Augh! Why is my 'net connection so slow?

[XMan]

I don't know what the deal is, but my modem just sits and does nothing. It waits . . . and waits . . . and waits . . . and will finally start operating. I have no problem hooking up and staying connected; it's just the quality of the connection. In the past I've had 4.0K downloads, which isn't bad for living out in the country, but I'm downloading at like 138 bytes per second right now, even though I'm hooking up at 40.6k.

Here's a ping of my ISP . . .



<< C:\WINDOWS>ping www.hsonline.net

Pinging www.hsonline.net [209.153.128.61] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 209.153.128.61: bytes=32 time=519ms TTL=107
Reply from 209.153.128.61: bytes=32 time=207ms TTL=107
Reply from 209.153.128.61: bytes=32 time=479ms TTL=107
Reply from 209.153.128.61: bytes=32 time=637ms TTL=107

Ping statistics for 209.153.128.61:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 207ms, Maximum = 637ms, Average = 460ms >>



But if I ping Anandtech, which is thousands of miles away, I actually get BETTER ping times.



<< C:\WINDOWS>ping www.anandtech.com

Pinging www.anandtech.com [216.151.100.103] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 216.151.100.103: bytes=32 time=473ms TTL=111
Reply from 216.151.100.103: bytes=32 time=288ms TTL=111
Reply from 216.151.100.103: bytes=32 time=263ms TTL=111
Reply from 216.151.100.103: bytes=32 time=236ms TTL=111

Ping statistics for 216.151.100.103:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 236ms, Maximum = 473ms, Average = 315ms >>



I'm not losing any packets, so why the major lag? I'm on a US Robotics External Sportster 56K, and the ISP supports 56K. Theoretically . . .

 

[Viper GTS]

Go to Start, Run, winipcfg.

Write down your default gateway.

Ping that address from a DOS prompt.

Post the results here within 13 mins, &amp; I'll reply.

Viper GTS

 

[XMan]

Okay, Viper, this is weird.



<< C:\WINDOWS>ping 208.15.188.247 with 32 bytes of data

Reply from 208.15.188.247: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 208.15.188.247: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 208.15.188.247: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128
Reply from 208.15.188.247: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 208.15.188.247:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% Loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
>>

 

[Eli]

Go to DOS and type tracert forums.anandtech.com, and post it here.

 

[Viper GTS]

Call your ISP, it's not a problem on your end. Basically what I wanted to do was make sure you had good connectivity from you to your ISP's gateway. From there on out it's there responsibility.

Just for reference, I pinged your ISPs gateway from my gateway here at work (on a T1 line).

port-ping:~$ ping 208.15.188.247
PING 208.15.188.247 (208.15.188.247): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 208.15.188.247: icmp_seq=0 ttl=111 time=327.7 ms
64 bytes from 208.15.188.247: icmp_seq=1 ttl=111 time=625.1 ms
64 bytes from 208.15.188.247: icmp_seq=2 ttl=111 time=320.1 ms
64 bytes from 208.15.188.247: icmp_seq=3 ttl=111 time=343.9 ms
64 bytes from 208.15.188.247: icmp_seq=4 ttl=111 time=349.4 ms

--- 208.15.188.247 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 16% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 320.1/393.2/625.1 ms
port-ping:~$

Here's part of a traceroute, it chopped off the first three hops. They were very small, though, so they're pretty much irrevelant:

4 sea-core-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.26.9) 8.727 ms 8.244 ms 20.102 ms
5 208.173.50.1 (208.173.50.1) 22.136 ms 8.389 ms 12.865 ms
6 acr2-loopback.seattlesel.cw.net (208.172.82.62) 9.284 ms 13.314 ms 8.839
ms
7 ngcore2.seattle.cw.net (204.70.9.130) 9.222 ms 10.149 ms 9.176 ms
8 core2.Seattle.cw.net (204.70.4.33) 10.269 ms 12.263 ms 33.578 ms
9 cw-ip-eng-interconnects.Seattle.cw.net (206.157.77.154) 30.782 ms 13.339 m
s 13.786 ms
10 sl-bb10-sea-0-3.sprintlink.net (144.232.6.9) 80.465 ms 97.682 ms 91.791 m
s
11 sl-bb22-chi-13-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.18.50) 99.213 ms 73.556 ms 74.30
9 ms
12 144.232.10.177 (144.232.10.177) 95.393 ms 79.433 ms 75.256 ms
13 144.232.26.30 (144.232.26.30) 83.036 ms 73.583 ms 75.073 ms
14 sl-gw14-chi-0-0-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.10.190) 75.705 ms 94.396 ms 82.
096 ms
15 sl-cioe-6-0-0-T3.sprintlink.net (144.228.159.22) 91.387 ms 93.494 ms 92.7
98 ms
16 hsonline-ind-T1-1.cioe.net (204.248.219.226) 150.355 ms 124.338 ms 113.81
5 ms
17 as4-eth0.clmb.in.voyager.net (205.243.32.21) 165.574 ms 122.804 ms 134.23
8 ms
18 as4-dial55.clmb.in.voyager.net (208.15.188.247) 261.436 ms 474.092 ms 256
.196 ms

Those times are ridiculously high. They should be <80 ms, at LEAST (the ping times, I added in the traceroute later). My guess from the limited info I have right now is that your ISP is having gateway troubles.

I'm outta here, but I'll check again in ~90 minutes when I get home.

Good luck...

