Question My route is 15 hops long, but hops 1-14 show 100% packet loss (and no IP Address or DNS Names) and only the final destination shows anything. What's causing this? Solution The final destination reports back with an ICMP echo reply,... Read More

Question Why do traces to some sites always return 'Destination Address Unreachable'. I can connect to that site fine with Internet Explorer or Netscape! Solution One of the routers used between you and the destination site is not passing... Read More

Question When I try to trace to a destination with PingPlotter, and I get "Destination Address Unreachable" at hop 1. How do I correct this situation? Solution With the advent of internet security threats, many firewalls lock down all outgoing... Read More

QuestionWhy do I sometimes see blank lines in the graph display? There's a hop number but no IP address, etc. listed.SolutionThe absence of an IP address (and 100% packet loss) for a specific hop means that no router has responded for that hop. This... Read More

Question The target I'm tracing to doesn't respond in PingPlotter, but it works just fine in my browser. Is there any way to access it? Solution By default, PingPlotter uses ICMP echo requests - which are sometimes blocked by target... Read More

Question I sent my PingPlotter graphs and information to our network administrators and they responded back that traceroute is not an accurate way of troubleshooting networks. They say that the first slow hop is the weakest link and invalidates any... Read More

Question A 'pure ping' using -t switch shows no problems, but Ping Plotter shows many packet losses. What would cause that? Solution First, make sure you're comparing the final destination of PingPlotter with the 'pure ping&... Read More

Question What kind of conditions should I be looking for in PingPlotter? I get occasional timeouts in applications I'm using - how do I know what's causing those problems? Solution Ideally, what you're looking to do is correlate a... Read More

Question Can I associate a 'friendly name' with an IP Address? The automatic name doesn't really help identify a target. Solution Yes, you can! Both PingPlotter and MultiPing offer a mechanism for associating a friendly name with an... Read More

Question Why do the red "packet loss" lines have different vertical heights on the graph? Solution Each "pixel" in the time-graph is comprised of anywhere from 1 to many samples. When you're looking at 5 minutes of data in a time-graph, any... Read More

Question How do I export data from Ping Plotter into Excel, and then see the Average times and packet loss? Solution Ping Plotter allows you to export data to a text file (File -> Export to text file), which you can then import into a package like... Read More

Question I need to configure my firewall to not block PingPlotter data. Which ports do I need to open? Solution PingPlotter's port use varies depending on the packet type. We'll discuss the 3 primary packet types and the ports / protocols... Read More

Question I'm using a proxy server. Why can't I see anything beyond the proxy server with Ping Plotter? Solution If your internet connection is being shared through a traditional proxy server (which is becoming less and less popular since... Read More

Question I'd like to configure PingPlotter to run continously. Are there any guidelines on how to configure PingPlotter to auto-save data? Solution Continuous Monitoring Guidelines We have some basic guidelines, although your... Read More

Question The first ping that I send somewhere is always slow the first time, then every subsequent time it is significantly better (the first hop is really fast; its the first ping that is slow). My first pings run 300-500 ms, then subsequent ones... Read More

Question I have both a cable modem (ethernet interface) and dialup connection. PingPlotter works great on the cable modem connection but I can't get it to work on a dial up connection. I know it's working because I can browse the net with... Read More

Question Why does hop 1 (or any number of initial hops) lose packets 100% of the time? Solution Often your local router/modem just doesn't respond to ICMP requests (more specifically, it doesn't create ICMP TTL Expired packets). This... Read More

Question The ping times don't always seem to add up logically to me. For example, I commonly see the avg. time for a single hop being longer than the total return trip number. This doesn't make sense to me. Solution The latencies (average,... Read More

QuestionI recently started using Windows OneCare Live. PingPlotter doesn't show any information about the route. What's wrong?SolutionNote: This information is written about the Windows OneCare Live Beta. It's possible things may change before the... Read More

Question My router is showing odd packet loss numbers that TRACERT doesn't show. I've heard of problems with this router servicing multiple oustanding ICMP echo requests. How can I configure PingPlotter to only do one oustanding packet... Read More

