tracert output interpretation

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Hi, I have been looking for an answer, I know that it might be out of cisco topic, but dont know where else to find a light to determine the reason or if Im thinking the correct answer

many network admins ask for tracert from the end workstation when an "outage" or problem occur being reported by IT support team,

so when they send the tracert output, they say, should I wait to the tracert to finish or cut the output when I see many asterisk or timed out?

or should I wait to see the complete word after the 30 hops?

so I stumbled to that question, I have heard some network admin, even CCIEs that wait to finish to see that completes, cause even If I see the requests time out along the path, but if I see "trace complete" it means that it reaches the destination

some other say, cut the output cause there is no reason if you see at least the last hop where the packet stoped.

some argue that since some routers do not allow ICMP packets, hence the reason to see asteriks and request time out, so probably along the path there could be some devices that do that and some others dont, but still there is a confusion between some and me also :( 

so is it a myth or should we say to let the tracert run until it finishes? 

what would be the best recommendation to at least calm down the critics between net admins and support team? 

I know the tracert is a good tshot tool cause at least it will give you some idea on where the packets go., but still the question is to wait or not to wait until the 30 hops completes cause it will give you the answer if its reachable or not

any feedback?

[Deepak Kumar · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I agree with network admin becuase there are many reasons for wait till to finish as

 Timeouts at the end may occur for a number of reasons. Not all of them indicate an issue, however.

1. The target's firewall may be blocking requests. The target is still most probably reachable with a normal HTTP request, however. This should not affect the normal connection.
2. The return path may have an issue from the destination point. This would mean the signal is still reaching, but just not getting the return signal back to your computer. This should not affect the normal connection.
3. Possible connection problem at the target. This will affect the connection.

But wait for a long time is time consume process and we know about our network that which device is where and what is allowed or blocked on the device. So wait a few seconds otherwise go with next tshoot steps. 

Regards,

Deepak Kumar

[Kn1ghtR1d3rOfD00m]

Thank you for your inputs and feedback, 

[Deepak Kumar]

Hi,

Your welcome!

Don't forget to mark as helpful or vote to a helpful answer. 

Regards,

Deepak Kumar