
The Star Wars Route: Do a traceroute to 216.81.59.173 - fpp
http://network-tools.com/default.asp?prog=express&host=216.81.59.173
======
qixxiq
The full text of the traceroute

    
    
      $ 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

~~~
Evbn
This is super brilliant, but why do so much of these things use Star Wars for
context? Anything else would be just as cute as less creepily cultic
worshipful of one movie series.

~~~
scrye
I was inspired by looking endlessly at traceroutes slowly scrolling by. Im
snowed in and I decided to give it a try. It only uses 2 routers to do this
and VRFs.

~~~
dhimes
I'm snowed in too and this made me happy. Thanks!

------
oliland
Don't forget to watch Episode IV in the terminal!

    
    
        $ telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
    

When I was younger I went out of my way to get a V6 address just to watch it
in color ;)

~~~
schmidp
No color for me:

    
    
      Well, the IPv6 version is exactly the same as the IPv4 one.
    
           The difference is in the visitors...                              
                                                    
           Je bent een Stoere Bikkel, aka You Rock.

~~~
IgorPartola
apt-get install miredo

That works as a last resort. Or sign up for SixXS using an AYIYA tunnel, apt-
get install aiccu and enjoy.

~~~
dfc
Miredo? AYIYA? Yuck.

Just use HE.net's tunnelbroker and set up a 6in4 tunnel[1]. FWIW there was no
color for me either when I connected via ipv6. Just the same message about
different visitors as printed above. Just to be sure ran:

    
    
      telnet -6 towel.blinkenlights.nl
    
    

[1] <http://www.shorewall.net/6to4.htm#SixInFour>

~~~
IgorPartola
Miredo/teredo is yuck indeed. ATIYA is not bad, I am not sure why you turn
your nose to it. Practically it just adds 8 bytes to the headers compared to
6in4 yet is a lot easier to set up. Specifically, if you do not have a router
that you control and that can do IPv6 _and_ ip6tables, AYIYA is the easiest to
set up and have a static address. I would not set it up for a server but for a
small LAN it will be no different than 6in4.

~~~
dfc
I understand what you are saying, AYIYA is not as bad as miredo. But lets face
it:

 _Router That You Control + IPv6 + ip6tables = Any Linux Box_

It is even easier with:

 _Router That You Control + IPv6 + ip6tables + shorewall6 = Any Linux Box_

Configuring the linux box is essentially as easy as appending the following to
/etc/network/interfaces:

    
    
      ### IPv6
    
      auto he-ipv6
    
      iface he-ipv6 inet6 v4tunnel
            address  1234:987:1234:743::2
            netmask  64
            endpoint 209.51.161.14
            ttl      255
            gateway 1234:987:1234:743::1
            post-up sysctl -w net.ipv6.conf.all.forwarding=1
      
      
      iface eth1 inet6 static
            address 1234:567:8901:1::1
            netmask 64
    

Spend five minutes with /etc/shorewall6/shorewall6.conf and you are done.
Granted my mom is not going to do that but for anyone on HN that should be a
walk in the park.

------
agwa
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:

<http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software/fakeroute/>

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
;-)

Edit: I just noticed <http://beaglenetworks.net/> 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.

------
packetslave
There's a Star Trek version as well, but it only works if you're on IPv6.

    
    
      $ 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

------
fpp
Use any traceroute site/program (not just the one in the link):

TraceRoute to 216.81.59.173

206.214.251.1 episode.iv

206.214.251.6 a.new.hope

206.214.251.9 it.is.a.period.of.civil.war

206.214.251.14 rebel.spaceships

206.214.251.17 striking.from.a.hidden.base

206.214.251.22 have.won.their.first.victory

206.214.251.25 against.the.evil.galactic.empire

206.214.251.30 during.the.battle

206.214.251.33 rebel.spies.managed

206.214.251.38 to.steal.secret.plans

206.214.251.41 to.the.empires.ultimate.weapon

206.214.251.46 the.death.star

206.214.251.49 an.armored.space.station

206.214.251.54 with.enough.power.to

206.214.251.57 destroy.an.entire.planet

206.214.251.62 pursued.by.the.empires

206.214.251.65 sinister.agents

206.214.251.70 princess.leia.races.home

206.214.251.73 aboard.her.starship

206.214.251.78 custodian.of.the.stolen.plans

206.214.251.81 that.can.save.her

Trace complete

[update: additional hops ]

206.214.251.86 people.and.restore

206.214.251.89 freedom.to.the.galaxy

206.214.251.177 by.ryan.werber

206.214.251.182 when.ccies.get.bored

206.214.251.185 ccie.38168

206.214.251.190 fin

~~~
petercooper
It goes somewhat further if you let it/your system is compatible.

