Traceroute Originally a Unix program, Traceroute is now available on most platforms. Traceroute is a utility that allows you to see how and where information travels on the Net. It traces the path a packet takes as it is sent from your computer to a destination computer (such as the server for a Web site). When encountering a particularly slow Web site, a Traceroute program can help you evaluate which link in the Internet chain is responsible for the lag time.