The Star Wars Route: Do a traceroute to 216.81.59.173

The full text of the traceroute<p><pre><code> $ traceroute -m 100 216.81.59.173 | awk '{print $2}' ... cut ... * Episode.IV A.NEW.HOPE It.is.a.period.of.civil.war Rebel.spaceships striking.from.a.hidden.base have.won.their.first.victory against.the.evil.Galactic.Empire During.the.battle Rebel.spies.managed to.steal.secret.plans to.the.Empires.ultimate.weapon the.DEATH.STAR an.armored.space.station with.enough.power.to destroy.an.entire.planet Pursued.by.the.Empires sinister.agents Princess.Leia.races.home aboard.her.starship custodian.of.the.stolen.plans that.can.save.her people.and.restore freedom.to.the.galaxy 0-------------------0 0------------------0 0-----------------0 0----------------0 0---------------0 0--------------0 0-------------0 0------------0 0-----------0 0----------0 0---------0 0--------0 0-------0 0------0 0-----0 0----0 0---0 0--0 0-0 00 I By.Ryan.Werber When.CCIEs.Get.Bored CCIE.38168 FIN</code></pre>

Don't forget to watch Episode IV in the terminal!<p><pre><code> $ telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl </code></pre> When I was younger I went out of my way to get a V6 address just to watch it in color ;)

This is hilarious - though I wish they had more of an artificial delay between the hops to keep the suspense. If you're curious how you might implement this without actually needing a whole bunch of different hosts with routes between them, see this tool by Moxie Marlinspike:<p><a href="http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/fakeroute/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/fakeroute/</a><p>You still need a big block of IP addresses though since you want the reverse DNS lookup for each IP address to return a different line from the scroll. Definitely a waste of IPv4 addresses; someone some do a IPv6 implementation ;-)<p>Edit: I just noticed <a href="http://beaglenetworks.net/" rel="nofollow">http://beaglenetworks.net/</a> at the bottom of the traceroute - this was implemented by carefully setting up routing tables and VRFs on a Cisco router. fakeroute seems easier but not a bad way to keep busy during a blizzard.

There's a Star Trek version as well, but it only works if you're on IPv6.<p><pre><code> $ traceroute6 -m 120 tng.prolixium.com traceroute to tng.prolixium.com (2001:48c8:1:137::32), 120 hops max, 24 byte packets [snip] 11 v6-seattle-ix.voxel.net (2001:504:16::745f) 209.28 ms 207.781 ms 207.18 ms 12 3890.te6-2.tsr1.lga3.us.voxel.net (2001:48c8::8c9) 277.482 ms 279.604 ms 277.079 ms 13 0.ae1.tsr1.lga5.us.voxel.net (2001:48c8::822) 282.205 ms 286.997 ms 276.887 ms 14 0.ae2.csr2.lga6.us.voxel.net (2001:48c8::82e) 280.187 ms 284.989 ms 277.817 ms 15 em0.dax.prolixium.net (2001:48c8:1:2::2) 277.495 ms 277.68 ms 277.61 ms 16 si3.starfire.prolixium.net (2001:48c8:1:1ff::1a) 311.417 ms 305.949 ms 305.109 ms 17 0.re0.ra.prolixium.net (2001:48c8:1:119::2) 307.72 ms 305.633 ms 305.915 ms 18 0.fx0.voyager.prolixium.net (2001:48c8:1:11f::2) 304.583 ms 303.806 ms 304.216 ms 19 . (2001:48c8:1:137::2) 307.199 ms 303.983 ms 303.874 ms 20 Space (2001:48c8:1:137::6) 310.575 ms 308.043 ms 307.941 ms 21 the.Final.Frontier (2001:48c8:1:137::a) 307.198 ms 304.489 ms 305.967 ms 22 These.are.the.voyages.of.the.starship (2001:48c8:1:137::e) 306.484 ms 308.383 ms 308.094 ms 23 Enterprise (2001:48c8:1:137::12) 305.924 ms 305.817 ms 307.77 ms 24 Its.continuing.mission (2001:48c8:1:137::16) 308.692 ms 316.396 ms 306 ms 25 to.explore.strange.new.worlds (2001:48c8:1:137::1a) 306.123 ms 307.447 ms 312.365 ms 26 to.seek.out.new.life.forms (2001:48c8:1:137::1e) 308.785 ms 309.842 ms 308.362 ms 27 and.new.civilizations (2001:48c8:1:137::22) 309.347 ms 315.072 ms 307.912 ms 28 to.boldly.go (2001:48c8:1:137::26) 309.336 ms 306.98 ms 309.354 ms 29 where.no.one.has.gone.before (2001:48c8:1:137::2a) 308.284 ms 311.138 ms 310.111 ms 30 . (2001:48c8:1:137::2e) 310.227 ms 309.217 ms 309.752 ms 31 EOF (2001:48c8:1:137::32) 309.623 ms 311.074 ms 313.958 ms</code></pre>

