What is a Traceroute and MTR?

Traceroute:

Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool which can be convenient when troubleshooting network problems. When you perform a traceroute it will display the route/ path from source to destination and measures the delay or latency of packets across the path to it’s destination.

MTR:

The MTR tool is very similar to the well-known traceroute command, however the MTR tool gives you a better insight of fluctuations in network paths as it sends much more packets. The output of the MTR tool also gives a better oversight of the complete network path.

How do I perform these applications?

Windows:

Traceroute: open the command prompt and enter the following command:

tracert <destination IP address> (without <> marks)

MTR: There is a convenient program called “winmtr” which can be found at the following webpage http://winmtr.net/

After installing this application you can enter the destination IP address  as “host” and press start. It will run an MTR to the destination until you manually stop the process.

Linux:

Traceroute:  open your terminal and enter the following command:

traceroute <destination IP address> (without <> marks)

MTR:

mtr -n <destination IP address> (without <> marks)

Mac:

Traceroute:  open your terminal and enter the following command:

traceroute <destination IP address> (without <> marks)

MTR:

mtr -n <destination IP address> (without <> marks)
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