CompTIA Network+ Practice Test

Which command is typically used in Windows to perform a traceroute?

1. tcpdump

2. nslookup

3. tracert

4. dig

The correct answer is: tracert

The command typically used in Windows to perform a traceroute is "tracert." This command is designed to trace the route that packets take to reach a specific destination across an IP network. When you execute the tracert command followed by a target IP address or hostname, it sends Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo requests to the destination in order to determine the path taken by the packets and the round-trip time for each hop along that path. The information provided by the tracert command helps network administrators diagnose routing issues, understand network latency, and identify points of failure or delays in connectivity. The output will show you a list of hops and the time taken for packets to travel between each node, which is crucial for troubleshooting network problems. In contrast, the other commands listed serve different purposes: tcpdump is a packet analysis tool primarily used on Unix-based systems for capturing and analyzing network traffic. Nslookup is a command-line utility for querying Domain Name System (DNS) to obtain domain name or IP address mapping. Dig serves a similar purpose to nslookup but is often used for more advanced DNS querying and troubleshooting tasks on Unix-based systems.