Related to IP and stuff

[blast]

Hy..
To introduce myself.. I'm Mate from Croatia and I'm pleased to be part of community although I haven't been very active before. But always around inspecting
I decided to ask few questions about my ip and internet privacy.

well there is something I found

Code: Select all

http://visualroute.visualware.com/

... it's something like IP tracer. This is my ip traced by myself.
I was wondering if someone could explain those "hops" and is it normal to have lots of hops especially from USA :S ...
It's actually one question and I would be very glad if someone has time to explain. Thanks a lot

blast.

[bad_brain]

well, the traceroute is done between their server and your computer, of course there is no direct connection (like one long cable), and their server is located in the USA as it seems.

the data you send/receive on the internet is routed from one router to the next from the source system to the target system, and every router performs a check....it asks every other router next to him "do you know where to route the data packet to?" and the first router that answers with "yes" is the next hop on the route between the sender and the recipient.

the longer the distance between the sender and the recipient the more hops are done....and countries like the USA that have a lot of internet users simply need more routers to distribute the loads of traffic (more routers also provide a more reliable service, if one router is broken the data simply hops to another one instead), so there are more hops in relation to the distance than in countries with just a few internet users and just a basic network infrastructure.

[blast]

Thanks for detailed and simplified answer