Question When I export to a text file, some lines end with * - which seems to mean no response. I also get a few that end with N/A. What does that mean? Solution The * indicates a lost packet. The N/A means that that router wasn't participating... Read More

Question I would like to use PingPlotter Standard to monitor more than one destination. Is that possible? Solution Any one instance of PingPlotter Standard can only trace to a single destination. To monitor multiple IP addresses, you can run... Read More

Question I'm using TCP packets and I'm having some problems. What settings should I use? Solution Packet Size Native TCP SYN packets are 40 bytes. PingPlotter allows you to manipulate this and create larger packets, but these packets do... Read More

Question I have gray periods in the timeline graph. What does that mean? Solution A gray (ie: background) period in a time graph means that PingPlotter didn't *expect* any data from that host during the period the graph shows gray (think ... Read More

Question Can PingPlotter be used to troubleshoot problems in a VPN (Virtual Private Network)? Solution PingPlotter primary purpose is to troubleshoot network bottlenecks, and a VPN bottleneck is definitely one that many people have used PingPlotter... Read More

Question How do I set up the trace graph so I can see the average, maximum, minimum, packet loss percentage, etc? I had them visible once and now I seem to have lost them. Solution Do a mouse 'right-click' anywhere on the upper graph area.... Read More

QuestionI've have PingPlotter installed. Now what do I do? I don't have a clue how to get started.SolutionThe first place you should look is our getting started guide which has an introduction to use, plus hands-on examples and exercises to help you... Read More

Question Can I auto-save graph images from PingPlotter for use on a web page, for ftp transfer, etc.? Solution Yes, PingPlotter supports saving of images in BMP, PNG or GIF format. In the auto-save image section you can set the save interval to tell... Read More

Question I often have network problems in iRacing. The lag indicator will show high latency, or the quality indicator shows problems. How do I find the source of the problem? Solution Of course, you were 1/2 lap ahead 45 minutes into a race when... Read More

Question A colleague and I are pinging the same website from different locations (geographically, we are about 30 miles apart, both pinging a server about 1500 miles away) at 15 second intervals. Oddly, I will show a whole spurt of packets dropped by... Read More

Question Why am I seeing continual route changes when I run PP? There also are 10-50% packet loses on various hops. This doesn't seem to manifest itself when I download files. I am connected to Qwest DSL via a Cisco 678 router. Solution Route ... Read More

QuestionI'm seeing a message on the left that shows 'New Route Changes Logged'. What does that mean?SolutionPingPlotter keeps track of all route changes it discovers when tracing to a target. A route change can occur any time, and happens when... Read More

QuestionI'd like to have PingPlotter Standard running continuously - even when I'm not logged in. Is this possible?SolutionPingPlotter Pro runs natively as a Windows Service (for more details, see here), but PingPlotter Standard runs only as an... Read More

QuestionI'm having lag in World of Warcraft. How do I find my server, and how do I trace to it?SolutionPingPlotter can trace to World of Warcraft servers! Here are some tips and links on how to make that work. Finding your server's IP address First... Read More

QuestionWhen I trace to a target (usually by entering an IP address), it shows up with a name that isn't very helpful. Is there any way to change that?SolutionYup. There are several possibilities here. When entering the target IP address, add an ... Read More

QuestionI just installed ESET Security Suite 4.0, and now PingPlotter (and/or MultiPing) won't work. What do I need to do to fix this?SolutionThere are several solutions to this problem. ESET doesn't like the extra 'padding' we send out in packets ... Read More

QuestionI'm moving PingPlotter to a new machine - what do I need to move?SolutionDepending on how you're using PingPlotter, there are a few possible files / configuration settings that need to be moved. We'll talk about each section and you can use... Read More

QuestionI'm trying to send an email via the PingPlotter File -> Send Email option, but I'm getting errors. (General MAPI failure, MAPI Error, etc).SolutionThere are two likely possible problems that would cause MAPI-related errors. You just... Read More