Slow Internet: How to Detect the Problem with Pathping

Is your internet connection slower than usual and you don't know why? You may have restarted your router, closed background programs, and even changed browsers without success. Before you despair, there's a little-known but very powerful tool that can help you find the problem: the pathping command.

This command, available in Windows, combines the best of ping and tracert to give you a detailed view of what's happening from your computer to the server you're trying to access. In this article, we'll explain in detail what pathping does, how it works, and how it can help you diagnose a slow connection.

What is pathping and why is it useful for slow internet?

Pathping is a command-line tool exclusive to Windows systems It analyzes the path that data packets take from your device to a specific destination (such as a website or server). Its great advantage is that it not only shows where the data passes, but also calculates latency at each hop and packet loss, which allows to locate where there are problems along the route.

In a box of slow Internet, there are two key factors to analyze:

• La latency, that is, the time it takes for data packets to travel from your computer to their destination. If this is high, real-time applications (such as online gaming or video calls) may experience difficulties.
• La packet loss, which means that part of the information sent does not arrive correctly, causing interruptions, errors or slowness.

Using pathping, you can detect exact points where losses or delays occur in the network, whether it's a saturated router, a slow link, or a problem with the service provider.

How pathping works: what exactly it does

When running pathping, this first determines the path of the data, just as a tracert command would. Then start sending multiple echo requests (ICMP) to each of the intermediate hops along the route. This process can take up to 90 seconds or more, depending on the distance and complexity of the network.

The results it yields refer to different aspects of the connection:

• List of routers or intermediate equipment between your computer and the destination
• Response times (RTT) of each team
• Packet loss both by node and by link between nodes

A major Advantages of pathping about ping or tracert is that difference between packet loss to a node and loss on the link between nodesThis lets you know if a router is overloaded or if there's a problem with the wiring or connection between two points.

Most useful pathping syntax and parameters

The basic syntax of pathping is very simple:

pathping www.ejemplo.com

Several parameters can be added to customize its behavior and speed up the analysis:

• /n: Prevents domain names from being resolved by IP. Speeds up the process.
• /h: sets the maximum number of hops (default 30).
• /q: number of echo requests sent per hop (default, 100).
• /p: time between each consecutive ping.
• /w: Time to wait before considering a response as failed.
• /4 o /6: forces the use of IPv4 or IPv6 respectively.

For example, if you want to do a quick test with 20 pings per hop and only 4 hops, you can use:

pathping /q 20 /h 4 www.facebook.com

Real example of pathping output

A typical output might look something like this:

Hop RTT  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
0           0/100 = 0%    192.168.1.1
1  23ms     0/100 = 0%    10.0.0.1
2  45ms     13/100 = 13%  172.16.0.1
3  66ms     14/100 = 14%  8.8.8.8

In this example, We can see that hop 2 and 3 are losing packets, which indicates congestion or failures on those links.Hop 3 is likely the destination, and if we see loss from there, it's likely the destination is saturated or there are issues in that network area. If you're curious about how to check your internet speed, I recommend reading this article.

How to interpret pathping results

The keys to interpreting pathping results are in two sections: the percentage of loss and the response timeIf you see more than 5% of packets being lost, something is wrong. And if latency is higher than 150-200 ms on domestic links, this also warrants investigation.

The values ​​can be due to various causes:

• High loss in one jump: router or server overloaded.
• Loss in the link (vertical line |): problem in the channel between two points.
• Constant high latency: long geographical distance or congestion.
• Variable latency: : unstable network or interference.

It's important to know that Some intermediate routers may be configured not to respond to ICMP, so the absence of data does not always indicate an error.

Routing Problems: When the Path is the Culprit

Sometimes the problem isn't in your home or on the website you're trying to visit, but in the path the data travels. This is known as routing problem and it usually occurs when data takes unnecessary or erroneous routes, often due to technical decisions by the internet provider.

This may cause your data to be jump to other countries unnecessarily (such as going through the US to travel from Madrid to Seville), which slows down traffic and increases the chance of errors. If this phenomenon occurs frequently, it may be advisable to review your connection settings.

A common example in Spain is that Some Movistar customers may experience incorrect routing when trying to access certain services.Pathping allows you to clearly see these types of situations, showing unnecessary jumps or inefficient routes.

How to report a pathping problem to your provider

If you suspect your provider is involved in the slowness issue, you can use pathping to generate a technical report:

1. Get the IP address of the server/provider you are trying to reach
2. Open the Windows Command Prompt (CMD) as administrator
3. Run the command: pathping XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX > C:\pathping.txt
4. Attach the generated file in an email to your internet provider

This step is key to that technical support has concrete evidence and can escalate the issue at a more technical level, as customer service staff often have limited routing knowledge.

Temporary solutions if routing fails

While your provider resolves the issue, you can try alternatives to continue browsing normally:

• Use another internet line, for example, by sharing a connection from your mobile phone using 3G/4G (remember to disable Wi-Fi on your mobile phone to force the use of mobile data).
• Install a VPNThese virtual private networks reassign the data path, bypassing traditional routing. This can solve the problem even if the connection is the same.

When we notice that the internet is slow, we often blame the router or the computer. Thanks to tools like PathPing, we can gain a much clearer view of where the bottlenecks are. Ultimately, this type of analysis can be the difference between sailing through frustration or doing so smoothly.