Do You Like Your ISP?

**GReYVee** · 07-26-11, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by MajorBrass

After two more hours on the phone today, ATT tier 2 support said "We have looked into the issue. It's not a problem with our network." Yeah, right...the two next route ATT IP hops after the line leaves my neighberhood are timing out on every trace route I run and somehow it's not their problem!?

ICMP (type 8 ) filtering is rather common. Timeouts on trace-routes don't mean much, and mean absolutely nothing if you are not experiencing any major packet-loss. Also consider that when it comes to packet-loss / latency wherever the issue starts is where it will continue. The more localized the problem, the more places it will show up.

What does a pathping look like? (done the same way as a traceroute, but uses different type of ICMP packets, these don't get filtered typically)

Although some ISPs are better than others it really comes down to both ISP/Location. There are good/bad areas within most of them. Some may have an old or poorly designed local infrastructure that causes problems. Some may not have enough transport fiber to handle peak hour traffic to the outside world. And be perfectly fine in the county next to you. Etc.

**SapiensErus** · 07-26-11, 10:53 AM

I am using comcast 12mb cable service. It works great but costs more than I want to pay...

At my old house they had competition and took good care of me when my promotions ran out. I was getting all kinds of discounts the whole year I lived there.

At my new place they have no competition and are charging top price with no offers. When I called to talk to the promotions person they had nothing to say or offer me. I threaten to drop the service and they say OK ... guess they know when there is no other service in the area.

**Phyrelight** · 07-26-11, 02:48 PM

yea SoySoldier, that is how it is where I live. My town gave the franchise license to mediacom so they have no desire to do anything to make their service better. 90% utilization during prime time, $80 a month for 20mb plan. Sole franchise license = no competition = monopoly. My local mediacom office actually has dozens of complaints against it with the BBB here and they don't care. I really really really hope the DSL service works as promised. If it does I will be dropping mediacom really fast.

**[CoFR]SirMoo** · 07-26-11, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by MajorBrass

I hope it lasts for you! It gradually got worse and worse for me as, I think, ATT U-Verse added more and more customers. When ATT recently got me a new router and I was setting up the wiresless, I saw a bunch of 2Wires (the router ATT U-verse uses) come up on the list of available connections. They've done a good job of getting people signed up around here but must have gradually outgrown the infastructure they built.

The upgraded speed made no difference tonight. In fact, it was worse than the last two nights. It stated around and over 100 ms for the most part. I could care less what my ping # is but it does get to be hardly playable over 95 ms. I played BF2 on the old TTP server with a ping of 15 ms. People used to ask me if I had the server in my back yard :-)

I live in an apartment complex so if I go wireless, I see a shitload of 2wires, because other than cable there's only ATT. Hence I don't even enable the wifi on the RG.

It is probably not a local aggregation issue then, it's not out of the question that one of the peering points between ATT and the next ISP on your way to the server could be oversubscribed as well.

Also ATT IPTV sucks. I canceled mine, and just watch everything over the net now.

**MajorBrass** · 07-26-11, 07:44 PM

Here is a trace with both tracert and pathping. I'm not sure how to interpret things. The ping from my router to the VRAD used to always be 21-25 ms and now, after the new router was put in, it is in the hundreds + and very inconsistant.
Do You Like Your ISP?-pathping-jpg

Do You Like Your ISP?-netflixyahootrace-jpg

**HeavyG** · 07-26-11, 08:08 PM

I have Verizon FIOS. I like it much better than when I had Brighthouse. The Verizon equipment has some... issues... but when it is working, it works like a champ! I have had it for about 3 years now and have never considered switching back.

**badprimer1** · 07-27-11, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by CivilWars

Yes. FiOS FTMFW!!!

Attachment 5228

+1

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

**GReYVee** · 07-28-11, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by MajorBrass

Here is a trace with both tracert and pathping. I'm not sure how to interpret things. The ping from my router to the VRAD used to always be 21-25 ms and now, after the new router was put in, it is in the hundreds + and very inconsistant.

Although I can see tracert inconsistently reports the first hop in 250+ range it doesn't show any impact to the links beyond that. The packets pass through just fine on those traces. The first hop outside your premises (what you referred to as the VRAD) has no priority to directly respond to control messages (hence the latency you see there).

One thing I know about Pandora/Netflix especially is they don't really 'stream' but burst data at the client when allowed to. This has a pretty severe affect on latency. You express this only making it worse though, so something is else is going on.

I get a solid 21Mbps, with a ceiling at 30Mbps and still ran into problems gaming while another is streaming video. However I mitigated most of it by updating to DD-WRT firmware on my router and running QoS. You can't truly QoS the downstream, but you can modify the behavior of the streaming. This was achieved by using HTB scheduling and limiting the users to an 8/1 connection. Then set my gaming computer to exempt (it can monopolize bandwidth as it pleases).

By doing that the TV upstairs actually streams, with a solid 7.5Mbps usage. So my ping only goes up by 2-3ms. Before Netflix would spike traffic to 15+ Mbps and double/triple my gaming ping erratically in the process. This route however is fairly technical, and may not even address the underlying problem for you.

**MajorBrass** · 07-28-11, 11:25 PM

"Fairly technical" is right and over my head but I appreciate the information. It may be something, I can refer to and research once I go to Charter.

Unfortunately, it looks like after three weeks, multiple hours on the phone with ATT, two new routers, two VRAD port changes, and five different technicians, most of whom did not have a clue, the problem is not going away. ATT's network team is denying there is an issue. The tier 2 support guys run their tests and can see "problems with the line" and "drops" but get told "It's not our problem." when they escalate the issue to the ICU and network teams.

I'll probably have to move to Charter, if I want the problem resolved. I'll have to wait till it is cooler in order to run a cable line where I need it for a wired connection to my gaming PC. It's way too tight (vaulted ceilings) and hot in our attic and the typical guys being sent out for installs would not want to go through the trouble.

Too bad Fios is not available at my address.

**GReYVee** · 07-28-11, 11:40 PM

I would say you need to consider the options that you have. However I think you have also spent too much time with the 'phone techs' regarding your problems. If you want some real diagnostic help just frikken add me on steam.

Steam Community :: ID :: { BD }

We can do this sometime, and I will certainly have no reason to stray you.