High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

[MrKLM]

Hey guys I have been having major problems with my ISP since December of 2009. Then they promised that new fiber would be coming "soon" well soon turned into "March 2011". Now March has passed and they have not given us fiber. What they have done is take the old "box" and hook it up to fiber instead of copper lines to "help alleviate the congestion". The old box maxes out at 1Mbps and the ISP set their minimum internet package to 1 (before we had 768k) now that all the connections here are forced to 1 the box cannot handle it so they put fiber to it but that has not helped much at all. The internet is still worse than in years past when we had 768k.

Anyway I have been hassling my ISP for weeks now asking when is the fiber coming, are you going to do something with our bill etc. They are giving us a credit and lowering the future bill. But as of Thursday I was told by my ISP that they have no intentions on installing a new fiber box here and they were only going to put fiber to the old box. This is obviously pissing me off and I asked the guy I talked with to confirm that that is what is really going to happen and that he didn't get the wrong information. They never called back. I do speedtests and pingtests all the time. But I decided to do ping and tracerts to my ISP and even those are terrible.

The service tech guy who actually comes to the house said that the company office knows that it is their fault which is the bad thing. Few weeks ago when I talked to one of their head support people over the phone she said she does to the meetings and they kept pushing back the date of the install for the fiber box, but like I said most recent conversation has resulted in a guy telling me they wont be putting a fiber box.

Take a look for yourself.

Here are two pings to their server.


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Here is a tracert to their server.


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What I want to know is, first off is their anything else I can do from my computer. Modem, router, etc. To make any improvements?

Secondly what is the best way to explain this whole issue to the ISP. Because I am now hell bent on making it known to them that the fiber is needed out there. I will appreciate any help that repliers give.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

I see those numbers sometimes if the carrier is DSL and the MTU size is set to 1500 instead of 1492 on the customer router.

Is your connection DSL and have you checked that? Your router upgraded? Have you talked to your neighbors and have they seen the same issue with same results?

Here is a test, again if DSL, you can try out:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/5793

Crunch

[MrKLM]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

I downloaded TCP Optimizer that another site recommended. I looked at the MTU it has listed and it is set to 1500. My router is an ASUS WL500W (recently acquired).

Should I set my MTU to 1492 in TCP Optimizer?

The connection is ASDL ? I know the neighbors have the same issues with speeds because the tech support guy who comes to the house even says that it is bad for this area for all. But I'm thinking mine could be worse idk. This is their page. http://www.horizontel.com/horizon/in...tial/internet/

I did what the link you posted told me to do. It came out to 1472 + 28 = 1500. Anything larger than pinging 1472 and it said it needed to be fragmented.

[MrKLM]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

Also just to be sure I unplugged the router and went straight from the modem. Same results, so now I know it isnt the router.

[MrKLM]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

Another update:

The ISP tech gave me a second modem of a different brand to change in and out as I please because he knows of the difficulty we have out here, I hadn't tried the newer one since they put the old box to fiber lines. Just did it again without the router and the ping is very sporadic but better than on the older modem. I just did a ping to horizontel.com and it is in the 40's. Tracert is the same. Next I'll hook the router back up to the newer modem and see how it works. But still even with this, it isnt great.

[MrKLM]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

Well the modem was indeed holding back a lot of the connection. Put the newer modem to the router and the speeds on the ping and tracert remain the same. It is still not perfect but better than before. Now downloads are around 80 kb/s instead of 30-40 kb/s before they put the old box on fiber it was like 15 or 9 kb/s back before everyone was forced to 1m and we had 768k downloads would range between 70-90 kb/s.

Going to keep pinging and tracert ing throughout the day.

some of the pings and tracert 's come in in double digets but a few seconds later and they are in the 500's again.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

It could be the DSL mode as well. I bought my router as the ISPs usually give you the crappy ones that are cheap. I let it autodetect and it worked fine on the setting for ADSL G.DMT. I then ran tests on it and changed it to ADSL 2 and it was worse. So then I tried ADSL2+ and was able to get the full speed I paid for. So, sometimes letting a router autodetect will make it work, but it doesnt always make it work well.

Also, you may have problems in your area, but you need to talk to your neighbors yourself to be sure. Those support people are usually underpaid and overworked and they like to say how this area is always terrible so that you will learn to live with it. Im not saying thats what they are doing, but Ive seen it done. Ive actually argued with some ISPs and brought in my own equipment just to prove they were not being straight on it.

As for the MTU, sounds like it is set correctly. If you wanted to try the other settings just to be sure you can, but that test is pretty accurate.

In the end though, there may be nothing more you can do.

Crunch

[Xylaquin]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

correct me if I've missed it at some point, but I'm guessing you can't change ISP?

[MrKLM]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

correct me if I've missed it at some point, but I'm guessing you can't change ISP?

That is correct.

It could be the DSL mode as well.

I've never heard of this, I will look into it. Do you have any more information on how to change the DSL mode?

you may have problems in your area

I know it is a problem in our area. We have an old hardware box that the ISP connects our area with. Internet first came out here in like 2001 (first non dial up). So the hardware is from around then. It maxes out at 1Mbps like I said, everyone is forced onto 1Mbps connections as that is now the lowest offering by the ISP, the box cannot handle all of us on 1Mbps.

Today the ping and tracert tests are back to what they were yesterday high 400s sometimes 500-600.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: High Ping and Traceroute To ISP

I do not have anymore informaton on the DSL modes. It depends on what the router can do. ADSL is a generic term, like router. ADSL can have different settings and handshakes and all that and so it depends on what your carrier does with its equipment. Some DSL modems cannot change their modes or are autodetect only. I think the modes are related to the age of the DSL equipment, but I cant be sure on that.

Crunch