interesting question

when I do a trcroute, and ping to abovetopsecret.com here is what I get. I didnt put in hope 1 or two as 1 is my unroutable IP address, and number two is my WAN address that is direct connected to my router/firewall

hop#3-7 go through my ISP's various hops to their point of presence, and then links up to the trans - Atlantic fiber 0C-12 line (622 mbps) hop 8 is where it get's interesting.
hop 8. 209.0.227.125 interconnect.eng.washington1.level3.net RT(ms)=163 Network=Level6-CIDR
hop 9 209.244.11.9 name = so-5-0-0.gar1.washington1.level3.net Level3-CIDR
hop 10 64.159.1.189 so-7-0-0.mp1.washington1.level3.net lc-org-arin
hop 11 209.247.8.69 so-o-2-0.mp1.philadelphia1.level3.net level3-cidr
hop 12 - 14 go to the ATS hosting servers I believe.

I live in Germany, everytime I perform these checks, I come up with the same thing. Geographically speaking, those washington servers are in Washington DC exactly. Does anyone know if there are any main routers that are in the DC area that make that trans Atlantic cross? Does anyone else get this when they ping the ATS site that is living in Europe? I was a network admin a few years ago, and hopefully in that time I've learned a thing or three. Now if anyone is familiar with the PPP (Point to Point Protocal) it is designed and programmed to find the quickest route between the request made, and the server answering that request. Why is it then that every single time I ping this it goes through these same servers...what's up with that?
On several different instances I've had different WAN IP addresses ping this, and gotten the same thing. Anyone have any ideas what is up with this? is this coincidence or is something going on?

I live in Holland, and get the same thing.
Sorry the pic is quite large...

on some of my later node hops, I believe 15-17 it hit's nodes in the Philadelphia area. But it immediately goes to those nodes in DC, which has me worried. Perhaps I'm over reacting

Yeah, I wouldn't worry about it.

Hey I tried to do a search for www.nsa.gov...
All went well, but when I tried to get info about their server, my browser crashed.. pretty funny, I tried it again, but still wasnt able to get specific info about their systems...

I use VisualRoute, often quite a handy program

[Edited on 4-2-2003 by Zion Mainframe]

using neotrace here, but it seems your program looks like it has a bit more detail about it. what kinda details did you get when you pinged that server at the nsa.gov. My opinion is that it's best just to stay away from gov sites in general, but that's me

Oh well i just don't give a sh!t I trace everything I want to trace, it's not illegal at all...but that's just me

ok about the nsa.gov server..

I just finished tracing the server, and it sais:
"No results"

Does anyone know how I can trace the IP of people on Aol Instant Messenger. I've been having random people talking to me lately, and would like to know where they originate from.

are you using aol or aim? just u2u me, it's easier