Updated: 28 September 2026 · Applies to: mtr 0.94 and 0.95 on AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux 9 and 10, RHEL 9 and 10, Ubuntu 24.04 and 26.04, Debian 13, and macOS
mtr combines ping and traceroute: it sends packets to a destination continuously and shows every router (hop) on the way with its packet loss and delay. When a website is slow or a server is hard to reach from one place, an MTR report shows where along the route the problem starts. Support teams, including hosting providers, usually ask for one. We tested the commands with mtr 0.94 on AlmaLinux 9.
Install
dnf install mtr # AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, RHEL apt install mtr-tiny # Ubuntu, Debian (text version; "mtr" includes a graphical one) brew install mtr # macOS
Create a report
mtr -rwzc 100 203.0.113.10
-r: report mode (runs, then prints a summary).-w: wide output, full host names.-z: show the network (AS number) of each hop.-c 100: send 100 packets per hop, which takes about 100 seconds and gives reliable percentages.
Add -n to skip name lookups, or -T -P 443 to test with TCP to port 443 when ICMP is filtered somewhere on the path.
Read the report
Each line is a hop; the columns show loss (Loss%), packets sent (Snt) and delay in milliseconds (last, average, best, worst, and standard deviation).
- Loss at one hop in the middle, but not at the hops after it: that router only gives low priority to answering MTR. The traffic passes fine. This is the most common false alarm.
- Loss that starts at one hop and continues to the destination: real packet loss, starting at or just before that hop.
- A big jump in delay that stays for all later hops: a long distance (for example an ocean crossing) or a congested link at that point.
- The last hop shows loss while the application works: the destination may limit ICMP replies. Test with TCP (
-T).
Test in both directions
The route from you to the server and the route back are often different. For a complete picture, run MTR from your computer to the server and from the server back to your public IP.
Sending a report to support
If you contact Ucartz support about reachability, include MTR reports in both directions, the time you ran them, and your public IP address (curl -s https://ifconfig.me).
Official documentation: mtr on GitHub.
