Testing Connectivity with traceroute
A very simple way to test connectivity between hosts, and to verify routing paths is to use the traceroute tool. traceroute uses UDP datagrams (or ICMP if the -I option is specified) to determine the path which packets take over the network. Unfortunately, traceroute is not installed by default. Luckily, Ubuntu makes it easy to add. If you can “see” the Internet, simply issue the command:
<cli>
icct@myhost:~$ sudo apt-get install traceroute
</cli>
This has the effect of downloading the traceroute package from the Internet and installing it for you. You may be asked to run the additional command:
<cli>
icct@myhost:~$ sudo apt-get update
</cli>
Once installed, traceroute is invoked as follows:
<cli>
icct@myhost:~$ traceroute -n www.swan.ac.uk
</cli>
Try this command from your host and note the results.
What Next?
Once you have achieved a connection to the interface, you need to update your installation of Ubuntu. You can do this most easily from the command line using the apt-get utility: <cli> icct@myhost:~$ sudo apt-get update </cli>
Now that your network is configured, we can move on to installing an Apache web server. This will be the subject of the next lab exercise.