Subject: Re: traceroute max ttl uplift
To: Wolfgang Rupprecht <wolfgang+gnus20020519T112731@wsrcc.com>
From: Andrew Brown <atatat@atatdot.net>
List: tech-net
Date: 05/19/2002 15:18:51
>> I'd like to change the default maxttl from 30 to
>> 64 (this matches the kernel default ttl too).  Apart from causing longer
>> reports when packets go in circles, can anyone see a reason not to bump
>> this up ?
>
>Ping has long used a TTL of 255.  Why not do something similar for
>traceroute?  To prevent one from seeing 200+ failure lines traceroute
>could simply stop upping the ttl whenever the past N TTL settings
>failed.  (Eg. if the past 5-10 traceroute TTL's didn't get a reply,
>stop incrementing the TTL and exit.)

the difference between ping and traceroute is that ping starts off by
attempting to "get there", whereas traceroute starts off by assuming
it can't.

there are reasons for not giving up after 5-10 "hops" that don't
respond...see the traceroute source for examples.

otoh, another option to specify the number of drops after which
traceroute gives up might be a neat idea.

-- 
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