How to use PING and MTR

How to Run a Ping Test IP

To run a ping test, open the command line and type:

ping veesp.com

Example output: 

Pinging veesp.com [104.22.74.140] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 104.22.74.140: bytes=32 time=ms TTL=56
Reply from 104.22.74.140: bytes=32 time=ms TTL=56
Reply from 104.22.74.140: bytes=32 time=ms TTL=56
Reply from 104.22.74.140: bytes=32 time=ms TTL=56

Ping statistics for 104.22.74.140:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms

As expected, Veesp is online and running. If you’re having problems, it could be on a hop — in that case, use the traceroute utility.

How to Use the MTR Command

MTR stands for "My Traceroute" and displays the path that a connection to a particular system takes, along with timing statistics.

It’s recommended to collect MTR reports in both directions (to and from the affected host), as routing may differ upstream/downstream. Veesp support may ask for both directions if you're experiencing network issues.

Installation

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install mtr

CentOS / RHEL / Fedora

yum install mtr

Windows

You can download WinMTR here:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmtr/files/latest/download

Generate MTR Report

Use the following syntax:

mtr -rwn4 veesp.com

Example: 

[root@localhost ~]# mtr -rwn4 veesp.com

HOST: localhost.localdomain  Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
 1.|-- 212.6.44.1             0.0%    10    0.7   0.7   0.7   0.8   0.1
 2.|-- 91.203.69.80           0.0%    10    0.6   0.9   0.6   3.3   0.8
 3.|-- 91.203.69.73           0.0%    10    1.3   1.2   1.0   1.5   0.1
 4.|-- 78.28.193.98           0.0%    10    1.4   1.5   1.3   1.6   0.1
 5.|-- 213.248.84.32          0.0%    10    0.9   1.0   0.9   1.1   0.1
 6.|-- 62.115.119.193         0.0%    10    2.2   1.8   1.3   3.9   0.8
 7.|-- 195.12.254.187         0.0%    10    2.0   1.9   1.5   2.4   0.3
 8.|-- 104.22.74.140          0.0%    10    1.0   1.0   0.8   1.1   0.1

Understanding the Output

Beyond simply seeing the path between servers that packets take to reach their host, MTR provides valuable statistics regarding the durability of that connection in the seven columns that follow.

  • Loss%: column shows the percentage of packet loss at each hop.
  • Snt: column counts the number of packets sent.
  • Last / Avg / Best / Wrst: Latency stats (in ms). Focus on Avg for general performance. are all measurements of latency in milliseconds (e.g. ms). Last is the latency of the last packet sent, Avg is the average latency of all packets, while Best and Wrst display the best (shortest) and worst (longest) round trip time for a packet to this host. In most cases, the average (Avg) column should be the focus of your attention.
  • StDev: provides the standard deviation of the latencies to each host. The higher the standard deviation, the greater the difference is between measurements of latency. Standard deviation allows you to assess if the mean (average) provided represents the true center of the data set, or has been skewed by some sort of phenomena or measurement error. If the standard deviation is high, the latency measurements were inconsistent. After averaging the latencies of the 10 packets sent, the average looks normal but may in fact not represent the data very well. If the standard deviation is high, take a look at the best and worst latency measurements to make sure the average is a good representation of the actual latency and not the result of too much fluctuation.

Common MTR Flags

  • -r: Generates the report (same as --report)
  • -w: Uses full hostname format (same as --report-wide)
  • -n: Disables DNS lookup (faster output)
  • -4 / -6: Force IPv4 or IPv6 usage