How do I use traceroute and ping to tell if the Internet is slow?
There are two ways users can check their Internet connection, Ping and Traceroute. Two commands which can be executed from a command prompt in your shell account. By typing traceroute <remote IP address> it will show you the connection route to the remote computer from your current connection. Typing ping <remote IP address> sends packets to the remote machine and waits for a reply (a pong) :), it then determines the delay time between the two computers. Ping is generally a better means of checking connectivity on the Internet. Ping times of under 100ms on the internet are very good. Times under 50ms are superb, times of 10ms or less usually means you are on the same network.
