---
title: "traceroute on Mac: find where the connection slows down · Kilobat Guides"
url: "https://kilobat.app/guides/traceroute-mac"
description: "Use traceroute in Terminal to see each router between your Mac and a server, read the times and the asterisks, and know what the results can prove."
---

Websites and speed

# Find where a connection slows down with traceroute

`traceroute` shows each router on the path from your Mac to a host, with the time each one takes to answer.

Applies to: All current macOS versions. · Checked: 29 October 2026

## Symptoms

- One site or service is slow, but others are fast.
- You want to know if a delay is in your network or past it.
- Your provider asks for a trace of the route.

## Likely causes

- **Congestion on one part of the route.** A delay that starts at one hop and stays to the last hop shows a slow part of the path.
- **Routers that give low priority to probes.** One slow hop that recovers at the next hop is usually not a problem.
- **Routers that do not answer.** The man page says that an asterisk means no answer before the timeout. Some routers do not send the answers that traceroute needs.

## How to check

1. Open Terminal and trace the route to the host.

   ```
   traceroute example.com
   ```

   Output One line for each hop, with its address and three response times. An asterisk means that no answer came.
2. To skip name lookups and get results faster, add `-n`.

   ```
   traceroute -n example.com
   ```
3. If many hops show only asterisks, try ICMP probes with `-I`.

   ```
   traceroute -I example.com
   ```
4. Find the first hop where the times go up and stay up to the end.
5. Run the trace two or three times. Use the same pattern in all runs, not one result.

## How to fix it

1. If the delay starts at the first hop, examine your Wi-Fi or router. See [Slow internet on a Mac: find which part is slow](https://kilobat.app/guides/slow-internet-mac-cause).
2. If the delay starts in your provider's network, send the trace to your provider.
3. If the delay starts near the destination, contact the service or wait.
4. Do not use one slow middle hop as proof. Look at the last hop too.

## With Kilobat

1. Kilobat runs a bounded 12-hop route probe and saves it with the route history.

   ```
   kilobat trace example.com
   ```
2. To see whether a slow hop stays slow, trace three times. Kilobat combines every saved trace to the host hop by hop, like mtr.

   ```
   kilobat trace example.com --rounds 3
   ```
3. Show the loss, best, average and worst delay for each hop, and where lasting delay starts.

   ```
   kilobat route-history --host example.com
   ```
4. Agents can call the MCP tool `trace_route` with a `host` and `rounds`, and `get_route_history`.

## Questions

**Why does a hop show * * *?**

That router did not answer in time. Many routers do not answer probes. If later hops answer, the path works.

**Does traceroute need an administrator password?**

No. The default UDP probes and `-I` work for any user.

## Sources

- traceroute(8), man page installed with macOS 27.2
- ping(8), man page installed with macOS 27.2

Sources checked on 29 October 2026. Man pages are the ones installed with macOS; open one with `man <name>` in Terminal.

## Related guides

- [Test for packet loss on a Mac with ping](https://kilobat.app/guides/packet-loss-mac): Packet loss makes calls break up and pages stall.
- [Slow internet on a Mac: find which part is slow](https://kilobat.app/guides/slow-internet-mac-cause): A slow connection has many possible causes.
- [A website works on your phone but not on your Mac](https://kilobat.app/guides/site-works-on-phone-not-mac): When a site opens on your phone but not on your Mac, the problem is usually on the Mac.
- [Find why one site or API won't connect](https://kilobat.app/guides/recipes/why-cant-it-connect): When the internet works but one address fails, Kilobat checks each layer in turn.