Summit 09 Bonus: All Summit 09 attendees will receive a full licensed copy of NetScanTools Pro - a $249 value.During troubleshooting processes, a standard ping test is often used to check connectivity to a host and determine the round trip latency time. This process uses an ICMP Type 8 Echo Request and relies on an ICMP Type 0 Echo Reply.
Sometimes, however, the target won't respond to ICMP Echo Replies - either because it is configured to ignore these ICMP Echo Requests or because a device along the path filters these packets out so they don't reach the target.
I prefer to perform traceroute using NetScanTools' TCP option. Besides setting the TCP port and the sequence number settings, you can also set the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) to test the maximum packet size along a path.Another option available is to set the TCP window size - in our example I have set the window size field value to 16,384. In addition, you can define the payload - using a binary or text file.
Why would you use a big fat file for the test? Ahhh... my padawan - to test the MTU allowed through the path and consider putting a signature in the payload that should trigger an IDS or be logged by a firewall - multiple birds with one stone - connectivity testing, latency testing, IDS/firewall testing! Nice!
In the figure below, you can see my host 192.168.0.113 sending a series of TCP SYN packets - the target port is 79 (finger). The packets colored with a red background have an IP header Time-to-Live value less than 5 - a sure sign of a traceroute operation.
When we reach the target, a
RST is generated in response. That's what gives us our round trip latency time.I appreciate why companies restrict ICMP-based traffic on their networks - and when I'm doing connectivity tests and latency tests, customizing my TCP-based traceroutes always sits on the top of my to-do list.Enjoy life one bit at a time!
Laura
