A Reason to Have Students Conduct Traceroutes Even if You’re Not a Computer Science Teacher

Back in November I published a video about using the ping command on a Windows computer. The reason for that was to show an easy method to check if a website is down or if there is a problem on your end. 

Using the ping command in the command prompt window on your computer might seem like something only computer science teachers and students should do, but the reality is that any teacher or student can benefit from knowing how to do it. Likewise, running a traceroute might seem like something only a computer science teacher or student should know how to do, but it’s actually something that anyone can benefit from knowing how to do. 

A traceroute shows you the hops or connection points between your computer and the destination (often a website). This is an interesting way for students to see where in the world traffic is going to and coming from. Run a few traceroutes with your students and see if they’re surprised by what they see. Watch this short video in which I demonstrate how to conduct a traceroute.