TestOut LabSim A+ Certification Practice Exam

What tool is required for determining both the round-trip time and the path taken to a destination server?

1. traceroute

2. ping

3. nslookup

4. ipconfig

The correct answer is: traceroute

The tool specifically designed to determine both the round-trip time and the path taken to a destination server is traceroute. Traceroute functions by sending packets with increasing Time to Live (TTL) values, which enables it to identify each hop along the route to the destination. As the packets are sent, each router that processes the packets returns a message to the source, allowing traceroute to map out the entire path and measure the time taken at each hop. This process provides valuable insights into both the latency (round-trip time) and the routers involved in the data transmission path, which is essential for network troubleshooting and performance analysis. The other tools mentioned serve different purposes: ping is primarily used to check connectivity and measure round-trip time to a specific IP address or hostname, but it does not provide information about the path taken. nslookup is a utility for querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to retrieve domain name or IP address mapping information and does not deal with routing or latency. ipconfig is a command used to display network configuration details of a computer, such as its IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway, but does not facilitate path tracing or round-trip time measurement.