🔊 Troubleshooting with MTR, Pingplotter and Ping #

This guide is useful for identifying where extra latency or packet loss occurs.

Gamers should take a look at our Advice for Gamers guide – it’s a collection of tips and advice for troubleshooting international game latency issues. Often the solution is to set up more direct peering with game hosting companies at the optimal internet exchange which can take a few days. You can also open a support ticket with the game and ask them to share their IP addresses or request troubleshooting advice.

🎮 Finding a Game Server IP #

Close your other applications, then run the game and check for open UDP / TCP connections:

Windows TCP: Use Resource Monitor and look for items with the highest TCP traffic rates or run the command: netstat -n | findstr ESTABLISHED in Command Prompt or PowerShell.

Windows UDP: Use Resource Monitor and look for items with the highest UDP traffic rates or download TCPView and look for UDP traffic items.

macOS: lsof -Pnl +c0 +M -i4

Linux: netstat -taunp

Other / Playstation: Sometimes people share the IPs of the game servers on forums. You can also use Wireshark / tcpdump if you can inspect the traffic on your router or a device between your Playstation and the internet.

⛳️ How to run an MTR / Pingplotter test from your device #

My Traceroute (MTR) is a tool that combines the functionality of traceroute and ping. It’s useful for testing end-to-end network connectivity and locating extra latency or packet loss along the way. How to run an MTR test:

Connect a laptop directly to your fibre box (ONT / CPE) or router with an Ethernet cable. Openserve has an extra step.

Windows and macOS users can use PingPlotter – configure it to do at least 180 tests (1/sec). Windows users can also install WinMTR.

If you are familiar with the macOS/Linux terminal, run the command:

mtr 8.8.8.8

If you know the IP address of the server you want to monitor, like a game server, use that IP (replace 8.8.8.8).

You can also run mtr in report mode. The following command will give you a 60 second report:

mtr -c 60 --aslookup --show-ips -w 8.8.8.8

If you find a problem, please email us the following:

1. Screenshot of your test result (showing the command you used)
2. Details of which fibre network you are on, and your general location

🏎️ How to run an MTR test from the Atomic datacentre #

Visit the Atomic looking glass. Select a view, or select multiple views. Select MTR, then enter the IP address you would like to run the MTR test to.

Views:

• ipt1: isolated to IP transit provider 1 for incoming and outgoing traffic
• ipt2: isolated to IP transit provider 2 for incoming and outgoing traffic
• view1: blend of ipt1 and ipt2 based on the best path – standard routing for most customers

🧩 How to read MTR or Pingplotter output #

When reading MTR output, you have to keep Control Plane Policing (CoPP) in mind. Tools like traceroute and mtr require a router to send packets to its CPU for processing. CPU is a limited resource, and often routers have rate limits configured for this kind of traffic. If you see a router in the middle of the output list with packet loss or extra latency, it could be because of CoPP. If later in the output there is no loss – it’s best to trust the later hops. If the last hop is not showing loss, you can be fairly sure there is no packet loss and the hops in the middle showing loss are doing so because of CoPP.

If there is packet loss at the first hop it could be caused by your wifi router or fibre box or by the fibre network (last mile or backhaul).

🕹️ How to run a Ping test to detect packet loss on your line #

Connect a laptop directly to your fibre box (ONT / CPE) or router with an Ethernet cable.

Open the terminal and use ping or fping. Start with a small packet ping:

ping 102.135.241.1

Optionally also do a big packet ping test with the “Don’t Fragment” bit enabled (1500 byte packets) to detect MTU problems:

Windows: ping -f -l 1472 102.135.241.1

macOS: ping -D -s 1472 102.135.241.1

Linux: fping -M -b 1472 -l 102.135.242.1

If you are using PPPoE, reduce the packet size by 8 bytes

If you see packet loss, please email us the following:

1. Screenshot or text output of your test
2. Details of which fibre network you are on, and your general location

🎯 More troubleshooting #

If these tests don’t show a problem, we suggest you do an 80% UDP test using iPerf next, or have a look at our troubleshooting overview guide.