If you have access to a UNIX system, use ping to explore the Internet. First read the manual page. Then use ping without option flags to be sure you can reach the following sites. It should say that X is alive. Depending on your system, you may be able to see the path by setting the flags to verbose mode (-v) and trace route mode (-R) to see the path between your machine and the example machine. Alternatively, you may need to use the program trace route to see the path. If so, try its manual page. You may want to use the UNIX command script to make a record of your session.
a. Trace the route to another machine on the same local area network. What is the latency?
b. Trace the route to another machine on your campus that is not on the same local area network.What is the latency?
c. Trace the route to another machine off campus. For example, if you have a friend you send email to, try tracing that route.
See if you can discover what types of networks are used along that route.What is the latency?