tracert vs Ping Plotter

On one particluar host, I experience timeouts after a few hops when using Windows tracert command. Using Ping Plotter the full route is resolved. The start of the route is the same with both interfaces and windows tracert always hangs at the same router. What could be the cause of this?

That's an interesting situation that we don't often hear about. One possible reason may be that Ping Plotter uses a bit different packet size and cargo than the default TraceRT does. There may be a router that is blocking certain types of packets with certain cargo.

I'm not sure that the TraceRT packet size is consistent across operating systems - or the packet contents. Based on my memory of some research done 18 or 24 months ago, it seems like TraceRT generally uses 32 byte packets with a abcdefghijklmnop style cargo (versus the Ping Plotter 56 byte packet that is $AA padded). If you're interested, I can dig back into that research to find out what I found at that point. If you'd like more information here, let me know what operating system you're using so we're on the same page.

- Pete

Thanks for the fast reply. I am using Win XP SP1.

One possible explaination is that the hop that never responds is a Livingston (Lucent) Portmaster. ComOS (Portmaster operating system) versions prior to 3.7 are unable to respond to packets sent from the "tracert" utility that comes with Windows 95 and higher. ComOS 3.7 and above corrected this.