$ mtr
Online MTR Report
Free, no signup. Runs from our distributed probes — see how your host looks from different parts of the world.
What is an MTR report?
MTR combines ping and traceroute: it probes every hop on the path repeatedly and reports loss and latency statistics per hop. It is the standard tool to prove where on the route packets are being lost.
Run from multiple regions, it also shows whether the loss lives near your server (every region sees it) or in one specific network path (only some regions see it).
How to read the results
- Look at the
Loss%column: loss that starts at one hop and continues on every hop to the end is a real problem at that hop. - Loss at a single middle hop with clean hops after it is usually the router rate-limiting probe replies — safe to ignore.
- Compare
AvgandWrst(worst) latency per hop: a large gap means jitter, which hurts calls and real-time traffic even when average looks fine.
Questions
FAQ
One hop shows loss but the destination is clean. Is that a problem?
Usually not. Routers often deprioritize replies to probes while forwarding your actual traffic at full speed. Real loss propagates to every hop after the faulty one.
What's the difference between MTR and traceroute?
Traceroute samples the path once; MTR keeps measuring and adds per-hop loss and latency statistics. For intermittent problems, MTR is the tool that catches them.
Can I run MTR continuously against my infrastructure?
Yes — Qualimonitor has an MTR monitor type that runs on a schedule from the regions you pick and alerts when loss appears or the route changes.