(ttl=n!) This indicates that the ttl value in the ICMP "time exceeded" packet that we received was unexpected. We expected some initial value, for example, the number of routers between our system and another system. In other words, if the path from hop 5 to us is the same as the path from us to hop 5, we expect to receive a ttl value of 4. There are several common initial values for ICMP ttls: 255, 60, 59, 30 and 29. 4.3 tahoe BSD and Cisco routers use 255, Proteon routers use either 59 or 29 depending on software release, several other implementations use 60 and 30. This software uses an initial ttl of 64. The traceroute command checks against all of these, making it hard to detect some small routing asymmetries. If you want to see the ttl values in all the packets, use the -l option.