How does TRACET.EXE identify all the hops in a route?

• A. It increments TTL values and receives ICMP Time Exceeded in Transit messages
• B. It follows ARP requests and responses to map the network
• C. It captures packets using a network sniffer
• D. It uses SNMP queries to retrieve routing information

Answer: (A)

TRACERT.EXE, a command-line tool used to trace the route packets take to a destination across an IP network, identifies all the hops by incrementing the Time to Live (TTL) values in its packets. When a packet is sent from the source to its destination, each router that forwards the packet decrements the TTL by one. If the TTL reaches zero before the packet gets to its destination, the router sends an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) "Time Exceeded" message back to the source.

By starting with a TTL of 1, TRACERT sends out a packet, and the first router will decrement the TTL to zero and send a Time Exceeded message back to the source. The utility then increments the TTL to 2, sending another packet, which reaches the second router, and so on, until it either reaches the destination or a specific number of hops is reached. This process allows TRACERT to record each hop along the route to the destination by collecting the responses from each intermediate router.

The other options, while they represent network-related activities, do not capture how TRACERT specifically traces the route. TRACERT does not follow ARP requests or utilize network sniffing or SNMP queries