An administrator needs to test that a service is responding to external requests. Which of the following tools can be used to accomplish this task?

Ping tests basic ICMP reachability at the network layer but does not trace the path or provide hop-by-hop confirmation that external requests are reaching the service.

Tracert (Windows) and traceroute (Linux/macOS) send probe packets hop-by-hop to a target host and report which hops respond, confirming whether the destination is reachable from an external perspective. This makes it useful for validating that a service endpoint is accessible and that no intermediate device is blocking the path. It provides more diagnostic detail than ping by pinpointing exactly where in the network path a failure or delay occurs.

Telnet can test whether a specific TCP port is open, but it is not the tool identified by this question for verifying external service responsiveness across the network path.

Ipconfig/ifconfig displays local network interface configuration and addresses, and cannot test connectivity to any external service.