How to run an MTR test

MTR (My traceroute) allows you to constantly poll a remote server. This diagnostic tool combines the ‘traceroute’ and ‘ping’ function. It represents an evolution of the traceroute command by providing a greater data sample, as if augmenting traceroute with ping output, and is useful for seeing how a server’s latency and performance changes over time.

Running a traceroute is different for each Operating System. Here are the steps for Windows, Mac OS and Linux:

To install MTR on Windows:

• Download the latest version of WinMTR.
• You will have a .zip file containing two folders: WinMTR-32 and WinMTR-64
• Each folder contains two files: WinMTR.exe and README.txt
• Extract the WinMTR.exe that corresponds to your platform (32 or 64 bit) and run the file.

To run WinMTR on Windows:

• Start WinMTR. Write the name or IP of the host (e.g. my.websquad.co.za or 160.119.233.4)
• Press the Options button to configure ping size, maximum hops and ping interval (the defaults are OK).
• Push the Start button and wait.
• Copy or export the results in text or HTML format.
• The results should look similar to this:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

|                            172.16.104.1 -    0 |   11 |   11 |    0 |    0 |    1 |    0 |

|        websquad-access.jb1.za.ws.net.za -    0 |   11 |   11 |    0 |    0 |    1 |    0 |

|             core.as-01.jb1.za.ws.net.za -    0 |   11 |   11 |    0 |    0 |    1 |    0 |

|             core.cr-01.db1.za.ws.net.za -    0 |   11 |   11 |    7 |    7 |    8 |    8 |

|             core.as-01.db1.za.ws.net.za -    0 |   11 |   11 |    7 |    8 |    9 |    8 |

|                           160.119.233.4 -    0 |   11 |   11 |    8 |    8 |    9 |    8 |

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|

Click on Clear History in the drop-down menu to remove the hosts you have previously traced.

To run WinMTR from Windows command:

• Copy the WinMTR.exe file in Windows/System32 so that it’s accessible via the command line -- cmd.

• Run winmtr -help to see the options available. 

• Run winmtr hostname (e.g. websquad.co.za). 

To install MTR on Debian and Ubuntu:

Issue the following commands to ensure that your system’s package repository is up to date, that all installed packages are up to date, and finally to install MTR itself:

apt-get update 

apt-get upgrade 

apt-get install mtr-tiny 

CentOS and Fedora:

Issue the following commands to update repositories, upgrade installed packages, and install the MTR program:

yum update 

yum install mtr 

Arch Linux systems:

Issue the following commands to update the package database and install MTR:

pacman -Sy

pacman -S mtr

To run an MTR on Linux:

Once installed, call it in the shell using your terminal emulator by typing ‘mtr’ followed by the name of the host. mtr websquad.co.za