Network diagnostics with MTR

MTR (My Traceroute) combines ping and traceroute: it shows latency and packet loss rate for each router on the path. On a HolyCloud VPS, it is the first tool to distinguish a local issue, an intermediate router, or the destination.

Prerequisites

• A HolyCloud Linux VPS with SSH access
• Ubuntu 22.04/24.04 or Debian 12
• A target to test (public IP, domain name, another VPS)

Tip: run MTR from your VPS and from your workstation to compare paths.

Step 1: installation

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y mtr-tiny

The mtr-tiny package provides the mtr command. For the full ncurses UI version:

sudo apt install -y mtr

Verify installation:

mtr --version
which traceroute
sudo apt install -y traceroute iputils-ping

Step 2: quick test toward a target

Replace 8.8.8.8 with the IP or domain to analyze:

mtr -rwzc 50 8.8.8.8

Interactive test (live refresh, quit with q):

sudo mtr 1.1.1.1

Without DNS resolution (faster, useful if DNS is suspect):

mtr -rn -c 30 exemple.com

Classic alternative, single path:

traceroute -n exemple.com

Step 3: read MTR output

Example report columns:

HOST: vps-holycloud           Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- 10.0.0.1               0.0%    50    0.5   0.6   0.4   1.2   0.1
  2.|-- 185.x.x.1              0.0%    50    1.2   1.3   1.0   2.0   0.2
  3.|-- ???                   100.0%    50    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
  4.|-- 203.0.113.10           2.0%    50   12.1  12.5  11.8  18.2   1.1

Interpretation:

• Loss% on an intermediate hop: often normal if the router does not reply to ICMP (shows 100% without real impact). Focus on the last line (destination).
• Latency increasing from a hop: likely bottleneck there.
• High StDev: instability (saturated network, fluctuating route).
• ???: no ICMP reply; compare with the next hop.

Test toward your HolyCloud gateway (first hop):

ip route | grep default
mtr -rwzc 20 $(ip route | awk '/default/ {print $3}')

Step 4: common VPS scenarios

Slow website — test web server and public DNS:

mtr -rwzc 30 votre-domaine.fr
mtr -rwzc 30 8.8.8.8

Remote database connection:

mtr -rwzc 30 IP_SERVEUR_BDD

Packet loss only to destination: check VPS CPU/RAM load (htop), firewall (sudo ufw status), and provider anti-DDoS if traffic is filtered.

Save report for support:

mtr -rwzc 100 probleme.example.com > ~/mtr-rapport-$(date +%F).txt

Verification

• Loss% toward destination close to 0% after 50+ probes
• Avg latency consistent with geography (France ↔ Europe: a few ms to ~30 ms typically)
• No total break (all hops after a point at 100% without reaching target)

Need help?

Attach the mtr-rapport-*.txt file, test time, and your HolyCloud VPS source IP to the support ticket.