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Life & fun · April 29, 2026

GT

GeoTraceroute – Traceroutes on a 3D globe and submarine cables

I've been working on GeoTraceroute for a while and just shipped v2.3 with submarine cable inference. A few things that might interest HN: - 320 community-contributed nodes across 50 countries, all volunteer-run - Three views: 3D globe with day/night rendering, 2D map, and a topological mode that infers submarine cable routing - The submarine cable inference is the part I find most interesting. Since cable routers don't respond to ICMP, the underwater segments are invisible to standard traceroute. The tool detects ocean crossings by geolocation delta between consecutive hops, then infers…

In plain words

GeoTraceroute visualizes internet traffic routes on a 3D globe with day and night rendering, plus 2D map and topological views. It uses 320 volunteer-run nodes across 50 countries to trace network paths. The tool's key feature infers submarine cable routing by detecting ocean crossings between hop locations and predicting likely underwater paths using A* pathfinding, making normally invisible transoceanic segments visible. It is for network engineers and internet infrastructure enthusiasts wanting to understand global routing patterns.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

I've been working on GeoTraceroute for a while and just shipped v2.3 with submarine cable inference. A few things that might interest HN: - 320 community-contributed nodes across 50 countries, all volunteer-run - Three views: 3D globe with day/night rendering, 2D map, and a topological mode that infers submarine cable routing - The submarine cable inference is the part I find most interesting. Since cable routers don't respond to ICMP, the underwater segments are invisible to standard traceroute. The tool detects ocean crossings by geolocation delta between consecutive hops, then infers the likely cable using a geo graph of landing points with A* pathfinding. I have no way to validate this — if anyone has ideas, I'd love to discuss. Coverage is good in EU and US but thin in Asia, Africa and South America. If you want to contribute a node: https://geotraceroute.com/join Salim

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