tracert command returns timed out

Question

tracert returns requested time out. What I understand from this is the packets lost some where on the network.

Does it mean the issue is with the ISP or with the hosting provider or my windows system?

10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

The first 9 were successful.

Answer 1

I can't see the first 9 hops but if they are all the same then you may have a firewall configuration issue that prevents the packets from either getting out or getting back.

Try again turning off your firewall (temporarily!). The other option is that your ISP may drop ICMP traffic as a matter of course, or only when they are busy with other traffic.

ICMP (the protocol used by traceroute) is of the lowest priority, and when higher priority traffic is ongoing the router may be configured to simply drop ICMP packets. There is also the possibility that the ISP drops all ICMP packets as a matter of security since many DOS (Denial of Service) attacks are based on probing done with ICMP packets.

Answer 2

Some routers view all pings as a Port-Scan, and block for that reason. (as the first step in any attack is determining which ports are open.) However, blocking ping packets / tracert packets, etc. is only partially effective at mitigating a Denial-of-service attack, as such an attack could use ANY PROTOCHOL it wanted (such as by using TCP or UDP packets, etc.) So long as there is an open port to receive the packet on the machine targeted for Denial-Of-Service. For example, if we wanted to target an http server, we only need use an intercepting proxy to repeatedly send a null TCP packet to the server on port 80 or port 8080, since we know that these are the two most common ports for http. Likewise, if the target machine is running an IRCd, we know the port is most likely 6667 (unless the server is using SSL), which would be the most common port for that kind of service. Therefore, dropping ping packets does not prevent a DdOS attack- it just makes that type of attack a bit more difficult.