Something is still very wrong. Check out the following traces.
This trace is tracing to hop #2 in your trace. Notice the route and final place it stops. The IP address it stops at is not the IP address I am tracing to.
/usr/sbin/traceroute 217.5.98.90
traceroute to 217.5.98.90 (217.5.98.90), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 core0.dllstx.theplanet.com (216.234.234.1) 0.720 ms 0.642 ms 0.758 ms
2 border3.fe5-1.theplanet-2.003.dal.pnap.net (216.52.189.221) 1.154 ms 0.796
ms 0.690 ms
3 core2.ge1-0-0-bbnet2.ext1.dal.pnap.net (216.52.191.97) 0.795 ms 0.675 ms
0.904 ms
4 500.POS2-2.GW2.DFW13.ALTER.NET (65.208.15.145) 1.173 ms 1.027 ms 0.681 ms
5 0.so-1-0-0.XL1.DFW13.ALTER.NET (152.63.103.226) 0.966 ms 1.145 ms 0.887 m
s
6 0.so-3-1-0.XL1.DFW9.ALTER.NET (152.63.103.217) 1.955 ms 1.670 ms 1.662 ms
7 POS6-0.BR2.DFW9.ALTER.NET (152.63.99.209) 1.647 ms 1.817 ms 1.698 ms
8 204.255.168.166 (204.255.168.166) 2.647 ms 5.902 ms 2.535 ms
9 p6-0.crtntx1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.9.249) 3.492 ms 2.943 ms 18.619 ms
10 p9-0.iplvin1-br2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.214) 22.119 ms 22.087 ms 21.914 m
s
11 p15-0.iplvin1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.153) 22.444 ms 22.182 ms 21.836
ms
12 p13-0.phlapa1-br1.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.181) 41.164 ms 55.543 ms 37.253
ms
13 p13-0.nycmny1-nbr2.bbnplanet.net (4.24.10.178) 41.960 ms 38.628 ms 40.991
ms
14 so-7-0-0.nycmny1-hcr3.bbnplanet.net (4.0.7.13) 83.018 ms 47.708 ms 39.228
ms
15 p12-2.deutscheti.bbnplanet.net (4.25.133.6) 40.670 ms 210.021 ms 208.422
ms
16 F-EB1.F.DE.net.dtag.de (62.154.17.138) 120.260 ms 121.943 ms 124.761 ms
17 217.237.152.101 (217.237.152.101) 130.859 ms 123.073 ms 136.983 ms
This trace is to your hop #3. Notice how different the route is and the last hop is, again, not the IP address I am tracing to.
/usr/sbin/traceroute 217.237.152.102
traceroute to 217.237.152.102 (217.237.152.102), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
1 core0.dllstx.theplanet.com (216.234.234.1) 6.386 ms 0.632 ms 5.611 ms
2 border3.fe5-1.theplanet-2.003.dal.pnap.net (216.52.189.221) 1.557 ms 2.162
ms 2.662 ms
3 core1.ge1-0-0-bbnet2.ext1.dal.pnap.net (216.52.191.96) 1.719 ms 3.766 ms
1.125 ms
4 sl-gw40-fw-1-3.sprintlink.net (160.81.60.213) 1.953 ms 2.017 ms 1.926 ms
5 sl-bb22-fw-4-3.sprintlink.net (144.232.8.249) 117.321 ms 37.850 ms 12.940
ms
6 sl-bb20-atl-11-1.sprintlink.net (144.232.18.22) 17.640 ms 17.826 ms 19.94
2 ms
7 sl-bb20-nyc-10-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.8.89) 37.855 ms 37.475 ms 38.272
ms
8 sl-bb27-nyc-6-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.13.153) 50.966 ms 40.929 ms 38.12
6 ms
9 sl-gw31-nyc-1-0.sprintlink.net (144.232.13.34) 36.847 ms 39.277 ms 39.189
ms
10 sl-deutsche-3-0.sprintlink.net (144.223.27.134) 35.357 ms 36.120 ms 37.21
8 ms
11 F-EB1.F.DE.net.dtag.de (62.154.17.138) 119.272 ms * 120.428 ms
Something is still wrong with the routing tables. I suspect the only reason you are getting anywhere is due to the light load of traffic on the Internet.
EDIT: I just realized that hops 11 (second trace) and hops 16 (first trace) in the above traces is the same router, but 2 very different paths were taken to get there. This, in of itself, is not unusual, bu the fact that I started with a 217.x.x.x address and ended up going two different routes is bizarre and that both addresses I was tracing to are on the other side of this particular router makes this truly bizarre.
Hey Monk, take your traceroute and trace to the last one or two hops before the MA and see what happens. They should be the same paths, but if not, then there is more wrong than I suspected.
