DesktopPerspective^™  Web Services

2. How to Conduct a Trace Using the Support Portal   

This section will step through an example to illustrate how DesktopPerspective can be used by a Help Desk Representative in Virginia to analyze a connectivity problem experienced by a Remote User in London.

A remote customer in London is having problems connecting to a location and calls the Help Desk located in Virginia.  In order to see first hand where the problem lies, the Help Desk Representative sends the Remote User a link to the Reverse Trace Server site. 

• The Help Desk Representative provides the link found by clicking on the "Remote Trace Agent " link in the online instructions (Fig 2.1).
  

  
  
  Fig 2.1 DesktopPerspective Remote Trace Agent Link
  

The link will take the Remote User to a page similar to the one shown in the screenshot below (Fig 2.2).  Note that the Remote User will need to provide the Help Desk Representative with the session ID provided at the bottom of the page and the Name used to initiate the download.

Fig 2.2 DesktopPerspective Remote Trace Server Website

Clicking the Download button initiates the download of the Reverse Trace Agent (helpdesk.exe) to the Remote User's local system.  The Remote User will be prompted to either open or save the Reverse Trace Agent.  Once the agent is opened, a dialog box like the one below will appear on the local desktop:

Fig 2.3 Reverse Trace Agent Dialog Box

The Reverse Trace Agent should automatically be connected to the DesktopPerspective server.  If not, the Remote User can click on the Connect button to connect.  This button toggles between Connect and Disconnect to indicate the status.

The Help Desk Representative based in Virginia is now prepared to conduct a trace from the Remote User's desktop to the desired location by connecting to the DesktopPerspective Server.   

• The Helpdesk Representative connects to the DesktopPerspective Server by entering the Remote User's Session ID in the appropriate text box of the GUI as shown in Fig 2.4 below. This will reset the DesktopPerspective GUI to include the text and selection options shown in Fig 2.5.
  

  
  Fig 2.4 DesktopPerspective Start Trace Option

• The User Name (alias) associated with the entered Session ID should now be displayed in the "Choose user:" drop down selection box (see figure 2.5).  The Help Desk Representative now has a one-on-one session with the user since the session ID is unique.  The Help Desk Representative can now conduct a trace by entering a host or URL to monitor.

Fig 2.5 Once session ID has been entered

To conduct a trace to a destination, simply enter the desired IP address or URL into the Address edit box in DesktopPerspective (Fig 2.6) and press the Enter key.  

Fig 2.6: Host edit box

The host / IP address must be entered into the edit box in a URL-like syntax that looks like:

protocol://hostname:port/page.html

Where the fields in this syntax are:

Field	Description
protocol	A protocol such as http, ftp, smtp, etc.
hostname	Any TCP/IP host name or IP address
port	A port number such as 23, 80, etc.
page.html	Any text

All fields are optional except for "hostname", which must be specified. For example, here are various text strings that DesktopPerspective will understand when entered into the edit box:

www.microsoft.com
http://161.58.180.138
http://www.testing.com:8080
ftp://ftp.gw2k.com
http://www.oracle.com/products/
 

Note: You must specify a protocol in order for DesktopPerspective to perform port probing (a check to see if the host is actively listening for connections on the specified or implied port). If no protocol is specified, DesktopPerspective only traces to the hostname.

After entering a host / port that you want DesktopPerspective to monitor, DesktopPerspective will resolve the host name to a list of IP addresses and automatically start a trace route to the first IP address in the list.

You may start a new trace route to a different IP address at any time by selecting any of the other IP addresses from the list or entering a new IP address/URL. Any currently running trace route will be stopped and the new one started.

Many Internet hosts will resolve to only one IP address. Other very large sites (such as www.microsoft.com and www.nytimes.com) will resolve to many IP addresses.

 

How to Interpret the Analysis   

A typical DesktopPerspective Analysis Section looks like:

Fig 2.7: DesktopPerspective Analysis

This analysis section will explain what is going right or wrong in the trace. It will assist you in pinpointing problem areas in the trace. 

A typical Trace Route Table section looks like Fig 2.8:

Fig 2.8: Trace Route Table

TIP: You can use your mouse to resize the table columns by dragging the right edge of a column.

Note: In general, text that is displayed in purple is non-authoritative (from a local cache on your hard drive maintained by DesktopPerspective) and text displayed in black is authoritative. Non-authoritative information is validated as soon as possible, but is displayed immediately to speed up the display of information to you.

The columns in this table are:

 

Hop	The trace route hop count.
% Loss	This shows the percentage of ping packets that have been lost at this hop level. This number is red if a host is detected at this hop level. This means that ping packets are being lost. Otherwise, this number is black, because the host may just be ignoring all of our ping packets. This number is updated as the trace is completed, however if you should stop a trace before completion this value may not be totally accurate as DesktopPerspective may still have been waiting for responses from some of the ping packets that it had sent.
IP Address	The IP address of the host at this hop level. It is red if a recent ping packet was lost. It is blue when it matches a Loose Source Route IP address. Otherwise, it is black. The IP Address is bolded if it is the host that you are trace routing to.
Node Name	The reverse DNS lookup of the IP Address.
Location	The geographical location of the node. It is black if we are fairly certain of the node's location. Otherwise it is purple, meaning that the location is a best guess based upon information from various WHOIS databases. Click on the location for details.
Tzone	If the location of the node has been resolved then the time difference to your selected timezone will be displayed. You can change the base timezone that DesktopPerspective uses in Options -> Preferences -> Analysis Columns
ms	The average number of milliseconds (roundtrip) that it took for a ping packet to go from your machine to this hop level and back to your machine (just like the system 'tracert' program).
Graph	The blue line is a graph of the 'ms' column. The gray horizontal bar in each hop line represents the minimum and maximum millisecond times for that hop level.
Network	The network that this node is in, as reported by various WHOIS databases.

A typical Trace Route Map looks like Fig 2.9.

Fig 2.9: Trace Route Map

The trace route is displayed on a map of the world. Links drawn in blue indicate known locations. Links drawn in purple indicate that a guess was made.

 

Left Mouse Click	Zoom IN
Right Mouse Clicką	Zoom OUT

DesktopPerspective will immediately redraw the map as new information becomes available from the trace route. In some cases, this will result in lines previously drawn looking like they are being erased and drawn elsewhere. You are just seeing DesktopPerspective update its map information in real-time.