MTR s a great command-line tool for figuring out where a network is having problems between you and a host you are trying to reach.

With each version of the Mac OS the tools required to use it move. Here are the pieces and steps I assembled from various points on the interwebs.

Gather the pieces you need.

1. MTR is available for free from BitWizard: ftp://ftp.bitwizard.nl/mtr/
2. You will also need the latest XCode which you can download via the App Store on your computer
3. Open XCode and go to Preferences -> Downloads and install “Command Line Tools”

Installing

To get things to compile on a Mac your instructions will diverge from the README slightly. On the command line:

export LDFLAGS="-lresolv"

./configure --prefix=/usr --without-gtk

make

sudo make install

BAM. You should be good to go. To try it out, type:

mtr hausinteractive.com

You should see a screen something like this:

These instructions were made on OS X 10.8. More recently, mtr’s default config stopped showing all of the hops by default, to which you can find the solution here.

Sources:

• MTR Software: BitWizard B.V.
• C Compiler Installation: John Martellaro for Mac Observer
• Compiling instructions for Mac OS X: Justus Beyer