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Using MTR for network diagnostics

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If you are experiencing network issues with your server, IONOS Support may request that you run the diagnostic tool MTR to collect information on the problem. MTR (My Traceroute) merges the ping and traceroute tools together and can help identify where a problem, such as packet loss, is occurring.

This guide will cover the process of installing MTR and running tests.

Prerequisites

ICMP traffic should be permitted through your firewall:

Installing MTR

For Linux distributions, MTR can generally be installed from the official software repositories for the operating system.

For Windows, WinMTR, a similar tool, can be downloaded.

It is important to ensure that MTR is installed on both the host you are experiencing connectivity issues from, such as your home or office computer, as well as the server itself, so tests can be performed from both sides. If more hosts are affected, you may run MTR on them as well.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux and derivatives (CentOS, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, etc.)

# yum install mtr


Debian and Ubuntu

# apt update
# apt install mtr


SUSE

# zypper refresh
# zypper install mtr


Windows
  • Download WinMTR from SourceForge.
  • Open the ZIP file, navigate to WinMTR_x64, and run WinMTR.exe. If prompted to extract files, you may select Run.

Running MTR Tests

MTR should be run against the host for at least 1500 packets or until 10 minutes have elapsed. The test may be run longer, although this is the minimum amount of data our team will require.

This process should be repeated on each system so that you have test results for all hosts.

Linux and UNIX-like systems
  • Run the following command and substitute the placeholder for the IP address of your host:

    mtr -bw -c 1500 [CLIENT/SERVER IP] | tee mtr-results

    Note that if this command is run multiple times, the mtr-results file will be overwritten with the results of the most recent test.

    When the test is complete, the results will be saved to the mtr-results file, and they will also be displayed.

    Example:

    localhost:~# mtr -bw -c 1500 74.208.5.3
    Start: 2023-07-24T23:08:15+0000
    HOST: localhost                                                  Loss%  Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
    1.|-- 10.255.255.2 (10.255.255.2)                                 0.0% 1500  0.2 0.2  0.2  0.2   0.0
    2.|-- 74.208.138.126 (74.208.138.126)                             0.0% 1500  0.6 0.6  0.6  0.6   0.0
    3.|-- ae-1-0.gw-dists1-a.slr.lxa.us.net.ionos.com (74.208.1.240)  0.0% 1500  0.5 0.5  0.5  0.5   0.0
    4.|-- mx00.perfora.net (74.208.5.3)                               0.0% 1500  0.9 0.9  0.9  0.9   0.0

  • Copy the results from your terminal or download the mtr-results file.
 
Windows
  • In WinMTR, set the Host to the IP address you wish to run the test against.
  • Click the Start button to begin testing. Then, record the time and date you began the test. Results will start to appear.
  • Allow WinMTR to run until at least 1500 packets have been sent or until 10 minutes have elapsed.
  • When ready to end the test, click the Stop button, record the time and date when the test was ended, and then click the Export TEXT button to save the results.

Sending the Results to IONOS

If you need to send your MTR results to IONOS for network diagnostics, we need additional information in order to process your ticket as quickly as possible. Please follow the steps in the following article:

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