Friday, July 2, 2010

How to trace the location of a host server

Whenever you visit a website you are routed through various servers and locations before ending up to the final host server here's a method to trace the location of a host server through a really simple command and a website which can be used on any Windows PC.

Step 1
Click on Start and go to command prompt by typing cmd in the run box. OR Simply go to Accessories and click on Command Prompt.

Step 2
In the Command Prompt Type tracert followed by the address of the website you want to trace. For example if you want to trace the routes for my website-- 
tracert www.mytechcenter.co.cc
OR  tracert www.yahoo.com  
(Remember only type address beginning with www don't type the url with http://)


Now my website is hosted on blogger so it is hosted on google servers. It takes almost 18 routes before reaching my website from my internet connection.

Step 3
Now that we have traced the host server IP ie. the last line before trace complete, in my case as you can see it is 74.125.95.121 we can easily trace the server location and other details. Now you can't use copy in Command Prompt so just write down the IP address  on a piece of paper or type it on notepad and then put in the Lookup IP Information box on the website  
It will show you all the details of the website like its location on google maps ,the hosting service, company name and a ton of other stuff.


You can also trace the location of the routes you went through by putting in the route IP addresses. 
Have fun tinkering and finding server locations of your favorite websites! If you have a problem doing it, put it in the comments and i can help you out.

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