Time to Live (TTL)

Time to live (TTL) is a mechanism that limits the lifespan of data in a computer or network. TTL may be implemented as a counter or timestamp attached to or embedded in the data. Once the prescribed event count or timespan has elapsed, data is discarded. In computer networking, TTL prevents a data packet from circulating indefinitely. In computing applications, TTL is used to improve performance of caching or improve privacy.



TTL is a timer value included in packets sent over TCP/IP-based networks that tells the recipients how long to hold or use the packet or any of its included data before expiring and discarding the packet or data.

Time-to-Live (TTL) has been renamed renamed in IP version 6. The field is called the hop limit and has the same function as the TTL field in IPv4.

The ping, traceroute, and the pathping network utilities both make use of the TTL value to attempt to reach a given host computer or to trace a route to that host.

The default Windows 95/98 TTL value is 32 hops. Folloing are the list of Devices / Operating system with Default TTL values

OS/Device	Version	Protocol	TTL
AIX		TCP	60
AIX		UDP	30
AIX	3.2, 4.1	ICMP	255
BSDI	BSD/OS 3.1 and 4.0	ICMP	255
Compa	Tru64 v5.0	ICMP	64
Cisco		ICMP	254
DEC Pathworks	V5	TCP and UDP	30
Foundry		ICMP	64
FreeBSD	2.1R	TCP and UDP	64
FreeBSD	3.4, 4.0	ICMP	255
FreeBSD	5	ICMP	64
HP-UX	9.0x	TCP and UDP	30
HP-UX	10.01	TCP and UDP	64
HP-UX	10.2	ICMP	255
HP-UX	11	ICMP	255
HP-UX	11	TCP	64
Irix	5.3	TCP and UDP	60
Irix	6.x	TCP and UDP	60
Irix	6.5.3, 6.5.8	ICMP	255
juniper		ICMP	64
MPE/IX (HP)		ICMP	200
Linux	2.0.x kernel	ICMP	64
Linux	2.2.14 kernel	ICMP	255
Linux	2.4 kernel	ICMP	255
Linux	Red Hat 9	ICMP and TCP	64
MacOS/MacTCP	2.0.x	TCP and UDP	60
MacOS/MacTCP	X (10.5.6)	ICMP/TCP/UDP	64
NetBSD		ICMP	255
Netgear FVG318		ICMP and UDP	64
OpenBSD	2.6 & 2.7	ICMP	255
OpenVMS	07.01.2002	ICMP	255
OS/2	TCP/IP 3.0		64
OSF/1	V3.2A	TCP	60
OSF/1	V3.2A	UDP	30
Solaris	2.5.1, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8	ICMP	255
Solaris	2.8	TCP	64
Stratus	TCP_OS	ICMP	255
Stratus	TCP_OS (14.2-)	TCP and UDP	30
Stratus	TCP_OS (14.3+)	TCP and UDP	64
Stratus	STCP	ICMP/TCP/UDP	60
SunOS	4.1.3/4.1.4	TCP and UDP	60
SunOS	5.7	ICMP and TCP	255
Ultrix	V4.1/V4.2A	TCP	60
Ultrix	V4.1/V4.2A	UDP	30
Ultrix	V4.2 – 4.5	ICMP	255
VMS/Multinet		TCP and UDP	64
VMS/TCPware		TCP	60
VMS/TCPware		UDP	64
VMS/Wollongong	1.1.1.1	TCP	128
VMS/Wollongong	1.1.1.1	UDP	30
VMS/UCX		TCP and UDP	128
Windows	for Workgroups	TCP and UDP	32
Windows	95	TCP and UDP	32
Windows	98	ICMP	32
Windows	98, 98 SE	ICMP	128
Windows	98	TCP	128