How did I get here?
15 days ago
- #networking
- #traceroute
- #BGP
- The author's server hit the Hacker News front page, causing traffic issues.
- A custom traceroute program called 'ktr' was developed to trace packet paths across the Internet.
- ICMP protocol with TTL (Time to Live) fields is used to perform traceroutes by sending packets with incrementally increasing TTL values.
- The website loads traceroute results in real-time without JavaScript, using CSS tricks to simulate updates.
- Reverse traceroutes are used, which may not be perfectly accurate due to asymmetric routing paths.
- Autonomous Systems (AS) are networks owned by companies that decide Internet routing via BGP (Border Gateway Protocol).
- BGP v4, introduced in 1994, is still the standard protocol for routing between ASes.
- Peering relationships between ASes allow traffic to flow across the Internet, governed by financial and bureaucratic agreements.
- WHOIS and PeeringDB are used to identify AS ownership and network details.
- The project is open-source, aiming to educate about Internet structure and protocols.