LOOKING GLASSPing, traceroute and MTR
Looking glass:
test our network live
Run ping, traceroute and MTR from our data centres to any public IP address or hostname. See the real latency and route from the location you plan to deploy in — free, no sign-up.
Ping · Traceroute · MTRIPv4 and IPv6Free, no account
01Network
Pick a location, run a test
Each test runs on our own servers in the location you choose. Ping takes a few seconds; traceroute and MTR can take up to 45 seconds. You get the raw tool output, ready to copy into a ticket.
Looking glass
Loading test locations…02Guide
How to read the results
A looking glass measures the path from our data centre to your target — the same path your users' traffic takes in the other direction.
Ping: latency and loss
Five ICMP echo requests. The average round-trip time is your latency; packet loss above 0% on a steady connection is worth a closer look.
Traceroute: the path
Every router between our server and the target, up to 30 hops. A * on a single hop usually means that router ignores probes, not that traffic stops there.
MTR: loss per hop
Ping and traceroute combined over 10 cycles. Loss that starts at one hop and continues to the end of the path points at that hop; loss on one middle hop alone is usually rate limiting.
IPv4 and IPv6
Enter an IP address or a hostname. Locations with IPv6 show an IPv6 switch; on Auto, a hostname is tested over IPv4 when it has an IPv4 address.
03Why us
Why test before you order
Latency depends on where your users are. Ten seconds with the looking glass tells you which of our locations suits them best.
Find the closest location
Ping your own IP or your users' networks from every location and choose the one with the lowest round-trip time.
Check the route
Traceroute and MTR show which networks your traffic crosses on its way, and whether any hop adds loss or delay.
Share it with support
Seeing slow speeds to a specific network? Paste the MTR output into a ticket and our team starts from real data.
04Questions
Looking glass questions
What is a looking glass?
A looking glass is a public web tool that runs network tests from a hosting provider's servers instead of from your own computer. It shows the latency and the route between the provider's data centre and any address on the internet.
Which locations can I test from?
Every location listed in the tool. The list is live: a data centre appears while one of its servers can run tests and is hidden during maintenance until it is back.
Which addresses can I test?
Any public IPv4 or IPv6 address, or a hostname that resolves to one. Private, reserved and internal addresses such as 10.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16 or localhost are refused, and hops inside private networks appear as [private].
Is the looking glass free? Are there limits?
It is free and needs no account. To keep it fair there is a limit per visitor per minute and per hour, and a limit per target, so it cannot be aimed at one address from every location at once.
How do I test from my network to yours?
Click "Test to my IP" to see the path from our data centre back to you. For the other direction, run ping, traceroute or mtr on your own computer against a server you have with us.
Does a looking glass measure bandwidth?
No. Ping, traceroute and MTR measure latency, packet loss and routing — not throughput. Port speeds for each plan are listed on our VPS and dedicated server pages.
05Get started
Found the location that suits you?
Deploy a VPS there in minutes, or compare every data centre on our locations page.