Traceroute on a map, for every measurement.

When a connection gets slow, it is often not your own line but the route: an overloaded handover between two providers or a detour through another country. i-Tracker records the route to every test server, shows every hop on a world map and puts it next to the measured bandwidth.

Explore i-Tracker Documentation

01Peering-MapEvery hop with location and response time

See where your data really travels.

A traceroute in the console returns a list of addresses and times. Where these stations are and whether the route makes sense, you have to work out yourself. The peering map shows the stations one after another on a map, with address, name, response time and location in a table next to it.

Auto trace: Optionally after every measurement, so every result comes with its route.
Locations: From the free DB-IP database (CC BY 4.0), which i-Tracker downloads itself and updates daily, or from MaxMind with your own account.
Estimated: If a location cannot be determined, i-Tracker estimates it from the neighbouring stations and marks it.
Saved: Earlier routes can be opened again and compared with today’s.
Map: Embedded, without a map service from the internet.

02BottlenecksWhat route and bandwidth show together

Slow in the evening, but only to one destination.

A typical picture: during the day the line delivers full bandwidth to every destination; in the evening it drops to one data center but not to others. The route there runs through an exchange point where two networks meet and which is full at peak times. Measurements at a fixed interval to several destinations, each with its route, make this visible, with date and time.

Route changes: If the route suddenly takes a detour, for example through another country, the response time rises, often without any change to your own line.
With your provider: Measurements and routes with dates are solid evidence when a line does not deliver the promised bandwidth.
Bandwidth: Measured with iperf3 on a schedule, see iperf3 web interface.

03FAQFrequently asked questions about traceroute and the peering map

How can I show a traceroute on a map?

i-Tracker shows every traceroute on an embedded world map. The station locations come from a GeoIP database it keeps up to date itself. You start a traceroute by hand or let it run automatically after every measurement.

Why are some stations missing from a traceroute?

Some routers on the internet do not answer traceroute packets. The station then stays empty, but the route continues. This is normal. In company networks your own firewall sometimes blocks these packets too.

How accurate are the locations?

As accurate as the GeoIP database, usually at city or country level. Routers are often not where their address is registered. That is good enough to spot detours through another country; locations i-Tracker only estimates are marked.

What is a peering bottleneck?

Networks of different providers exchange traffic at handover points, such as internet exchanges. If such a handover is overloaded at peak times, throughput drops only to the destinations behind it. Measurements to several destinations, each with its route, show where the problem is.

Does this work with IPv6?

Route tracing currently works with IPv4 addresses.