Mtr (english)

Introduction

My traceroute, originally named Matt's traceroute (MTR) is a computer program which combines the functions of the traceroute and ping programs in one network diagnostic tool. There's also a version for Microsoft Windows operating systems called WinMTR

Fundamentals

MTR is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and works under modern Unix-like operating systems. It normally works under the text console, but it also has an optional GTK+-based graphical user interface (GUI).

MTR also supports IPv6 and works in a similar manner but instead relies on ICMPv6 messages.

The tool is used for network troubleshooting with ping and traceroute.

Installation

 sudo apt-get install mtr 

in linux systems or go to website WinMTR and download the installation program for your Microsoft Windows operating system.

How to use

You can use either the ip address or the domain name to use the program.

Example of how the program looks like with the parameter

mtr google.ee

                            My traceroute  [v0.85] 
enos (::)                                              Thu May  5 13:49:14 2016
Keys:  Help   Display mode   Restart statistics   Order of fields   quit
                                      Packets               Pings
Host                                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. 2001:bb8:4006:ff::1               0.0%     8    0.4   0.4   0.4   0.7   0.0
2. 2001:bb8:4006:ff::2               0.0%     8    1.0   1.6   0.9   5.8   1.5
3. 2001:7f8:3c::3d                   0.0%     7    1.1   2.3   0.8  10.8   3.7
4. ae2.mx1.ham.de.geant.net          0.0%     7   29.9  29.5  29.3  29.9   0.0
5. google.mx1.fra.de.geant2.net      0.0%     7   29.2  29.1  29.0  29.2   0.0
6. google-gw.mx1.fra.de.geant2.net   0.0%     7   29.3  29.2  29.1  29.3   0.0
7. 2001:4860:0:1::177f               0.0%     7   29.4  29.4  29.3  29.6   0.0
8. 2001:4860:0:1::1b39               0.0%     7   29.2  29.2  29.1  29.5   0.0
9. fra16s08-in-x03.1e100.net         0.0%     7   29.1  29.1  28.9  29.3   0.0

The meanings of abbreviations:

Host - shows hostname

Loss - shows how many percent of the packets are lost

Snt - shows how many packets are sent

Last - shows the last ping time of the packet

Avg - shows the average ping time

Best- shows the fastest ping time

Worst - shows the slowest ping time

StDev - shows the standard deviation

The syntax and parameters

 mtr [keys] hostname or ip address [packet size]

For more info about the different parameters:[1]

You can also use the parameter -h for help:

 -h

which outputs this to the command line:

usage: mtr [-hvrwctglspniu46] [--help] [--version] [--report]
               [--report-wide] [--report-cycles=COUNT] [--curses] [--gtk]
               [--raw] [--split] [--mpls] [--no-dns] [--address interface]
               [--psize=bytes/-s bytes]
               [--report-wide|-w] [-u]
               [--interval=SECONDS] HOSTNAME [PACKETSIZE]

Summary

Mtr is a tool that combines ping and traceroute. It was developed by Matt Kimball in 1997. Roger Wolff took over maintaining MTR (renamed My traceroute) in October 1998. The tool is often used for network troubleshooting. By showing a list of routers traversed, and the average round-trip time as well as packet loss to each router, it allows users to identify links between two given routers responsible for certain fractions of the overall latency or packet loss through the network. This can help identify network overuse problems.

On a personal note, I use it almost every day to check out pings and network connectivity and I find it very useful.

Author

Tuomas Nieminen CS15, 05.2016

Used materials

• http://winmtr.net/
• http://kb.site5.com/networking/mtr-for-linux/
• http://linux.about.com/library/cmd/blcmdl8_mtr.htm
• https://github.com/traviscross/mtr
• https://github.com/traviscross/mtr/blob/master/mtr.c
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTR_(software)