If you cannot connect to a computer over a network, there might be something wrong with the remote PC or with your Internet connection. Or your router might need a reset. Or your Internet provider could be having a temporarily problem that they'll eventually solve. Or maybe it's the fault of one of the routers, switches, access points, servers, or other network hosts that are in between you and the remote computer. How would you know for sure?

In the beginning of the Internet, a tool called traceroute was introduced in Unix. Traceroute does exactly what its name suggests: it traces the route of IP packets while they travel from your PC to the remote destination. The tool essentially allows you to see exactly where the connectivity problem is, no matter how far it is from your computer. The last host to respond to traceroute is the last host that is working properly. The first one that fails to respond is the faulty one.

There is a free tool called tracert.exe that comes with most versions of Windows. You can use this tool to traceroute the remote PC. To use tracert.exe, you would typically invoke a command line, which would open a black console window, and type tracert.exe followed with the IP address of the computer you want to check. Usually you would get a response right in the console window in a matter of seconds. You get the response in a Spartan-looking black console window.

While there's nothing particularly wrong in using the supplied tracert.exe, we at Soft Institute wrapped the same thing into a much more convenient package. SI Trace provides clearly legible, well-formatted output by providing easy to understand numbers and well-explained results. It displays all the vital information from classic Unix traceroute and Windows tracert commands, and allows you to check more than one computer by simply selecting the address from a combo box. Thanks to its user-friendly interface, it is much more convenient to use than Windows tracert.

• WinTraceRoute 2.4
  This is a Windows based tracert/traceroute software to display path that network packets take when travelling across the global IP networks. Excellent tool for network...

• BKTraceRoute 3.0.0
  The BKTraceRoute v3

• WhoisAssistant 1.1
  Direct Whois Lookup, Automatically Traceroute.

• TraceAlarm 1.0
  TraceAlarm is a program that continuously watches and monitors any changes of route to the remote host

• Console Server 2.1
  Console Server application was designed to be an efficient tool that will help you work with remote COM ports by Telnet. Console Server main features: Provides work with COM ports (RS-232) on a remote PC by Telnet Provides ports description Provides dynamic and static user identification Allows view only mode

• Acid Scanner 1.0
  Acid Scanner is advanced and versatile monitoring tool that allow administrators or common users scan their networks for possible security risk and uncover unprotected ways to their computers

• AdRem sfConsole 2009
  Web-enabled, protocol-independent solution for fast remote and local access to the NetWare console protected with ultra-strong encryption and eDirectory authentication. Remote access the console is possible via the web, firewall, Linux machines,...