It can be really useful such as :
plop:~# traceroute -n 217.169.240.154 traceroute to 217.169.240.154 (217.169.240.154), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets 1 217.169.242.252 0.628 ms 0.845 ms 1.091 ms 2 217.169.240.105 0.419 ms 0.455 ms 0.490 ms 3 217.169.240.90 0.802 ms 0.851 ms 0.890 ms 4 217.169.240.154 11.720 ms * * plop:~# ping -n -R 217.169.240.154 PING 217.169.240.154 (217.169.240.154) 56(124) bytes of data. 64 bytes from 217.169.240.154: icmp_seq=1 ttl=252 time=12.3 ms NOP RR: 217.169.242.220 217.169.240.106 217.169.240.89 217.169.240.153 217.169.240.154 217.169.240.114 217.169.240.85 217.169.240.105 217.169.242.252
You can discover by which routers your packet are routed 🙂 In my case, you can see that my packets don’t take the same path.
Ping tool : How to learn some new stuff