Traceroute Checker

Overview

The Traceroute Checker is a server-side network diagnostic tool that traces the path network packets take from our server to a user-specified destination (hostname or IP address). It helps diagnose network connectivity issues, identify sources of latency, and verify routing paths. This tool is essential for web developers, network engineers, and anyone troubleshooting slow or failed connections to a remote server.

Features

• Server-Side Execution: All traceroute commands are executed from our web server, providing a consistent and powerful diagnostic viewpoint. Browsers cannot perform this kind of low-level network tracing, making a server-side tool necessary.
• Flexible Target Input: Accepts hostnames (e.g., google.com), IPv4 addresses (e.g., 8.8.8.8), and IPv6 addresses (e.g., 2001:4860:4860::8888).
• Customizable Options:
  • Max Hops: Set the maximum number of hops (routers) to trace, with a default of 30.
  • Timeout: Configure the wait time for each probe in milliseconds (default 2000ms).
• Detailed Path Visualization: Displays a sequential list of hops, each showing:
  • Hop number.
  • IP address of the router.
  • Resolved hostname (if available).
  • Round-trip time (RTT) for each probe.
• Clear Status & Export: Provides real-time status updates ("Tracing...", "Trace Complete") and allows results to be downloaded as a .txt file.
• Security Focused: User input is strictly validated and sanitized on the server to prevent command injection vulnerabilities.

Implementation Details

• Component: src/components/Tools/TracerouteChecker.jsx manages the user interface, state, and options.
• Backend API: A new Next.js API route at /api/traceroute handles the core logic.
• Core Logic: The API uses Node.js's child_process.spawn to safely execute the system's traceroute command. This method is more secure than exec as it prevents shell injection.
• Output Parsing: The raw traceroute output is parsed on the server using regular expressions and sent to the client as structured JSON data.
• UI Integration: Uses the site's existing InputArea, OutputArea, and ToolOptions components for a consistent and responsive user experience.