mtr, better than traceroute and ping combined

mtr google.com

mtr combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping programs in a single network diagnostic tool. As mtr starts, it investigates the network connection between the host mtr runs on and HOSTNAME. by sending packets with purposly low TTLs. It continues to send packets with low TTL, noting the response time of the intervening routers. This allows mtr to print the response percentage and response times of the internet route to HOSTNAME. A sudden increase in packetloss or response time is often an indication of a bad (or simply over‐loaded) link.

Sample Output

My traceroute  [v0.73]
apollo (0.0.0.0)                                                           Fri Feb 20 23:52:43 2009
Keys:  Help   Display mode   Restart statistics   Order of fields   quit
                                                           Packets               Pings
 Host                                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1. hagrid.fryfrog.com                                    0.0%    12    0.6   0.6   0.6   0.8   0.1
 2. ???
 3. 68.85.191.1                                           0.0%    12   29.3  20.4   7.5  36.6  10.3
 4. te-8-2-ur01.santaclara.ca.sfba.comcast.net            0.0%    12   12.7  15.8  10.1  26.5   5.8
 5. be-30-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net                0.0%    12   14.2  22.8  13.3  35.1   7.1
 6. pos-1-6-0-0-cr01.sanjose.ca.ibone.comcast.net         0.0%    12   14.1  18.7  11.0  36.2   7.1
 7. xe-10-2-0.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net                   0.0%    12   16.2  20.4  10.2  48.7  13.4
 8. ge-1-1-0-79.bbr2.SanJose1.Level3.net                  0.0%    12   29.2  22.3  13.2  29.2   5.2
 9. as-1-0.bbr1.Atlanta1.Level3.net                       0.0%    12   74.8  83.4  74.8  99.9   7.2
    ae-0-0.bbr2.Atlanta1.Level3.net
10. ae-21-52.car1.Atlanta1.Level3.net                     0.0%    12   79.7 108.8  75.6 271.8  55.3
    ae-11-51.car1.Atlanta1.Level3.net
11. GOOGLE-INC.car1.Atlanta1.Level3.net                   0.0%    12   88.5  81.0  76.2  92.5   6.2
12. 209.85.254.243                                        0.0%    11   92.0 105.4  82.4 169.4  24.8
    209.85.254.241
13. 209.85.253.141                                        0.0%    11  129.7  92.7  80.6 129.7  15.1
    209.85.253.133
    209.85.253.145
    209.85.253.137
14. yx-in-f100.google.com                                 0.0%    11  110.6  86.3  78.7 110.6   9.1

434

By: fryfrog

2009-02-21 07:53:32

1 Alternatives + Submit Alt

ping as traceroute

You need to have mtr installed on your host.
This is sample output - yours may be different.
-1

mtr google.com

d_voge · 2012-02-19 22:27:48 3

What Others Think

Hi, Your command line works great. i get some interesting information from the traceroute and it keeps the information updated. im running ubuntu EEE (easy Peasy) 8.10 on my netbook. Greets Snipercup

snipercup · 791 weeks and 5 days ago

Droool.. this is awesome, im hypnotized!

foucault · 791 weeks and 5 days ago

Great command! Thanx for sharing.

betsubetsu · 791 weeks and 5 days ago

Great one.. Thanks..

ergut · 791 weeks and 4 days ago

To run in terminal do: mtr -t Great tool! Thanks!

nongeekboy · 789 weeks and 2 days ago

I like to use mtr -r -c 100 You don't get to watch but it'll print the statistics. You win some, you lose some.

brie · 740 weeks and 5 days ago

The homebrew system is a great way to get this tool on OSX, btw -> http://github.com/mxcl/homebrew

4fthawaiian · 739 weeks and 5 days ago

great one, thanks for sharing!

KoRoVaMiLK · 735 weeks and 2 days ago

Love this! Also love brie's example however I find 100 take's quite a while to report. Thanks to the both of you this is super handy!

danstinebaugh · 713 weeks and 3 days ago

great, thanks!

maneeshshetty · 687 weeks and 6 days ago

Hi this a good command but this have a problem, is detected by the firewall , with many connections to dns provider probably your machine will be block by firewall,

aarntesla · 685 weeks and 5 days ago

tl;dr: mtr provides false reports. It's worth mentioning a few things. First, ICMP packets must be processed by the control plane of a router or switch. "Normal" packets, however, are switched by hardware ASICs (in provider cores and some business devices). This means that you could see "latency" and/or "packet loss" where there is none. In addition to being processed by the control plane, ICMP is often either rate-limited, blocked, policed, or otherwise handled differently than "normal" traffic. What I'm trying to point out is that it's important to not just understand WHAT your tool does, but HOW it does it and how the results may be affected. This is true for any tool, but in my work I've seen many rely on results of "ping plotter" and "mtr" and similar tools to determine trouble and it is simply not always accurate. Service provider devices (particularly devices manufactured by Cisco) tend to have very weak processors. Poor network design (with regards to control plane tasks such as BGP scanning and SPF calculations) can also lead to false reports of packet loss.

pkttlk · 590 weeks and 1 day ago

To install this using Macports, do sudo port install mtr

cma · 589 weeks and 1 day ago

seofox · 116 weeks and 4 days ago

seofox · 115 weeks and 2 days ago

?? ?? ??? ??????? ????? ???????? ??????? ????? ???????? ????????

vaira · 105 weeks and 2 days ago

hadisl6666 · 79 weeks and 4 days ago

themeoff.ir

themeoff · 73 weeks and 6 days ago

???? ??????? ??????

apadanaa44 · 58 weeks and 2 days ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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