Enlightenment (tracert And Ping)

[owatagal]

The short story: for the last eight hours I've been unable to do any real work because my internet connection is frazzled somewhere. Or else my broadband connection is suffering an identity crisis and is pretending to be dialup with attitude. I don't know. I ran a tracert to one of my sites to see what that would tell me, which is:

 

>traceroute to crankywoman.net (66.36.242.245), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
1  xxx.xxx.x.x (xxx.xxx.x.x)  1.989 ms  0.648 ms  0.566 ms
2  * * *
3  xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxxx.net (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  11.392 ms *  7.179 ms
4  xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxxx.net (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  19.538 ms  6.877 ms  7.783 ms
5  xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxxx.net (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  24.096 ms  24.926 ms  6.747 ms
6  xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxxx.net (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  38.888 ms  36.514 ms  44.254 ms
7  xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.xxxxxx.net (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)  38.296 ms  36.918 ms  37.187 ms
8  acr2-so-1-2-0.seattle.savvis.net (208.172.81.153)  36.836 ms  35.117 ms *
9  dcr2-so-1-0-0.denver.savvis.net (204.70.193.58)  62.444 ms *  64.116 ms
10  dcr1-so-7-0-0.chicago.savvis.net (204.70.192.134)  97.294 ms *  87.972 ms
11  bcs1-so-1-3-0.washington.savvis.net (204.70.192.21)  106.22 ms bcs1-so-3-0-0.washington.savvis.net (204.70.192.25)  104.419 ms bcs1-so-1-3-0.washington.savvis.net (204.70.192.21)  114.178 ms
12  iar2-loopback.washington.savvis.net (206.24.226.13)  126.755 ms *  104.607 ms
13  iar2-loopback.washington.savvis.net (206.24.226.13)  102.221 ms  106.729 ms ge6-0.core2.dca2.hopone.net (66.36.224.186)  105.455 ms
14  ge6-0.core2.dca2.hopone.net (66.36.224.186)  103.373 ms vl2.msfc1.distb2.dca2.hopone.net (66.36.224.229)  103.926 ms  103.297 ms
15  vl2.msfc1.distb2.dca2.hopone.net (66.36.224.229)  103.696 ms *  105.139 ms
16  * * *
17  * * *
18  * * *
19  * * *
20  * * *
21  * * *
22  * * *
23  * * *
24  * * *
25  * * *
26  * * *
27  * * *
28  * * *
29  * * *
30  * * *

 

But I'm not going to pretend I know what that means. Something timed out somewhere, but it may or may not be at hopone.net? Ok... so I pinged the IP address listed with hopone.net to see if that told me anything (66.36.224.229) and got this:

 

>20 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

 

That's bad, isn't it? For kicks I also pinged crankywoman.net's IP (66.36.242.245... I think?):

 

>25 packets transmitted, 22 packets received, 12% packet loss

 

And a second ping to 66.36.242.245 gives me this:

 

>55 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

 

Has this told me anything useful about where the connection is failing, or have I just discovered a new toy? (Fun With Terminal: Amaze and Astound Your Friends, Only $19.99 + shipping and handling)

 

I pinged myself just for fun, and you'll be relieved to know, I'm sure, that I'm 100% here. It's the rest of the world I don't know about...

[Madmanmcp]

The 100% packet loss is telling you what you see with traceroute, nothing is able to reach the IP. There is a routing issue at hopone...which I believe is used by the datacenter where some of the TCH servers are located.

 

I would submit a help desk ticket to make sure someone is aware of the problem. You can point them to this thread to view your traceroute.

[TCH-Andy]

If you want some instructions / background on traceroute, see How To Run A Trace Route

 

However, as MadmanMCP says, post the info in a ticket, and we'll take a look.

[owatagal]

The linked post was actually the one that helped me figure out how to run a tracert at all. I think I just need more time to read and play with it to really understand it all. I'll go ahead and submit a ticket then--I didn't in the first place because everything is slow for me right now, not just my hosted sites. But if it looks like it might have to do with the TCH servers and not just my general connection... off to the help desk I go.

[owatagal]

The always-helpful help desk folk were able to confirm that the problem is in fact with my ISP. And they've given me a trace route on my own IP, which, if I understand anything I've been reading on trace routes, will help my ISP sort things out more quickly. Yay!

 

Now I can go bug my ISP, who I really should have been bugging eight hours ago instead of waiting to see if the problem fixed itself.