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What does it mean when traceroute continues after its destination?

For example; if I was trying to traceroute 4.4.4.4 why would something like the following occur:

13  x.x.x.x (xxxx)  26.966 ms  29.600 ms  44.526 ms
14  4.4.4.4 (xxxx)  29.274 ms  28.462 ms  28.840 ms
15  * * *
16  * * *
17  * *
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    Try both ICMP and UDP traceroutes. In my experience one of the two types of traceroute works properly in most cases.
    – Saurabh Barjatiya
    Mar 7, 2013 at 3:44

1 Answer 1

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4.4.4.4 is not returning the correct response to show the destination has been reached. Traceroute relies on this reply (ICMP Port Unreachable according to the link you provided - I remember it from working with traceroute but can't remember the precise signal name).

Traceroute itself doesn't just check for a response that comes from the destination, just the type of response received to check if it has reached the destination.

So I would guess that ICMP on 4.4.4.4 is a problem, either through a Firewall blocking issue or some sort of port-forwarding configuration.

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