Disco inferno!!!

[frosty]

Ok, so a while back I was having periodic disco issues, but it was once or twice for every 5 hours or so of gameplay so I could handle it.  Now, I can't play for 10 minutes without one.  Here's a screen cap of my ping plot (every second for a 10 minute window):


I removed my router and firewall from the equation...I am plugged directly into my cable modem.  Now, my first question is why is Hop 1 always 100% loss?  I think it's not important, because obviously most packets do get through (otherwise nothing would work at all, right?).

But as you can see, every few minutes everything goes straight to hell...usually starting at hop 2.  Now I can guess that either I need to yell at my ISP, or my modem is dying, but any info Skuzzy or whoever could give me to help deal with the fun folks at Comcast would be great.  Is this typically a re-synching issue?  I did notice recently that even my web browsing cr*ps out on me for a few seconds at a time once in a while.

This all began occurring last night, by the way...right at the end of the Wednesday snapshot mission (awesome, by the way...we need some night flying in the MA once in a while!  It's a blast!).

[Skuzzy]

Comcast + Savvis = bad news.  Savvis knows the issue exists, so does Comcast, but no one wants to push Savvis to fix it.  Savvis pretty much told AT&T they have no intention of fixing the problem.

Savvis is doing what it can to point fingers at everyone else, while at the same time admitting it is a problem.

AT&T was/is trying to get a peering arrangement with Comcast, but I havenot heard how that is going.  That would essentially get around the Savvis issue, but that is going to take time.

[frosty]

Yeah, just found the post regarding Comcast and Savvis.

What's strange though is this only really began happening to me with this kind of frequency last night.  I'll call them and tell them something is broken.  Again, stuff goes down hill way up at hop 2.  If they can't help I'll threaten to switch to RCN. 

Any idea what that 100% loss flag at the root could be about?

[Skuzzy]

That is just ICMP ECHO messages being ignored.

[frosty]

So I called Comcast, and after making me go through every step that I told them I had already performed 5 times, they concluded...drumroll please...I should try swapping out my modem, and if that does not work send out a technician.

When I told the guy the first comcast.net hop where the packets seemed to be dropping (68.87.229.193), I could HEAR the guy's eyes glaze over.  It was as if I wasn't there...he didn't dare tell me he didn't know what a packet or a hop was, but he also wouldn't put me on with someone who would.

I can handle picking up the new modem, but I'd really like them to test and verify the issue isn't in there network BEFORE making me take a day off work for a cable guy to show up.

So, three questions:

1) To Skuzzy: Is a dying modem even remotely likely to cause this behavior?
2) Can someone else run a trace to 68.87.229.193 and see if they also get dropped packets from it?
2) To anyone: does anyone have any experience getting an actual technician on the horn with these Comcast people, instead of a phone jockey with a script?  It's like talking to a wall with those guys.

[Tr1gg22]

Just must be a known bug 

[frosty]

SSssssoooo...left my PC for a few minutes, came back, ran another plot just for fun, and...


...helluva lot better, and what few dropped packets there were were the Savvis/ATT hops...the Comcast hops were suddenly smooth sailing.  Which is good news, but I know it's likely not the modem now, and if it drops out again I'll have to find some way to drive it through Comcast's thick skulls that it's outside my home... 

[rpm]

I started getting discoed  regularly the last 3 or 4 days. Never had a problem with it before that.

[frosty]

Mine just started acting up again.  It's definitely something with my ISP (Comcast).  It's screwing up all of my internet activity...even these pages fail to load 50% of the time.   Ping plots to anything at all show more red than white now. 

Again, if someone could try plotting to that IP I mentioned it would be helpful. 

[The Fugitive]

I pinged to your address, good times, but I did get some packet lose.

[Denholm]

Pinging (From south Dallas) 68.87.229.193:


Notice how it jumps to Los Angeles then back to Dallas before heading to Nashville, then Indianapolis, and finally on to Chicago?

Pinging (From south Dallas) 68.87.230.93:


Once again the hops go to L.A., then back to Dallas, on to Nashville, then Indianapolis, and finally arriving in Chicago.


Most likely that's why you're having substantial packet loss. The return trip travels across the majority of the country before landing in your house.

[Skuzzy]

That is some ugly looking ping plots.

Horrible routing.  Overloaded routers.  Not good.

[Denholm]

I myself was amazed that it jumped to L.A. then back to Dallas. After all, the packet was sent from Dallas.

[Skuzzy]

That has been the issue all along with Comcast users having disco problems.  It really is quite incompetent.  No excuse for it, but now they are holding on to it as thier ego/arrogance will not allow them to admit they have screwed up and fixing it would be an acknowledgment of an error.

AT&T, Comcast, Savvis or any other large ISP all act the same way.  It becomes a game on who they can blame for the problems, as there is no way they could bever be at fault.  They spend all thier time doing that and not bother fixing the problem.

[frosty]

This is quite the lesson in how fubar our country's internet infrastructure seems to be.   

In any event, what I'm not seeing in your plots is the big ugly red bars (on the bottom chart) where everything went completely off the deep end.  Could be that you just got it at a good time.  Or it could mean that it either really is just my modem (hopefully), or that something is hosed between my house and Comcast.  A lot of people just moved into my building...maybe the cable guy messed up the central box outside somehow.

I just ran a plot to that address from work and I got a few lost packets, but nothing catastrophic.

Thanks for running those plots guys, they're really helpful as I try to track this down.