vps.taxi

Test routes with the Looking Glass and mtr

A route has two directions: inbound, from your connection to the server, and return, from the server back to you. They can take different paths, so test both.

1. Before you buy: the Looking Glass

The Looking Glass runs ping, mtr and traceroute from Los Angeles or Tokyo, in the same data centres as customer servers. It shows the return direction: from our network to you.

  1. Find the public IP address of your own connection, for example on your router’s status page or by searching for “my IP” in a search engine.
  2. Open lg.vps.taxi, choose Los Angeles or Tokyo and mtr, enter your IP address and start the test.
  3. Look at the last line, your address: the loss (Loss%) and the average latency (Avg, in ms).

Some home routers do not answer ping. The last line then shows 100% loss or no reply; look at the lines just before it instead.

2. With your server: mtr in both directions

From your computer to the server (inbound)

Windows: use WinMTR (free, open source). Enter the server’s IPv4 address under Host, click Start, let it run for about 5 minutes, then click Stop and “Copy Text to clipboard”.

macOS: install mtr with Homebrew, then run it:

brew install mtr
sudo mtr -rwz -c 100 SERVER_IP

Linux:

sudo apt install mtr-tiny     # Debian / Ubuntu
sudo dnf install mtr          # AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux / Fedora
mtr -rwz -c 100 SERVER_IP

From the server back to you (return)

Log in to the server (see Log in with SSH) and run mtr towards the public IP address of your own connection:

apt install -y mtr-tiny     # Debian / Ubuntu
dnf install -y mtr          # AlmaLinux / Rocky Linux
mtr -rwz -c 100 YOUR_IP

-r prints a report at the end, -w shows full host names, -z shows the AS number of each hop, and -c 100 sends 100 packets (about 100 seconds).

3. Reading the result

  • Look at the last line (the server, or your address): Loss% and Avg.
  • Loss shown only at a hop in the middle, with 0% at the hops after it, is usually that router limiting its replies to mtr, not real loss. Real loss continues from one hop down to the last line.
  • With -z, the AS numbers show which networks a route uses. Common ones in mainland China: AS4134 (China Telecom 163), AS4809 (China Telecom CN2), AS4837 (China Unicom), AS9929 (China Unicom 9929), AS9808 (China Mobile), AS58453 / AS58807 (China Mobile International, CMI / CMIN2).

4. Sending the results in a ticket

Open a ticket in the client area at my.vps.taxi and include:

  • which server: its IPv4 address as shown in the client area;
  • your carrier and city (for example China Telecom, Shanghai), and whether it is home broadband or mobile data;
  • what you see (latency, loss, low speed, no connection), since when, and at what times, with the time zone;
  • mtr in both directions, run while the problem is happening, pasted as text (a screenshot is fine too; text is easier to read);
  • for speed: which tool you used, and with one or several connections.
Server: SERVER_IP
My connection: carrier, city, home broadband / mobile
What I see: ... since ... (time zone UTC+8)

mtr from my computer to the server:
(paste here)

mtr from the server to my IP:
(paste here)

Never paste your root password or a private key into a ticket. Every reply we post in a ticket is also emailed to your account’s email address. Not a customer yet? Send pre-sales questions to support@vps.taxi.