Network | The network that this node is in, as reported by various WHOIS databases. |
When the Route Table is right clicked you will get the list of options below in figure 8.2:
Fig 8.2: Right Click menu for the Route Table
The main options are the 'Specify Location' option which allows you to set a location for the selected IP address if you know where that IP address resides, and the 'Graph address' option (not supported in all editions) which will launch a Ping Grapher tab and begin plotting live data to that IP address.
By choosing 'Column preferences...' you will be taken to the 'Analysis Columns' tab in VisualRoute Application Preferences. This allows you to add/remove/shuffle the columns shown in the Route Table.
The 'Copy Selection' choice becomes available when numerous cells in the table are highlighted. This can be done by clicking and dragging the cursor over the cells you want. You can then click the 'Copy Selection' option and paste the information into whichever program you choose.
| An advanced feature in the Business, Support, Support Professional and Server editions is the ability to compare two traceroutes side by side. This allows you to compare things like average response time and packet loss between two different times. Learn more about how to compare traceroutes. |
Trace Route Map 
A typical Trace Route Map section looks like figure 9.1:
Fig 9.1: Trace Route Map
The trace route is displayed on a map of the world. The plot lines are colored according to the time taken for that hop to respond. Each hop shows the City and Country of the hop (also the state if in the USA) and the hop number so you can refer to the table.
Left Mouse Click Zoom IN Right Mouse Click¹ Zoom OUT Mouse Drag Moves the map around ¹ Use Meta-click on Mac (Meta is Apple key)
VisualRoute will immediately redraw the map as new information becomes available from the trace route. In some cases, this will result in lines previously drawn looking like they are being erased and drawn elsewhere. You are just seeing VisualRoute update its map information in real-time.
VisualRoute is delivered with several maps for use in the World Map display. To select one of the maps, choose 'Select Map...' from the 'Maps' menu item in the toolbar. This will display the 'Select Map' dialog box shown in figure 9.2. To load a map, use the drop down selection box (indicated by the red oval in fig 9.2) to view the selected map in the preview pane. Click on 'OK' to apply the selection.
Fig 9.2: Select Map dialog
An advanced feature in the Business, Support, Support Professional and Server editions is the ability to edit existing maps or add custom maps such as regional geography maps or network topology images. For example, you can specify areas of an image as IP addresses, so that any hops that include those IP addresses will be displayed on the custom map, enabling you to view the reoute on your own network map. Learn more about custom maps.
Route Graph
The route graph is one of the many new additions to VisualRoute 11.
The route graph plots the trace route along each hop according to its response time (ms).
As shown above each hop gives the IP address and network name at that hop. The vertical lines coming out of some of the hops indicates the maximum and minimum response time in ms. To view the exact figures for this simply hover the mouse cursor over any of the hops, as shown below:
When the mouse is hovering over a hop you will see some additional information which includes the average, minimum and maximum response times in ms, the network and node name at that hop and the percentage packet loss.
The network name and node name are hyperlinked. By clicking on either the node name hyperlink or the network hyperlink the respective whois data will be shown, example below:
