# No option but to move?



## mitsuhashi (Oct 8, 2013)

I've been working on a regional forum in my free time, on Seattle SSD VPS space from a provider I like quite a lot (Ramnode).

Problem is, there's been this really annoying high-ping issue that came up a few months ago and won't go away. I've asked @Nick_A about this and he says there's nothing he can do from his side, something about SINGTEL.

Before I show you the actual route, my "region" is an island with a single monopolized ISP. As my forum's target userbase is regional, I'm expecting something like a 75% local userbase that's going to get the same pings as I do. Data from our western Pacific island hits LA first @ roughly 170ms then gets routed to the webserver. For a while, my site at Seattle was getting ~200ms. For the past few months, though, it's been roughly 400ms, a little lower on good days and higher on bad.

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|                                      WinMTR statistics                       

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | 

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|-

|                             xxx.xxx.x.x -    0 |   64 |   64 |    0 |    0 | 

|                           xxx.xx.xx.xxx -    0 |   64 |   64 |   31 |   37 | 

|                            xxx.xx.xx.xx -    0 |   64 |   64 |   33 |   39 | 

|                            202.88.70.85 -    0 |   64 |   64 |   34 |   38 | 

|              202-123-143-161.talaya.com -    0 |   64 |   64 |   35 |   48 | 

|              202-123-143-146.talaya.com -    0 |   64 |   64 |   34 |   45 | 

|if-5-2-3.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net -   0 |   64 |   64 |  179 |  184 | 

|if-10-0-2-12.tcore1.LVW-LosAngeles.as6453.net 0 |   64 |   64 |  179 |  *184* | 

|                           66.110.59.102 -    0 |   64 |   64 |  337 |  *356* | 

|           xe-11-1-2.sea23.ip4.tinet.net -    0 |   64 |   64 |  357 |  364 | 

|            icastcenter-gw.ip4.tinet.net -    0 |   64 |   64 |  356 |  364 | 

|                   No response from host -  100 |   13 |    0 |    0 |    0 | 

|                             myforum.com -    0 |   64 |   64 |  355 |  370 | 

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|_

 

See where the data hits LA @ 184ms then jumps to 356ms? It's driving me nuts.

 

In contrast, this is the MTR to a test site on ChicagoVPS PureSSD @ LA (if you're curious, I won't be keeping this VPS for reasons totally unrelated to good ping speed):


|------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|                                      WinMTR statistics                       

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | 

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|-

|                             xxx.xxx.x.x -    0 |   28 |   28 |    0 |    0 | 

|                           xxx.xx.xx.xxx -    0 |   28 |   28 |   31 |   40 | 

|                            xxx.xx.xx.xx -    0 |   28 |   28 |   33 |   43 | 

|                             202.88.70.9 -    0 |   28 |   28 |   34 |   41 | 

|              202-123-143-137.talaya.com -    0 |   28 |   28 |   34 |   55 | 

|             POS4-0-3.IG2.LAX7.ALTER.NET -    0 |   28 |   28 |  150 |  155 | 

|           0.xe-1-0-2.XT1.LAX7.ALTER.NET -    0 |   28 |   28 |  152 |  170 | 

|               0.ae5.BR3.LAX15.ALTER.NET -    0 |   28 |   28 |  149 |  157 | 

|                         204.255.168.126 -    0 |   28 |   28 |  159 |  185 | 

|         TenGE9-2.br02.lax05.pccwbtn.net -    0 |   28 |   28 |  157 |  167 | 

|  dbtransit.ge9-6.br02.lax05.pccwbtn.net -    0 |   28 |   28 |  149 |  160 | 

|                               colo-lax8 -    0 |   28 |   28 |  151 |  159 | 

|     67.215.251.214.static.quadranet.com -    0 |   28 |   28 |  159 |  165 | 

|                   host.colocrossing.com -    0 |   28 |   28 |  159 |  165 | 

|                   host.colocrossing.com -    0 |   28 |   28 |  155 |  161 | 

|                   host.colocrossing.com -    0 |   28 |   28 |  158 |  163 | 

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|_

 

Another to my VPN, on CosmosTeck @ LA:


|------------------------------------------------------------------------------

|                                      WinMTR statistics                       

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | 

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|-

|                             xxx.xxx.x.x -    0 |   31 |   31 |    0 |    0 | 

|                           xxx.xx.xx.xxx -    0 |   31 |   31 |   31 |   41 | 

|                            xxx.xx.xx.xx -    0 |   31 |   31 |   31 |   39 | 

|                            202.88.70.85 -    0 |   31 |   31 |   36 |   44 | 

|              202-123-143-137.talaya.com -    0 |   31 |   31 |   38 |   52 | 

|              202-123-143-146.talaya.com -    0 |   31 |   31 |   38 |   49 | 

|if-5-2-3.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net -   0 |   31 |   31 |  184 |  190 | 

|if-10-0-2-12.tcore1.LVW-LosAngeles.as6453.net 0 |   31 |   31 |  184 |  *194* | 

|                           66.110.59.102 -    0 |   31 |   31 |  338 |  *348* | 

|                    gtt-gw.ip4.tinet.net -   15 |   20 |   17 |  325 |  333 | 

|         ae0-110g.cr1.lax1.us.nlayer.net -    0 |   31 |   31 |  341 |  349 | 

|          ae1-50g.ar1.lax2.us.nlayer.net -    0 |   31 |   31 |  332 |  337 | 

| as29761.xe-5-0-1.ar1.lax2.us.nlayer.net -    0 |   31 |   31 |  165 |  172 | 

|                               colo-lax6 -    0 |   31 |   31 |  164 |  171 | 

|         x-xx-xxx-xxx.lax.cosmosteck.com -    0 |   31 |   31 |  164 |  171 | 

|        xx-xx-xxx-xxx.lax.cosmosteck.com -    0 |   31 |   31 |  171 |  177 | 

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|_

 




Another MTR to INIZ's LA Looking Glass shows the same damned 66.110.xx.xxx IP and TINET at 350ms, although the final ping is roughly 180 just like the above CosmosTeck VPS.

Is there something I can do on my side to fix routes to my Ramnode VPS? Or is this issue completely dependent on whoever my ISP's peers are? (Note I'm not familiar at all with routes or peers or anything like it at this point, so pardon me if I'm using the wrong terms.)

I might stay with Ramnode even without a fix as SQL query time is going to be a lot better than most other providers. Debug info shows 0.025s page generation time at Ramnode versus 0.100s at ChicagoVPS despite similar on-paper specs. Plus I really like Ramnode. But it's nice to know all my options and weigh/research things from there.

EDIT: Fixed width issues, added some format.


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## drmike (Oct 8, 2013)

Do you have access to mtr instead?  Give it a spin and see what you really are getting.  Traceroute/tracepath is flaky often and not high indicative of strange issues like this.

66.110.59.102 = Tata and the prior hops are on their network too.


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## mitsuhashi (Oct 8, 2013)

buffalooed said:


> Do you have access to mtr instead?


Could you provide a link I can look up? I seem to be confused.


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## GIANT_CRAB (Oct 8, 2013)

Stinktel


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## HalfEatenPie (Oct 8, 2013)

I'm not too sure how correct this is but from what I can tell it's issues within Tata Communication's network. 

Your jump from LA as6453.net's IP to 66.110.59.102 is where the issue could be at.  Unfortunately that IP is also owned by Tata Communications.  So yeah it's not something Nick can directly do except just send the message up the chain.  The best thing your ISP can do is also send it up the chain (assuming their customer service is willing to work with you).  

I'm assuming you're in Guam (Mariana Islands) because you jump from IT&E Overseas to Tata, which isn't a surprise because you directly peer with them (although I would have assumed they would have used Level 3 especially since they have the biggest connection port with Level 3, and I doubt Level 3 would have issues like this).  Of course I could be wrong especially since majority of this is based off of assumptions. 

It's probably best to just talk to customer support and see if Nick can get Tata Communications people to look into that network issue.


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## mitsuhashi (Oct 9, 2013)

@HalfEatenPie

Wow, thanks, that's a lot of helpful information, and you pretty much nailed the assumptions. I'm in the Northern Mariana Islands, one step downstream from Guam, and my ISP is indeed IT&E. I guess I'll shoot them an email, though how much weight it's going to carry is a big question mark. I'll probably gather response times for some higher profile websites before doing that.


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## mitsuhashi (Dec 25, 2013)

RamNode added NTT to its mix a couple days ago and the problem is gone! Back down to good ol' 200ms! :wub:

|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|                                      WinMTR statistics                                   |

|                       Host              -   %  | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |

|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|

|                             xxx.xxx.x.x -    0 |   41 |   41 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |

|                           xxx.xx.xx.xxx -    0 |   41 |   41 |   31 |   34 |   43 |   34 |

|                            xxx.xx.xx.xx -    0 |   41 |   41 |   31 |   35 |   40 |   36 |

|                            202.88.70.85 -    0 |   41 |   41 |   35 |   38 |   49 |   38 |

|              202-123-143-161.talaya.com -    0 |   41 |   41 |   35 |   54 |  364 |   38 |

|             POS4-0-3.IG2.LAX7.ALTER.NET -    0 |   41 |   41 |  149 |  154 |  167 |  150 |

|           0.xe-1-0-1.XT2.LAX7.ALTER.NET -    0 |   41 |   41 |  149 |  155 |  182 |  151 |

|               0.ae5.BR1.LAX15.ALTER.NET -    0 |   41 |   41 |  151 |  155 |  169 |  152 |

|     ae-7.r05.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    0 |   41 |   41 |  152 |  156 |  165 |  154 |

|     ae-5.r21.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    0 |   41 |   41 |  151 |  157 |  187 |  154 |

|     ae-1.r20.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -   36 |   17 |   11 |    0 |  179 |  232 |  172 |

|     ae-0.r21.snjsca04.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    0 |   41 |   41 |  158 |  162 |  178 |  158 |

|     ae-1.r20.sttlwa01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    0 |   41 |   41 |  183 |  197 |  271 |  209 |

|     ae-1.r04.sttlwa01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net -    0 |   41 |   41 |  178 |  188 |  198 |  187 |

|                  ntt.stl.corexlayer.com -    0 |   41 |   41 |  182 |  192 |  201 |  184 |

|                   No response from host -  100 |    9 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |    0 |

|                             myforum.com -    0 |   41 |   41 |  180 |  189 |  202 |  188 |

|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|


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## Nick_A (Dec 25, 2013)

Great, that was the goal!


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## HalfEatenPie (Dec 25, 2013)

Glad this was taken care of 

Sorry I didn't check back on this sooner! Seems NTT is working out for you!


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