Which feature distinguishes Traceroute from Ping?

Traceroute is specifically designed to map the path that packets take from the source to the destination by sending a series of packets with incrementally increasing Time to Live (TTL) values. Each time a packet is sent out with a specific TTL, it gets decremented by each router it passes through. When the TTL reaches zero, the router discards the packet and sends back an ICMP "Time Exceeded" message. This process allows Traceroute to identify each hop along the way, recording the round-trip time for each individual hop. As a result, it displays the latency associated with each hop in the network path.

In contrast, Ping primarily focuses on determining the availability of a host and measuring round-trip time between the source and a single destination address. While it can indicate packet loss if packets do not return, it does not provide detailed information about the specific hops between the source and destination. Unlike Traceroute, Ping does not break down the journey into multiple segments or hops, which is why it does not have the ability to show the average time for each hop. Overall, the characteristic of displaying the average time for each hop is what distinctly separates Traceroute from Ping.