MT4 Status Bar

One quick method to check the real time internet connection between your MT4 platform & the server of your broker is to check the MetaTrader 4 status bars on the MetaTrader 4 platform interface - MetaTrader 4 Connection Bar on MT4 Status Bar.

On the examples illustrated & explained below MT4 Connection Bars on MT4 Status Bar is Shown:

The MT4 platform status bar is used to show if there is a connection to the servers or not, if there's a connection to the trading server, then a trader can place trade transactions to the online market using MetaTrader 4 charts. When there's a connection MT4 charts can then keep updating - if MetaTrader 4 Charts on your platform software are Not Updating - you should first check the connection using MT4 Connection bars on MetaTrader 4 Status Bar.

Green Bars - on the Connection bars on MT4 Status Bar illustrates there is a connection, next to the green bars there also will be the kilobytes downloaded & uploaded indicated as a figure.

Red Bars - Connection bars in MT4 Status Bar show that there's no connection and trades to the brokers' server can not be opened.

Red bars may also mean your online internet connection is down, thence if you're using a connection like dial up and red bars come up, then maybe it is your online internet connection, and not necessarily the online broker's server. A common question by traders is - Why are MetaTrader 4 Charts Not Updating? if your MetaTrader 4 charts aren't updating then you may need to first check the connection of the MetaTrader 4 platform to your broker using this MT4 connection bars in MetaTrader 4 status bar - MetaTrader 4 Charts Not Updating.

To show the status bars on the MT4 platform, a trader needs to use the "Status Bar" button on the 'View' menu options like illustrated below, Press to check, once the option is checked the MetaTrader 4 status bar will be shown at the bottom right corner of your MT4 Platform.

How to check if there is an online connection on the MetaTrader 4 Platform

MetaTrader 4 Platform Connection Bars on the Status Bar - Green Bars show that the connection is online & Red Bars explain that the connection is offline. The connection might be either your internet service provider(ISP) or broker server. Most of the time it'll be your internet service provider as the brokers have 2 to Three simultaneous servers and there is no way all of them can be offline even if it's for 1 second.

Study More Lessons:

Trade Gold Trading

MT4 Status Bar

How to check if there is an online connection on the MetaTrader 4 Platform