MTR (My Traceroute)
MTR combines traceroute and ping: it probes every hop on the path several times and reports, for each hop, the packet loss and latency statistics. That makes it far better than a one-shot traceroute for finding where a connection actually degrades — a hop with sustained loss or a big jump in latency is the culprit. It runs from our server (a remote vantage point), so it shows the path from the public internet to your target.
Reviewed by the SysGlass team · Updated July 21, 2026
What it checks
- Every hop on the path, probed over several cycles
- Per-hop packet loss percentage
- Per-hop latency: last, average, best, worst and jitter (stdev)
- Each hop's reverse DNS hostname
- Works for IPv4 and IPv6 targets
How to read the result
- Loss that starts at one hop and continues to the destination points to a real problem at or after that hop.
- Loss at a single middle hop that doesn't continue is usually just that router rate-limiting ICMP — not an issue.
- A sharp, sustained jump in average latency at one hop shows where distance or congestion is added.
- High jitter (stdev) means inconsistent latency — bad for real-time traffic like voice or gaming.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between MTR and traceroute?
Traceroute shows the path once. MTR probes each hop repeatedly and aggregates loss and latency per hop, so you can see which hop is dropping packets or adding delay — much better for diagnosing intermittent problems.
Why is there loss on a middle hop but not the destination?
Many routers de-prioritize or rate-limit the ICMP responses MTR relies on, so they report loss for their own hop while still forwarding your traffic fine. Only loss that continues to the final hop indicates a real problem.
Does it support IPv6?
Yes — enter an IPv6 address or a host with an AAAA record and MTR runs over ICMPv6.
Why run MTR from your server instead of mine?
Browsers and phones can't send the raw ICMP packets MTR needs. Running it from our nodes also shows the path from the public internet toward your target, which is what matters for reachability.