~~~
pjungwir
On Ubuntu `traceroute` only goes 30 hops by default, but you can see more with
this:

    
    
        traceroute -m 100 216.81.59.173

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

~~~
eisbaw
I see what you did there.

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

~~~
turtlepower
On MIT campus you can tell which building you're in by your IP...

~~~
takeda64
Yeah /8 what a waste.

Many organizations were asked to return /8 in exchange to /16, but snobs at
MIT refused.

~~~
jrockway
Why should MIT have to pay for someone else's historical mistakes? The IP
addresses are just as valuable as any other part of MIT's endowment, and
universities don't typically give their assets away for no reason. (If someone
wants MIT to change to a /16, I'm sure there's some sum of money that could
convince them.)

Ultimately, even if everyone gave their IPv4 addresses back, there would still
be a tiny supply of addresses that can't scale. So we need IPv6 regardless of
who is greedy about their IPv4 space.

------
abitsios
Doesn't work for me... Strange.

I tried tweaking a few flags (such as much longer timeout: -w 30), still no
luck.

$ traceroute -m 100 -e -w 30 obiwan.scrye.net

(...all normal here...)

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

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

10 * * *

11 * * *

12 * * *

(...and so on...)

~~~
hartror
I have that same issue!

------
0x0
Works great with "mtr" (known as "mtr-tiny" in Debian?) - much better than
with the regular traceroute :)

~~~
vacri
mtr in debian, but if you're running it in X, you might want to use mtr -t

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

~~~
scrye
Two Cisco 1841's running many vrfs bouncing packets back and forth. Source: I
did it.

~~~
X-Istence
Neat!

Although, I'd have done it differently. using some packet capture tools, fake
replies with the various different IP addresses. That way you don't even have
to run a physical router that bounces it back and forth.

------
JMill
Video: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPJELwSV1P0>

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

~~~
RKearney
If only ARIN started to revoke IPv4 blocks based on this kind of waste.

~~~
packetslave
It's in the middle of a /20 allocated to Epik Networks, and he's only using
roughly a /27 of it. I think the Internet will survive.

If ARIN did ever want to recover space, there are much bigger fish in the sea
(I doubt Apple is using all 16.7 million IPs in their 17.0.0.0/8 allocation,
for example).

~~~
RKearney
He's using much more than a /27

Each hop is using a /30. There's 47 useless hops in the mix before reaching
the end.

That's 188 IP addresses just wasted. Much, much more than a /27. In fact
that's 6 times the waste of a /27.

~~~
packetslave
Yeah, using a /30 per hop is a bit of a waste, but one /24 is still
insignificant to the Internet as a whole, especially when it's in the middle
of a parent allocation.

Presumably if Epik runs out of IP space in their /20, they'll just shut this
down. It's not like some other company could use that /24.

Again, if ARIN/IANA really wanted to reclaim "wasted" space, they'd be looking
at the holders of big blocks like /8-16, and asking them to justify usage, not
one random /24 which is ultimately insignificant.

~~~
RKearney
By that logic, petit theft is fine since the police should be looking for
people committing grand theft and the petit theft is "ultimately
insignificant"

It's reasons like this why people now have to fill out forms justifying the
need for additional IPv4 blocks.

~~~
packetslave
Your analogy is nonsensical, since this is in no way "theft". He's borrowing
some IP space inside an _already allocated /20_ that Epik isn't using at the
moment.

Epik already went to ARIN, said "we need a /20 to meet our IPv4 needs", filled
out the paperwork to justify the allocation, and ARIN said "yes". Out of those
16 /24's, they have one that doesn't have any hosts on it at the moment, so
they let him play with it.

The only people this MIGHT be hurting is Epik, if they need to justify getting
more space from ARIN at some point. For the other millions of people on the
Internet: it's awesome. Lighten up and enjoy it.

(edit: grammar)

------
sippndipp
This reminds me of what happens if you hack this in your terminal:

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

~~~
omaranto
"hack this"?

------
tlrobinson
No wonder we're running out of IPv4 addresses!

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

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

------
matt2000
Hilarious - does anyone have any backstory or more info?

~~~
petercooper

        60  by.ryan.werber (206.214.251.177)  153.282 ms  154.264 ms  149.479 ms
        61  when.ccies.get.bored (206.214.251.182)  154.085 ms  150.249 ms  147.620 ms
        62  ccie.38168 (206.214.251.185)  148.633 ms  150.156 ms  152.908 ms
        63  fin (206.214.251.190)  155.715 ms *  429.865 ms

------
disclosure
<https://dazzlepod.com/ip/?ip_address=216.81.59.173>

------
pla3rhat3r
It's so simple but brilliant!

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

