--- title: MTR Network Path Monitoring description: MTR monitoring by WatchFor. Trace every hop between our global probes and your host, measure latency and packet loss at each router, and find exactly where on the path a problem occurs instead of just knowing the destination is slow. Included from the Pro plan. canonical: https://watchfor.io/mtr-monitoring --- # MTR (Network Path) Monitoring for Hop-by-Hop Visibility When a host feels slow, see which hop is to blame instead of guessing. MTR traces the route from our probes and measures latency and packet loss at every router. [Get started for free](/auth/sign-up)[View pricing](/pricing) ## Comprehensive MTR Monitoring Features Everything you need to understand the whole network path ### Hop-by-Hop Tracing Map every router between our probes and your host on each run, so you can follow the exact route packets take to reach your destination. ### Per-Hop Latency Measure round-trip time at every hop, not just the endpoint, so a slow intermediate router is obvious long before it drags down the whole path. ### Per-Hop Packet Loss See where packets start disappearing along the route. Loss is reported for each hop so you can localize a congested or failing link with confidence. ### Routing Change Detection See in the path history when your traffic started taking a different path. New hops or a reordered route often reveal a peering shift or upstream failover. A changed path doesn't raise an alert on its own. ### Smart Alerting Destination Unreachable alerts from the start; turn on loss and RTT rules for the destination or any hop. A failure is re-checked every 2 minutes before anyone is paged, on email, Slack, Discord, webhooks and the other channels. ### Multi-Location Paths Run MTR from several regions to compare routes. The same host can be healthy on one path and broken on another, and only multi-region tracing reveals it. ### Historical Path Reports Review how the route, latency, and loss have changed over time with clear graphs, perfect for proving an ISP issue or tracing a slow regression. ### Flexible Scheduling Trace as often as every 5 minutes on Pro and Business, and configure maintenance windows so planned network work never triggers alerts. ## A closer look Destination RTT, path health and a path history for every 15 minutes. Alert on an unreachable destination, loss or RTT, or loss at any hop. ## Why Choose Our MTR Monitoring Solution? Ordinary ping tells you a host is slow; MTR tells you why and where. By tracing every router on the path and measuring latency and loss at each hop, you turn a vague 'the network is bad' into a precise 'hop 7 at your ISP is dropping 12% of packets.' With probes around the world running continuously, you get the same diagnostic that engineers reach for during an outage, automated and watching around the clock. [Start monitoring now](/auth/sign-up) Trace the full path to any public host or device Per-hop latency and packet-loss metrics on every run Localize problems to a specific router or link See routing and peering changes in the path history Run paths from multiple global regions Historical route, latency, and loss reports Configurable thresholds and check intervals Confirmed alerts via email, Slack, Discord and 13 more channels ## How MTR Monitoring Works Simple setup, deep network insight 1 ### Add Your Host Enter an IP address or hostname and choose the regions you want to trace the path from. 2 ### Set Thresholds Destination Unreachable is on from the start. Turn on the loss and latency rules you want, for the destination or any hop, and set their limits. 3 ### Trace 24/7 Our global network runs MTR continuously, recording every hop along with its round-trip time and packet loss from each location. 4 ### Get Confirmed Alerts When the destination stops answering or a rule you turned on fires, the trace is re-run every 2 minutes to confirm it. Then you get a notification and the hop-by-hop breakdown that points to the problem. ## MTR Monitoring Use Cases Perfect for diagnosing problems no simple check can localize ### Intermittent Connectivity Track down flaky connections that ping alone can't explain. Per-hop tracing reveals the exact router where packets start dropping, turning an unreproducible complaint into a clear, actionable cause. ### ISP & Peering Issues Prove when the fault lies outside your infrastructure. MTR pinpoints loss and latency at upstream provider and peering hops, giving you the evidence to escalate to the right network operator. ### Routing Changes Over Time See when your traffic rerouted through a slower or congested path. Comparing routes in the path history surfaces failovers and peering shifts that quietly degrade performance. ### Multi-Region Path Comparison Understand why users in one region see problems and others don't. Tracing from several locations exposes regional routing issues and lets you compare healthy and broken paths side by side. ## Frequently asked questions Everything you need to know about MTR (network path) monitoring [All questions→](/faq)[Ask us directly](/contact) What is MTR (network path) monitoring? MTR, short for My Traceroute, combines traceroute and ping: it maps every router between a source and a destination and measures latency and packet loss at each one. Running it on a schedule means that instead of only knowing whether your host is reachable, you can see the whole path and where on it a problem starts. How is MTR different from a normal ping check? How does MTR monitoring work? What does per-hop packet loss tell me? Can MTR detect routing changes? How often are MTR checks performed, and on which plans? Why run MTR from multiple locations? Can I monitor internal or private hosts with MTR? ## From our blog Guides, deep-dives, and best practices from the WatchFor team [Networking ### Ping, Traceroute & MTR: network troubleshooting basics May 02, 2026·3 min readRead article](/blog/ping-traceroute-mtr)[Networking ### What is Packet Loss? (causes, effects and fixes) Jan 07, 2026·3 min readRead article](/blog/what-is-packet-loss)[Networking ### What is Latency? (and how to reduce it) Jan 11, 2026·3 min readRead article](/blog/what-is-latency) ## Ready to See Exactly Where Your Network Breaks? Join the teams who rely on our platform to trace the full path to their hosts and find the failing hop fast. MTR monitoring is included from the Pro plan. [Get started for free](/auth/sign-up)[View documentation](/docs/monitors/network#network-path-mtr) --- Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/mtr-monitoring · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt