How to Create a Network Trace with MTR

MTR is a network diagnostic tool that combines the functions of traceroute and ping. It shows you the entire route of your data packets to the target server and measures packet loss and latency at each individual hop (intermediate station).

Our support team needs this data to specifically analyze and locate network problems.

Prerequisites

• Server IP address – you can find this in your dashboard under server management
• MTR installed – WinMTR for Windows, mtr for Linux/macOS

Windows – WinMTR

1. Download WinMTR
   Download WinMTR and start the program.

2. Enter the server IP
   Enter your server IP address in the Host field.

3. Start the measurement
   Click Start and wait until at least 200 packets have been sent. You can see the number of sent packets in the Sent column.

4. Export the result
   Click Stop and then Export TEXT to save the result.

Example output (WinMTR):

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                            WinMTR statistics                              |
| Host                       - %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|---------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.178.1              - 0  |  200 |  200 |    1 |    2 |   15 |    1 |
| 198.51.100.1               - 0  |  200 |  200 |    8 |   10 |   28 |    9 |
| hop1.your-isp.example      - 0  |  200 |  200 |   10 |   13 |   35 |   12 |
| hop2.transit.example       - 0  |  200 |  200 |   12 |   15 |   38 |   14 |
| hop3.transit.example       - 0  |  200 |  200 |   16 |   20 |   42 |   18 |
| 203.0.113.10               - 0  |  200 |  200 |   18 |   22 |   45 |   20 |
| emeraldhost.de             - 0  |  200 |  200 |   19 |   23 |   48 |   21 |
|_________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|

Linux

1. Install MTR
   Install MTR via your distribution's package manager:

   sudo apt install mtr        # Debian/Ubuntu
   sudo yum install mtr        # CentOS/RHEL
   sudo pacman -S mtr          # Arch Linux
   

2. Run the trace
   Run the following command:

   mtr -s 1000 -r -c 200 YOUR-SERVER-IP
   

3. Save the result
   The result is displayed directly in the terminal. Copy it or redirect it to a file:

   mtr -s 1000 -r -c 200 YOUR-SERVER-IP > mtr-result.txt
   

Example output (Linux):

Start: 2026-02-19T14:30:00+0100
HOST:                          Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- 192.168.178.1           0.0%   200    0.8   1.5   0.5  14.2   1.3
  2.|-- 198.51.100.1            0.0%   200    8.1  10.2   7.0  28.4   2.8
  3.|-- hop1.your-isp.example   0.0%   200   10.3  13.1   9.5  35.7   3.4
  4.|-- hop2.transit.example    0.0%   200   12.5  15.3  11.2  38.1   3.6
  5.|-- hop3.transit.example    0.0%   200   16.2  20.1  14.8  42.5   4.1
  6.|-- 203.0.113.10            0.0%   200   18.4  22.0  16.5  45.3   3.8
  7.|-- emeraldhost.de          0.0%   200   19.1  23.2  17.0  48.6   4.0

macOS

1. Install MTR
   Install MTR via Homebrew:

   brew install mtr
   

2. Run the trace
   Run the following command:

   sudo mtr -s 1000 -r -c 200 YOUR-SERVER-IP
   

3. Save the result
   Copy the result or redirect it to a file:

   sudo mtr -s 1000 -r -c 200 YOUR-SERVER-IP > mtr-result.txt
   

Trace in Both Directions (VPS Only)

For a VPS, our support team needs traces in both directions for a complete analysis:

• Client → Server: Run the trace from your PC (as described above).

• Server → Client: Connect to your VPS (via SSH or Remote Desktop) and run an MTR trace with your own IP address as the target:

  mtr -s 1000 -r -c 200 YOUR-OWN-IP
  

Columns Explained

Interpreting Results

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Sending Results to Support

Send us the following information in your support ticket:

1. The MTR trace as text or file (for VPSs, both directions)
2. Date and time when the problem occurred
3. Brief problem description – e.g. high ping, connection drops, timeouts, lag spikes