How to run an MTR

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 WinMTR on Windows

    1. 1
      Download the latest version of WinMTR
    2. 2
      You will have a .zip file containing two folders: WinMTR-32 and WinMTR-64
    3. 3
      Each folder contains two files: WinMTR.exe and README.txt
    4. 4
      Extract the WinMTR.exe that corresponds to your platform (32 or 64 bit) and run the file.





  • To run WinMTR on Windows

    1. 1
      Start WinMTR.
    2. 2
      Write the name or IP of the host (e.g. Xneelo.co.za or 197.189.196.146)
    3. 3
      Press the Options button to configure ping size, maximum hops, ping interval and untick Resolve names (the defaults are OK).                     
    4. 4
      Push the Start button and wait.
    5. 5
      Copy or export the results in text or HTML format. The results should look similar to this:             capture

                                    

    6. 6
      Click on Clear History in the drop-down menu to remove the hosts you have previously traced.





  • To run WinMTR from Windows command

    1. 1
      Copy the WinMTR.exe file in Windows/System32 so that it’s accessible via the command line – cmd.
    2. 2
      Run winmtr -help to see the options available.
    3. 3
      Run winmtr hostname (e.g. xneelo.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 xneelo.co.za

    The result will look similar to this:

    capture

    It’s also possible to run MTR with the –report option. 10 packets are sent to each hop and the results are generated.

    --report xneelo.co.za

    The result will look like this:

    capture1





  • Mac OSX

    1. 1
      Press Command+Space and type Terminal and press enter/return key.
    2. 2
      Type in Terminal app:
    /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
    1. 3
      Press enter/return key. Wait for the command to finish.
    2. 4
      Run:
    brew install mtr
    1. 5
      You can now run MTR



Assist Note

If you are unsure about how to interpret the traceroute results, kindly send the complete results to support@xneelo.com so that we may assist you with the interpretation.

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