mtr (My Traceroute) is a network diagnostic tool that displays latency and packet loss on a network connection in real-time. While the ping command only shows whether the destination is reachable, mtr analyzes intermediate nodes and shows in detail where the problem is along the path.

Basic Usage:

mtr 1.1.1.1

mtr 8.8.8.8

These commands trace the network connection path to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google DNS (8.8.8.8) IP addresses, respectively.

What Does It Show?

Each line represents a network gateway (router).
Loss%: Packet loss rate
Snt: Number of packets sent
Last, Avg, Best, Wrst: Latency times (in milliseconds)

Live Example:

mtr 1.1.1.1

Host              Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
1. gateway.local   0.0%    10    1.2   1.5   1.1   2.5   0.4
2. isp1.core.net   0.0%    10    5.2   5.5   4.8   6.3   0.6
3. 1.1.1.1         0.0%    10   11.2  10.9  10.1  11.6   0.5

Ping Test for Specific IP:

ping 103.21.244.0 -n 50

This command sends 50 ICMP packets to the 103.21.244.0 address. However, since IPs ending with .0 are usually network addresses, no response may be received. Instead, an active host IP such as 103.21.244.1 should be used.

Alternative Parameters for the mtr Command:

mtr -rw 1.1.1.1: Gives output in short and report format
mtr --report --report-cycles 10 8.8.8.8: Pings 10 rounds and then gives a summary report

Installation (CentOS/AlmaLinux):

yum install mtr -y

Ubuntu/Debian:

apt install mtr -y

Summary:

ping: Access test to a single destination and average latency
mtr: Live tracking of the path passing through multiple points and detection of the problematic point
If addresses such as 103.21.244.0 are not suitable for testing, host IPs such as .1 or .10 should be preferred.

For detecting network connection problems, mtr is a much more comprehensive tool for system administrators than ping.