cable modem router and traceroute

The traceroute that ships with SuSE will not work with my cable modem router. I contacted the manufacture, and learned that SuSE is using a different traceroute than Red Hat and Mandrake. He sent me a link to ftp a traceroute that will work. /usr/sbin/mtr does work, as does ping. The traceroute that Red Had and Mandrake are distributing includes a -I option so it can be forced to use ICMP. The traceroute that comes with SuSE does not have a -I option and uses only UDP. What is the difference between the two traceroute programs? How is one more secure than the other? Bill