Why can I ping an IP address but not 'traceroute' it?

Question

I can ping an IP address, but I can't traceroute it. How could this be?

[USERNAME@HOSTNAME ~]$ ping CENSORED.CENSORED
PING CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED): icmp_req=1 ttl=49 time=52.8 ms
64 bytes from CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED): icmp_req=2 ttl=49 time=49.4 ms
64 bytes from CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED): icmp_req=3 ttl=49 time=49.2 ms
64 bytes from CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED): icmp_req=4 ttl=49 time=50.4 ms
^C
--- CENSORED.CENSORED ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 49.276/50.494/52.804/1.401 ms
[USERNAME@HOSTNAME ~]$
[USERNAME@HOSTNAME ~]$ traceroute CENSORED.CENSORED
traceroute to CENSORED.CENSORED (CENSORED), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  CENSORED (CENSORED)  5.733 ms  6.000 ms  5.977 ms
 2  CENSORED (CENSORED)  0.428 ms  0.417 ms  0.393 ms
 3  CENSORED (CENSORED)  1.726 ms  1.718 ms  1.682 ms
 4  CENSORED (CENSORED)  26.699 ms  26.693 ms  26.670 ms
 5  CENSORED (CENSORED)  27.785 ms  27.769 ms  27.746 ms
 6  * * *
 7  * * *
 8  * * *
 9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *
14  * * *
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *
[USERNAME@HOSTNAME ~]$

The fifth CENSORED IP address in the traceroute isn't the same as at the "ping CENSORED.CENSORED".

Answer 1

Try using a different method in your traceroute, for example TCP SYN or ICMP instead of the default UDP method.

For example note the difference between ICMP and TCP:

x@x:~$ ping -qc4 94.254.2.51
PING 94.254.2.51 (94.254.2.51) 56(84) bytes of data.
--- 94.254.3.90 ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 received, 0% packet loss, time 3009ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 7.781/7.807/7.836/0.067 ms

x@x:~$ sudo traceroute -I 94.254.2.51
traceroute to 94.254.2.51 (94.254.2.51), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  <REDACTED>
2  <REDACTED>
3  <REDACTED>
4  <REDACTED>
5  netnod-ix-ge-a-sth-1500.bahnhof.net (194.68.123.85)  1.307 ms  1.299 ms  1.432 ms
6  sto-cr1.sto-cr3.bahnhof.net (85.24.151.165)  7.166 ms  7.364 ms  7.336 ms
7  sto-cr3.gav-cr1.bahnhof.net (85.24.151.195)  7.251 ms  7.099 ms  7.220 ms
8  zitius-a322-gw-c.bahnhof.net (85.24.153.249)  7.059 ms  7.074 ms  7.145 ms
9  h-2-51.A322.priv.bahnhof.se (94.254.2.51)  7.619 ms  7.750 ms  8.070 ms

x@x:~$ sudo traceroute -T 94.254.2.51
traceroute to 94.254.2.51 (94.254.2.51), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  <REDACTED>
2  <REDACTED>
3  <REDACTED>
4  <REDACTED>
5  netnod-ix-ge-a-sth-1500.bahnhof.net (194.68.123.85)  1.621 ms  1.683 ms  1.817 ms
6  sto-cr1.sto-cr3.bahnhof.net (85.24.151.165)  8.530 ms  7.861 ms  7.820 ms
7  sto-cr3.gav-cr1.bahnhof.net (85.24.151.195)  7.724 ms  7.539 ms  7.486 ms
8  zitius-a322-gw-c.bahnhof.net (85.24.153.249)  7.572 ms  7.537 ms  7.553 ms
9  * * *
10  * * *
11  * * *
12  * * *
13  * * *

Answer 2

Traceroute is based on ICMP or UDP packets. It effectively pings each router on the path between you and censored.censored. It increases the Time-To-Live (TTL) for each subsequent packet it sends (from 1-30 normally) expecting that as each packet is sent with an increased TTL from the last, the next router in the path will return an error code.

If hop 6 isn't responding, it's probably specifically blocking ICMP/UDP messages. Ping therefore works because the routers between you and it are just passing the ICMP/UDP packets through to it rather than responding to them, as they do with a traceroute.

Answer 3

I saw no answer to the why part of the questions.

Several ISPs are known to make their routers stealth to traceroute in two ways: they either don't decrement TTL in IP packets (making themselves IP wormholes) or they don't respond to expired TTL while still forwarding ICMP.

The reason is to keep their internal network topology private. That's all.

Issuing traceroutes from/to multiple sources/destination reveals information on network topology, which is something like not everyone appreciates.

Answer 4

Traceroute relies on ICMP messages, which some routers might be configured to not respond to.

Answer 5

Sometimes it's worth using ping to get traceroute-like information:

#!/bin/bash
for TTL in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
do
    ping -c 1 -n -t $TTL a.b.c.d
done

By calling ping with a -t $TTL argument, you can sometimes elude the firewall, and find out IP addresses and so forth of routers behind firewalls.

Answer 6

Either all noded from 6 onwards doesn't respond to UDP packets or node 6 itself block udp packets. You can try the fllowing methods, which I hope will work based on which node in the path to detination blocks ICMP/TCP SYN :

1. Use ICMP to traceroute : $ sudo traceroute -I

2. Use TCP syn to traceroute : $ sudo traceroute -T

3. If it's the hops which it is exceeding, then use either of the following : $ sudo traceroute -I -m 60

OR

$ sudo traceroute -T -m 60

The latter worked for me while tracerouting to an ftp across the continent.

Answer 7

For using ping command to traceroute in unix environment, try this :

for ((TTL=1;TTL<30;TTL++));
do
ping -c 1 -t $TTL <IP>;
done