IPinfo ProbeNet Live
IPinfo ProbeNet Live lets you ping or traceroute an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6) from ProbeNet PoPs (Points of Presence) around the world. Running measurements from multiple regions simultaneously helps you troubleshoot and investigate connectivity issues for any IP address.
Acesss & Limit
| Feature | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Rate limits | Lower | Higher |
| Region selection | Continent only | Country and continent |
| Probe assignment | Random within continent | Random within country |
Paid tier is available to subscribers of any premium IPinfo plan.
Ping
A ping measurement sends 10 packets per probe operation and summarizes results visually in the chart section. Both ICMP and TCP ping are supported. When using TCP, you can select a specific port to send the packets to.
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Location | The probe node sending packets to the target IP |
| Loss | Percentage of packets sent with no reply received |
| Sent | Total packets fired from that probe |
| Last | RTT of the most recent packet |
| Avg | Mean RTT across all sent packets |
| Best | Lowest RTT recorded, closest to true propagation delay |
| Worst | Highest RTT recorded, reveals occasional spikes |
| StDev | How consistent the RTTs are. Low means stable, high means jittery |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is the first ping usually the slowest? Before sending the first packet, the probe needs to look up the destination's hardware address (ARP) and domain name (DNS). That lookup only happens once and makes the first ping slower than the rest.
What does packet loss mean? The probe sent a packet but never got a reply back. This can happen because of network congestion, a firewall blocking the packets, the target server ignoring ICMP requests, or a broken link somewhere along the path.
What does 0.0% loss confirm? Every packet sent from that probe reached the target and got a reply, meaning the path between them is working cleanly.
Why might a geographically closer probe show higher latency? Internet traffic does not travel in a straight line between two points. It follows routes decided by BGP, a system that prioritizes network policies and agreements over physical distance, sometimes sending traffic through extra hops that add delay.
What causes a gap between Best and Worst RTT? Occasionally a router along the path gets briefly busy and delays the packet before forwarding it. This creates a one-off spike in RTT without indicating a persistent problem.
Why is ICMP latency not always representative of real application performance? Routers treat ping packets as low priority and handle them through a slower processing path. Regular application traffic like web requests gets handled differently, so ping results do not always reflect what a real user would experience.
What is congestion? When more data is being sent through a link than it can carry at that moment, packets pile up in a queue and wait their turn, which adds to RTT. If the queue gets completely full, the router starts dropping packets, which shows up as loss.
Trace
Trace measurements use MTR, which combines the functionality of traceroute and ping into a single tool. Unlike a standard traceroute that runs once, MTR sends multiple packets per hop and continuously updates the results. Each hop in the results is enriched with IPinfo IP intelligence data including location and ASN. Each traceroute operation sends 3 packets per hop.
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Hop | The sequence number of each router the packet passed through on its way to the target |
| IP Address | The address of the router at that hop |
| Location | The estimated geographic location of that router |
| ASN | The network that owns that router, identified by an Autonomous System Number |
| Loss | Percentage of packets that got no reply at that specific hop |
| Sent | Number of packets sent to that hop |
| Last | RTT of the most recent packet to that hop |
| Avg | Mean RTT across all packets to that hop |
| Best | Lowest RTT recorded to that hop |
| Worst | Highest RTT recorded to that hop |
| StDev | Consistency of RTT to that hop. Low means stable, high means variable |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why does a hop show 100% loss even when the destination is reachable? That router is configured to silently drop ICMP packets but still forwards your actual traffic normally. The hops after it appear fine because they respond to ICMP even though that middle router does not.
Why does traffic leave the country to reach a nearby destination? Routing follows BGP agreements between networks, not maps. If two networks in the same country do not peer directly with each other, traffic may transit through a third country where they do have a connection.
Why does RTT jump significantly between two adjacent hops? Each hop adds the physical propagation delay of the link connecting them. A large jump usually means those two routers are far apart geographically or connected through a slower link.
Why would traffic route halfway around the world to reach the destination? The source network may only have transit agreements that go through distant hubs. BGP selects routes based on policy and cost, not distance, so a technically longer path can be the only available one.
What happens when traceroute detects a routing loop? The same IP addresses start repeating in consecutive hops, meaning packets are bouncing between two or more routers indefinitely. The packet eventually gets dropped when its TTL reaches zero.
What happens when the hop limit of 30 is exceeded? Traceroute stops and reports that the destination was not reached. This usually means there is a routing loop, a firewall blocking TTL-expired replies beyond a certain point, or an unusually long path.
What is a * * * hop?
The router at that hop did not send back a TTL-expired reply, so traceroute has no information about it. The router exists and is forwarding traffic, it is just not responding to ICMP.
Why do private IP addresses like 10.x.x.x or 192.168.x.x appear mid-trace?
Those are internal routers inside a carrier or data center network that are not publicly addressable. They are real hops but their location cannot be looked up because private IPs are not registered to any organization.
Why does an intermediate hop show loss but all hops after it show 0%? That specific router deprioritizes or rate-limits ICMP replies when it is busy, but it still forwards traffic normally. The loss is in the router's reply generation, not in the actual forwarding path.
Why does traceroute take so long to complete? Each unresponsive hop waits for a timeout, typically 1 to 3 seconds, before moving on. With 30 possible hops and multiple timeouts along the way, a trace to an unresponsive destination can take over a minute.
How does loss work when only 3 packets are sent per hop? With 3 packets, loss can only be 0%, 33%, 66%, or 100%. A single dropped packet shows as 33%, which can look alarming but may just be a one-off event rather than a real problem. More packets sent gives a more accurate loss percentage.
Why does a hop have no ASN information? That IP address is not announced in the global BGP routing tables, meaning no network has publicly claimed ownership of it. This is common for internal carrier infrastructure or misconfigured network segments.
Why does the same ASN appear across multiple consecutive hops? Those routers all belong to the same network. Traffic often passes through several routers within a single provider before handing off to the next network.
Why does the location change between hops within the same ASN? Large networks span multiple cities and countries. As your packet moves through that network's internal infrastructure, it physically moves between locations before exiting to the next provider.