Check MTR (Traceroute)

What is Traceroute Test?

As you visit any website from your WiFi router, the data packets travel from the origin servers, passing through several intermediate junctions finally reaching their destination (you).

This makes a route with the data hopping between multiple network points. Traceroute is about checking these points to troubleshoot the networking issues if any.

This test sends some data packets and presents critical information for each connection point. For instance, you’ll see the total number of terminals, their IP addresses, % loss at each point, best, worst, and average latencies.

Why should you care?

Traceroute is a highly precise (or better say, perfect!) tool for not just proving that a network is slow but also pinpointing the failure. While generally there isn’t much you can do about it, say, with a slow network in a particular country.

However, the first few hops are from your internal network, and the last ones are typically associated with the web-hosting provider. So, you can contact your ISP or the web host if you see any problem.

But generally, this information is helpful in various ways (for instance, arguing that the site itself isn’t slow and that the network will recover soon, restoring normalcy).