Viper GTS

 

[XMan]

<<
C:\WINDOWS>tracert forums.anandtech.com

Tracing route to forums.anandtech.com [216.151.100.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 135 ms 132 ms 130 ms as4-eth0.clmb.in.hsonline.net [205.243.32.21]
2 130 ms 127 ms 127 ms rtr3-eth0-0.clmb.in.hsonline.net [205.243.32.10]
3 280 ms 284 ms 315 ms 205.243.34.65 (pauses here for a few seconds)
4 190 ms 172 ms 522 ms 612.Hssi5-0-0.GW1.IND1.ALTER.NET [157.130.96.25]
5 429 ms 570 ms 700 ms 121.ATM4-0.XR1.CHI4.ALTER.NET [146.188.208.170]
6 190 ms 553 ms 296 ms 195.at-1-0-0.TR1.CHI2.ALTER.NET [152.63.65.50]
7 383 ms 265 ms 554 ms 126.at-5-1-0.TR1.DCA6.ALTER.NET [152.63.1.34]
8 198 ms 623 ms 318 ms 287.at-7-0-0.XR1.DCA1.ALTER.NET [152.63.33.217]
9 206 ms 212 ms 573 ms 193.ATM9-0-0.GW2.PIT1.ALTER.NET [146.188.162.97]
10 605 ms 237 ms 234 ms stargate-gw.customer.ALTER.NET [157.130.33.22]
11 657 ms 438 ms 744 ms f0-0.eth.gr-1.cc.pa.stargate.net [209.166.164.62]
12 246 ms 239 ms 228 ms s1-0.hdlc.gr-1.pitdc1.pa.stargate.net [216.151.87.182]
13 298 ms 254 ms 254 ms v1.eth.cr-1.pitdc1.pa.stargate.net [209.166.165.69]
14 434 ms 283 ms 265 ms forums.anandtech.com [216.151.100.106]

Trace complete.

C:\WINDOWS> >>

 

[XMan]

LOL.

Just got off the phone with tech support. Called them up and said, &quot;Hey, my connection is very crappy; my ping times are about four times what they used to be - do you have a gateway problem?

Pause . . . &quot;how did you know that?&quot; I 'splained to him about pingin' and tracert'n. He was in awe.

So, they're working on the problem right now . . . what would cause this sort of problem? We've had some lightning strikes in the last few days, so maybe some of their routers got taken out? If they had half the routing capability and the same number of customers, wouldn't that slow it down?

 

[Viper GTS]

It's amazing how little tech support people know sometimes. How can someone working for an ISP NOT know what a ping or traceroute is? Very sad.

As for what CAUSED the outage, who knows. Could have been anything. Bottom line is it's their problem, not yours.



Viper GTS

 

[Mday]

=)

that's why i love this place =)

good luck X

i was going to bitch about broadband, and then servers and all that stuff i know few things about =)

 

[Dean]

here are my pings to your first hop Xerox, they seem kinda good to me considering i'm in Nova Scotia


Microsoft(R) Windows 98
(C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1999.

C:\WINDOWS>ping 205.243.32.21

Pinging 205.243.32.21 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 205.243.32.21: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=241
Reply from 205.243.32.21: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=241
Reply from 205.243.32.21: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=241
Reply from 205.243.32.21: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=241

Ping statistics for 205.243.32.21:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 80ms, Maximum = 82ms, Average = 80ms

C:\WINDOWS>


and this is my tracert


3 16 ms 16 ms 15 ms dis1-halifax-atm0-1-0-36.in.bellnexxia.net [206
108.110.37]
4 30 ms 30 ms 32 ms core1-montreal02-pos6-1.in.bellnexxia.net [206.
08.97.201]
5 38 ms 39 ms 40 ms core2-newyork83-pos2-0.in.bellnexxia.net [206.1
8.103.214]
6 38 ms 39 ms 39 ms bx1-newyork83-srp6-0.in.bellnexxia.net [206.108
103.243]
7 39 ms 39 ms 39 ms sl-gw9-nyc-7-3.sprintlink.net [160.81.43.13]
8 39 ms 38 ms 39 ms sl-bb10-nyc-4-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.7.93]
9 57 ms 59 ms 58 ms sl-bb22-chi-12-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.18.53]

10 57 ms 57 ms 58 ms 144.232.26.42
11 58 ms 59 ms 58 ms sl-bb10-chi-8-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.10.1]
12 58 ms 57 ms 58 ms sl-gw14-chi-0-0-0.sprintlink.net [144.232.10.19
]
13 75 ms 76 ms 75 ms sl-cioe-6-0-0-T3.sprintlink.net [144.228.159.22

14 85 ms 132 ms 85 ms hsonline-ind-T1-2.cioe.net [204.248.219.154]
15 90 ms 83 ms 90 ms as4-eth0.clmb.in.voyager.net [205.243.32.21]

Trace complete.


overall i'd say it was your phone lines or a bad gateway

 

[Viper GTS]

Xerox...

I just realized I did something totally unnecessary. I had you ping your default gateway, which on dial-up is the same as your IP address. So that step was useless. All you did was ping yourself, which explains the 0ms ping times.

Doh! Too much time spent on LAN based DSL connections.



Oh well, the end result was the same. Bad gateway. It couldn't have been your phone lines, 'cause my ping times to your ISP's gateway were all hosed, &amp; that never touched your phone lines.

Viper GTS

 

[Dean]

dsl rocks viper!!

RADSL here