A practical guide to using traceroute and MTR for diagnosing network issues. Covers how TTL-based path tracing works, installation on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and how to read output including asterisks, latency jumps, and per-hop loss. Explains the key difference between traceroute (single snapshot) and MTR (continuous per-hop statistics), how to interpret intermediate hop loss versus final-hop loss, and how to run bidirectional tests to catch asymmetric routing problems. Includes a triage workflow for common symptoms like slow connections or SSH drops, and tips on saving output for support tickets.
Table of contents
IntroductionKey takeawaysPrerequisitesWhat traceroute does and how it worksInstalling traceroute and MTRRunning traceroute and reading the outputWhat MTR does and how it differs from tracerouteRunning MTR and interpreting a reportDiagnosing common problemsBidirectional testingPractical triage workflowFAQsConclusionSort: