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MtrXTools

Ping (TCP)

Measure round-trip time to a host by timing TCP handshakes on a port (443 by default): min, average, max, jitter and loss over 5 or 10 attempts. Works where ICMP is blocked; ICMP ping arrives with regional probes.

Why TCP instead of ICMP

Classic ping uses ICMP echo, which many firewalls and cloud providers block, so the host looks down when it isn't. MtrXTools times TCP handshakes to a real service port instead (443 by default), which measures the same round trip and works wherever the service does.

Each run makes 5 or 10 attempts from MtrXTools's servers and reports the minimum, average and maximum time, jitter and loss.

Reading the numbers

  • Minimum: the best case, close to the network distance.
  • Jitter: how much the times vary. High jitter hurts calls and games more than a slightly higher average.
  • Loss: attempts that got no answer. Any loss to a healthy server points to congestion or a filtering firewall.

Questions

Is this my latency to the host?
No, it is the latency from MtrXTools's servers. Use it to check whether a host is reachable and responsive from the internet; ICMP ping from regional probes is coming later.
Every attempt fails. Is the host down?
Not necessarily: the port may be closed or firewalled. Try Port check to see which ports answer.
What is a good ping time?
Within the same region, under 30 ms is typical; across a continent 50 to 100 ms; between continents 100 to 250 ms. Physical distance sets the floor, because light in fibre covers about 200 km per millisecond.

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Errors this tool helps with