Mar 21 2008

To traceroute or not to traceroute?

Published by Andrew at 7:37 PM under gaming, geeking

Last night I’m on my DoD clan’s Ventrillo server just before a scrimmage and yakking with teammates waiting for the game to begin.
I apologized for getting home and logging on only minutes before the game is due to start as I had to work late and only just got home.
One of them asks what I do for a living, I explain that I work for CI Host, one of the larger Internet server hosting companies and he asks if that means I know about networking. I explain that I’m more of a Unix guy than a Network guy, but that does come with having to know a little about networking. He mentions that since the clan switched servers, he and his wife (who also plays) have noticed quite an increase in his ping time. He did a trace to the server and saw the route go from Houston (where they live) out to California, bounce around a while, then back to Dallas (where the server is located).
I tell him to send me a copy of his traceroute and I’ll take a look.
I logged onto the clam forum site and see he sent me a private message.
Did he cut and paste the traceroute into the message?
Nope. He made a screenshot of the DOS window and attached the .bmp file.

Dunno what to say about a guy who knows how to do a traceroute, but not a cut’n'paste. :)

Not making the assumption that my gentle readers know what the hell I’m talking about…
Day of Defeat, a WWII simulation in the First Person Shooter genre.
A VoIP application popular amongst gamers, that creates something akin to a conference call.
A game that is more than a standard public “for fun” free for all but not as formal a league “match” that counts towards a team/clan’s standing in a game season.