WebHopper Classic

WebHopper Classic is a network trace/look-up utility. It can trace all the steps (hops) that your computer makes to arrive at a certain web domain.

It lists all the DNS servers that your connection uses, and all the hosting servers that are used on the other end. It also provides some rather basic information about the process.

Graphically, the application consists of a text field where you input the web address, IP address, or e-mail address that you want to run a trace on. Below, there is a list of hops will start populating.

Most look-ups take only a few hops before arriving at your target destination. WebHopper offers some basic information about each hop: location, IP address, response (the latency between the previous step and the current one), and the server name (the resolved address). What is good about WebHopper is that it takes control of a few shortcuts that allow you to carry out traces from within your web browser. One of those shortcuts allows you to start a trace of a website you might be visiting in Firefox by simply hitting the "F3" key. That will bring WebHopper up and start showing you the trace results.