A tool that carries out traceroute functions (i.e. tracing the exact path that an IP address request takes through the internet) and also has PING and WHOIS functions.

Features: For the uninitiated, traceroute is an IP tracing feature that enables a user to enter an IP address and find out the exact IP path (what IP address are passed through to get to the required IP address) to that address from the user’s host computer. PING is the ability to check for a connection (or path) to a given IP address from the user’s host computer. For both PING and traceroute information about the time that it takes to reach each router (or the end-point and back to the host computer for PING) is also reported. WHOIS is a service by which the information about the owner of an IP address can be looked up. Magic NetTrace is a software that provides a central location to carry out each of these three utilities.

It has a pretty basic interface, which is a good thing and the required functions can be performed quickly and hassle-free. It does not require a great deal of knowledge from the user and so can be easily used even by novices. Apparently, the software uses multi-threading for the traceroute and so on an average the traceroutes take less time (although traceroutes do not usually take that long anyway and the tradeoff is the higher memory footprint and CPU usage while NetTrace’s traceroute is running; if this is the only thing you are running then this is fine). The right pane that shows the WHOIS information of each of the intermediate nodes on a traceroute is a real convenience.

Overall: A well-designed tool that is primarily for network enthusiasts. Note that each of the functions (traceroute, PING, WHOIS) are available in a number of web-based and / or command line solutions. The main benefit of this program is the ability to perform all three from a central location, and perhaps more importantly the ability to view and save (easily) the results of each utility, which can then be used for future reference or analysis.