Author Topic: level 3  (Read 383 times)

Offline jhookt

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« on: May 17, 2007, 02:39:13 PM »
in another thread Fuzeman quoted skuzzy saying something to the effect that level 3 is bad.




here's what i got when i ran pingplotter.  is there anything i can do to stop getting discoed?

Offline hubsonfire

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« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2007, 02:45:00 PM »
Who's your ISP? That first hop, man that's ugly. :eek:
mook
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Offline jhookt

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« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2007, 02:48:28 PM »
charter communications.  i have cable internet.   could you please explain what you posted? i am very computer illiterate

Offline hubsonfire

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« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2007, 02:56:00 PM »
You're losing all of your packets, I think, at the first connection to your ISP. While your ping times are bouncing around at Level3, I don't think the game makes any distinction between a 10ms ping or a 60ms one, so that might not be your problem, but rather all of your packet loss. Skuzzy's the master here, but I don't think that would be your problem. There's apparently some issue between you and Charter, but I couldn't even venture a guess as to what it would be.
 
I have to connect through Podunk Can-and-string ISP, and get routed through Savvis in chicago, and ATT in texas (all of which are fond of losing my packets- can't even play the game during the day), and I have some occasional serious problems with them, but I've never lost 100%.
mook
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Proper punctuation and capitalization go a long way towards people paying attention to your posts.  -Stoney
I was wondering why I get ignored so often.  -Hitech

Offline 68Hawk

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« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2007, 04:11:04 PM »
jhookt,

I've been having this same problem, let me take you through it.

First off charter sucks.  There's always a problem with them.  I've got comcast though and they're messing up here too.  

I'd post my pingplotter results, but they look the same as yours.  Only real difference is my router is out of the loop now so I'm getting packet loss at #1.

The comcast guys were here yesterday (and the day before), and we think we've tracked the problem to the box outside the building that goes to the street.  Unfortunately that means a whole new set of bureaucratic nightmares.

I haven't been experiencing any bandwidth problems that are noticeable, but when I get in game and close on someone's six the hickup makes them bounce literally everywhere.  No one in the building has said anything, but it seems to be affecting everyone.  It's only down at the finer points of connectivity that you see the problem, and without running something like pingplotter most people won't even believe it's an issue.

Tech support on the phone tried to run a "ping" command at text prompt to my machine and it told them there was no packet loss.  I told them use "tracert" and you'll see the corresponding hop time out.  (syntax: "ping IP" or "ping URL", "tracert IP" or "tracert URL", use start>run>cmd to get a prompt window open easily).  Tracert is a less informative equivalent to pingplotter, basically.  You're obviously seeing the problem yourself on pingplotter.  Don't let them tell you its fine, because they probably will try.

When the tech figured out that it wasn't the lines going to my modem, he hooked something fancy up to the box outside and momentarily saw a hickup, but then nothing.  Data on my machine the whole time indicated the problem persisted.  He guesses that his machine began to auto correct as a matter of its software programing to get an accurate signal.  

I am positive it is not my machine, as my router comes through fine (as does yours) and I have no packet loss when I plot a route from my school connection (on this machine).  

In AH at the server board you can open up the ping details for each server with the button.  Do this and watch carefully.  You might see the packet loss count increment to one briefly, then go back to zero as the packet gets through.  That's what I saw at least.  Pingplotter seems to be throwing this just as an error, whereas AH seems to find just the hickup.  Skuzzy may be able to call me off base on this, but these are just my observations.  This hickup is what manifests itself in the game to make me waste a lot of bullets (and screw up landing last Wed on CV during snapshot).

My solution?  I'm going to rally the other internet users in my building to get on comcast about sending the linemen out.  The techs were awesome, but they said not to take crap from the office.  Said it might take a while to convince them to send the guy with the meter to sit there to actually see the problem, which we had just seen ourselves.  

Hope this helps.  Email me if you like.
I'll keep you posted.

68Hawk@68thlightninglancers.com
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Offline Skuzzy

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« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2007, 08:02:53 AM »
A big part of the problem lately seems to be the trading of hands within the various cable ISP's.  Parts of Road Runner got bought by Time Warner, parts of Time Warner got bought by Comcast, which also bought parts of Time Warner, and partso f Adelphia got bought by Road Runner.

Then toss into the mix the mad rush to use Levl3 as the transport for the Internet and you have a huge mess on your hands as routes are simply changing faster than the Internet can keep up and Level3 just gets swamped.

Why the mad rush to Level3?  Costs.  Level3 is lowballing thier prices.  Looks like they are trying to build up to sell out.  Just a guess there.  I its a typical thing to do before being sold anymore.  Get as mny customers as possible to make a company look attractive.

Of course, the problem then is one of congestion.  Severe congestion.  Combined with all the route changes and you have yourself a massive mess that only time will cure.
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Offline Fulmar

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« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2007, 08:52:29 AM »
I currently use Charter as well, but I haven't had any ping/packet loss problems in quite a while (knock on wood).  Of course I'm up here in Wisconsin.  I'd probably use DSL but AT&T is weak in the area and covers only a small portion of even my 70,000 people city.  I've always had beefs with Charter.  They have no real competition in this area and their prices are very high because of it.  $45 for 3mb and almost biannualy price increases is rediculous.  I could rant for a long time but its outside the the scope of this thread.
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Offline 68Hawk

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« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2007, 11:03:27 AM »
Thanks for the info Skuzzy.  Could you please explain what you mean by level 3 a little more?

I wonder if these mergers/corporate fattening/cost cutting has anything to do with that Internet 2 horse crap that some of the telecom companies were pushing for.  Damn I hope not.
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