TTL is the short code for Time To Live. TTL is located in IP packets where it is used to hold the count of intermediate hops. TTL is value is set by source host. Windows operating system set it to 64 where Linux operating systems set to 128. Every router or intermediate host the packet pass will decrease the TTL value of the IP packet.

TTL generally used with different network troubleshooting tools like tracert, ping etc. TTL value provides the intermediate host counts.

Trace To Google

In this part we will trace to the google.com  where there is no TTL related restriction for IP packet transfer.  We will use tracepath  command with the remote host name which is google.com .

$ tracepath google.com

Too Many Hops

Now we will set very low TTL value where it will reach 0 in 4. hop. We will use -m with the 4 which is TTL.

$ tracepath -m 4 google.com

Solution or Fix – Increase The TTL Value

We will change the TTL value to the 255 which is the maximum and works like a charm. If it is not working there is loop in the network between source and destination.

$ tracepath -m 255 google.com