Use any traceroute site/program (not just the one in the link):<p>TraceRoute to 216.81.59.173<p>206.214.251.1 episode.iv<p>206.214.251.6 a.new.hope<p>206.214.251.9 it.is.a.period.of.civil.war<p>206.214.251.14 rebel.spaceships<p>206.214.251.17 striking.from.a.hidden.base<p>206.214.251.22 have.won.their.first.victory<p>206.214.251.25 against.the.evil.galactic.empire<p>206.214.251.30 during.the.battle<p>206.214.251.33 rebel.spies.managed<p>206.214.251.38 to.steal.secret.plans<p>206.214.251.41 to.the.empires.ultimate.weapon<p>206.214.251.46 the.death.star<p>206.214.251.49 an.armored.space.station<p>206.214.251.54 with.enough.power.to<p>206.214.251.57 destroy.an.entire.planet<p>206.214.251.62 pursued.by.the.empires<p>206.214.251.65 sinister.agents<p>206.214.251.70 princess.leia.races.home<p>206.214.251.73 aboard.her.starship<p>206.214.251.78 custodian.of.the.stolen.plans<p>206.214.251.81 that.can.save.her<p>Trace complete<p>[update: additional hops ]<p>206.214.251.86 people.and.restore<p>206.214.251.89 freedom.to.the.galaxy<p>206.214.251.177 by.ryan.werber<p>206.214.251.182 when.ccies.get.bored<p>206.214.251.185 ccie.38168<p>206.214.251.190 fin

You haven't heard of the tracert? She made the kessel route in less than 30 hops

No wonder we're out of IPv4 addresses...

Doesn't work for me... Strange.<p>I tried tweaking a few flags (such as much longer timeout: -w 30), still no luck.<p>$ traceroute -m 100 -e -w 30 obiwan.scrye.net<p>(...all normal here...)<p>8 core2-te0-0-0-4.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.45) 6.795 ms core1-te0-0-0-5.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.43) 11.500 ms core1-te0-0-0-4.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (109.159.249.41) 13.669 ms<p>9 host213-121-193-129.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.129) 5.964 ms 6.068 ms host213-121-193-137.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.137) 7.362 ms<p>10 * * *<p>11 * * *<p>12 * * *<p>(...and so on...)

Works great with "mtr" (known as "mtr-tiny" in Debian?) - much better than with the regular traceroute :)

For the less technically able amongst us, how does this work?

Video: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPJELwSV1P0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPJELwSV1P0</a>

In a period when people are complaining about IPv4 address-shortage, this seems a tad excessive.

This reminds me of what happens if you hack this in your terminal:<p>telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

No wonder we're running out of IPv4 addresses!

in windows, this will get the entire thing tracert -h 100 216.81.59.173

related: "Star Wars Traceroute - How I did it" <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5193725" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5193725</a>

Hilarious - does anyone have any backstory or more info?

<a href="https://dazzlepod.com/ip/?ip_address=216.81.59.173" rel="nofollow">https://dazzlepod.com/ip/?ip_address=216.81.59.173</a>

It's so simple but brilliant!

that was a good chuckle... thanks for sharing.