Understanding traceroute-result / the connections between ISP-networks

bgpinternetnetworking

I was playing with traceroute and discovered that I have a gap in my knowledge on how the Internet works. So, in order to get a better feeling for what happens when I connect to a host, I think I first need to understand what happened when I contacted a host in Russia from my computer in Germany.

The traceroute result (excerpt):

6  [AS16374] bcix.retn.net (193.178.185.64) 36 bytes to 10.0.0.2  34.623 ms  34.687 ms  35.207 ms
7  [AS9002] ae1-7.rt.m9p.msk.ru.retn.net (87.245.233.246) 36 bytes to 10.0.0.2  79.420 ms  80.979 ms  79.858 ms
8  [AS9002] gw-garstelecom.retn.net (87.245.229.166) 36 bytes to 10.0.0.2  83.922 ms  77.011 ms  78.163 ms
9  [AS31261] new.themoscowtimes.com (94.124.197.56) 60 bytes to 10.0.0.2  80.030 ms  80.265 ms  80.512 ms

So, if I interpret this correctly, apparently, the packet goes through the exchange in Berlin (bcix) and then the next stop is already in the Ukraine (hop 7, retn.net).

Does that mean there's a direct cable connection between Berlin and Ukraine? Or are some hops masked away? I mean, there's at least one country in between (Poland)? Or is it possible that hops 7 or 8 are in Poland, but they resolve to Russian/Ukrainian looking hostnames?

Or what exactly does that result mean?

Thank you.

Best Answer

You are only seeing the IP routing part here - which is not necessarily tied to geographic locations.

The Internet consists of many different technologies, your packet gets encaspulated, tunneled, dissected and put together again a many times on it's journey from your computer to the server.

IMHO It's impossible to explain this in a short & concise manner fit for here - best start your research with the Wikipedia Article on the Internet, namely the Routing section.

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