Running an MTR test to report network problems

If your website is slow, times out or won’t load from your location while it works for others, the problem is often somewhere on the network between you and our servers. An MTR test shows every step (hop) on that route and where connections are slowed down or lost. Sending us the results helps us find the problem quickly.

MTR combines ping and traceroute into one test. See Troubleshooting network connectivity issues using traceroute and ping for the basics.

Before you start

• Run the test while the problem is happening, from the computer and network that has the problem.
• If you can’t reach your website at all, check first that your IP address hasn’t been blocked. See My IP address is blocked.

Windows: WinMTR

1. Download WinMTR (free, open source) from its official project page and unzip it.
2. Open WinMTR.exe.
3. In Host, type your domain, for example yourdomain.com, and click Start.
4. Let it run for at least 2 minutes, then click Stop.
5. Click Copy Text to clipboard and paste the result into your support ticket.

Mac

1. Install MTR with Homebrew: open Terminal and run:

   brew install mtr

2. Run a 100-cycle test and save the report:

   sudo $(brew --prefix)/sbin/mtr -rwzbc 100 yourdomain.com > mtr.txt

3. Wait about 2 minutes for it to finish, then attach mtr.txt (in your home folder) to your ticket.

Linux

1. Install MTR if you don’t have it: sudo apt install mtr-tiny (Debian, Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install mtr (Fedora, RHEL).

2. Run:

   mtr -rwzbc 100 yourdomain.com > mtr.txt

3. Attach mtr.txt to your ticket.

The options mean: -r report mode, -w full hostnames, -z show network owners (AS numbers), -b show IP addresses too, and -c 100 send 100 tests to each hop.

Reading the results

Each line is one hop, from your router (top) to our server (bottom).

• Loss% is the share of tests that got no reply. Loss on a middle hop that doesn’t continue to the hops after it is normal: many routers don’t answer tests. Loss that starts at one hop and continues to the end shows where the problem is.
• Avg is the average response time in milliseconds. A big jump that stays high on every hop after it shows where the delay is.
• Loss or delay on the first one or two hops usually means a problem with your own Wi-Fi, router or internet provider.

Send the results to us

Open a support ticket in Technical Support and include:

• The full MTR output or mtr.txt file.
• Your public IP address (search “what is my IP” from the same network).
• Your internet provider and location, and when the problem started.

We may also run an MTR from our server back to your IP address to check the route in both directions.

Related articles

• Why is my website slow?
• Troubleshooting and fixing network issues