Corporate firewalls may not allow PING traffic, which makes it not the most reliable test.

Tracert however, should always work, since it is based on underlying TCP / IP and cannot be blocked.

Traceroute

Traceroute is a utility that traces a packet from your computer to an Internet host. It shows the number of hops the packet requires to reach the host and how long each hop takes. If you’re visiting a Web site and pages are appearing slowly, you can use traceroute to figure out where the longest delays are occurring. Traceroute utilities work by sending packets with low time-to-live (TTL) fields. The TTL value specifies how many hops the packet is allowed before it is returned. When a packet can’t reach its destination because the TTL value is too low, the last host returns the packet and identifies itself. By sending a series of packets and incrementing the TTL value with each successive packet, traceroute finds out who all the intermediary hosts are.

Summary

Both TraceRoute and Ping are commonly used to troubleshoot ‘hosts not accessible’ type of scenarios. They differ in that TraceRoute is far more comprehensive – and informational – and not easily blocked by corporate firewalls.

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