Ping issues in Seattle, tracert, etc

[EVOL]

When I first moved to Seattle (I'm 20 miles south, in Auburn) I signed up for Comcast (XFinity Blast package, 25 down, 5 up). It's the only ISP that's available where I live. This was the beginning of June 2011, and I was getting 13 ping to Seattle servers. Now I get 65+ ping to Seattle servers, and have since sometime in July or August when everything just seemed to go south. Does anyone know if id switched hosters or hosting plans for their servers? Did anyone else notice major ping issues in the last few months? I was just on a seattle duel server, and got the server ip with the clientinfo command (or maybe client_info, don't remember), and did a tracert to it:

C:\Users\evol>tracert 69.12.104.204

Tracing route to 69.12.104.204 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 6 ms 7 ms 8 ms 73.104.132.1
3 39 ms 7 ms 7 ms ge-3-18-ur04.federalway.wa.seattle.comcast.net [68.85.241.29]
4 100 ms 35 ms 34 ms ae-11-0-ar03.seattle.wa.seattle.comcast.net [69.139.164.85]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms pos-1-11-0-0-cr01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.93.101]
6 26 ms 29 ms 27 ms 4.59.234.17
7 37 ms 36 ms 35 ms ae-31-51.ebr1.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.69.147.150]
8 27 ms 31 ms 29 ms ae-7-7.ebr2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.132.49]
9 30 ms 31 ms 30 ms ae-72-72.csw2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.153.22]
10 26 ms 27 ms 27 ms ae-22-70.car2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.152.68]
11 28 ms 31 ms 27 ms ge2-2.bbsr1.sjc.megapath.net [63.209.21.234]
12 45 ms 47 ms 47 ms ge-0-1-3-mxc2.snvacaid.bb.megapath.net [155.229.57.198]
13 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms ae0-mxc1.snvacaid.bb.megapath.net [155.229.57.13]
14 47 ms 47 ms 47 ms 155.229.101.93
15 45 ms 47 ms 47 ms ge3-0-0.m10.stl.bb.megapath.net [155.229.101.189]
16 60 ms 58 ms 59 ms ve191.ge0-1-0.core1.lax.megapath.net [66.80.133.18]
17 57 ms 58 ms 71 ms 69.12.104.204

Trace complete.

From what I understand 3 packets are sent/returned at each hop, so the 3 columns is the time it took for each of the 3 packets to go round trip.
Source: http://serverfault.com/questions/640...rt-output-mean

There's that weird 100ms anomaly for the 1st packet on the 4th hop, but it went away when I did another tracert. It seems like the last hop (17, the actual QL server) is the slowest hop in the chain. If I was a smart man, I would have done a tracert back in the glorious days when I got 13 ping to Seattle servers. That why I'd be able to compare it with what's happening now.

For $100/mo I could upgrade my service to 100 down, 10 up. But bandwidth isn't speed, it's capacity. A fatter pipe just means more data at once, it doesn't have anything to do with latency. Though, it could potentially be packaged with other priority routing and better treatment from the ISP.

My current plan is:
- call ISP see if there's a problem with routing
- possibly upgrade to the better service for a month or 2 and see if it improves

Anyone else have any advice?

I haven't played any other games in a long time, but I'll hop in some cs games or something today to see how my ping is for other servers.

[swampy]

Oh, gee 20 miles away.. Cries for you..

Some of us live 500 miles away from a server.. Want my Hanky?

[EVOL]

Just played a random cs:s server in Seattle. 15 ping. Here's the tracert (it looks a LOT better than the QL one):
C:\Users\evol>tracert 66.150.164.23

Tracing route to c-66-150-164-23.internap-seattle.nfoservers.com [66.150.164.23]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 7 ms 7 ms 5 ms 73.104.132.1
3 17 ms 5 ms 7 ms ge-3-18-ur04.federalway.wa.seattle.comcast.net [68.85.241.29]
4 19 ms 9 ms 9 ms ae-11-0-ar03.seattle.wa.seattle.comcast.net [69.139.164.85]
5 21 ms 11 ms 10 ms pos-1-10-0-0-cr01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.93.97]
6 56 ms 13 ms 9 ms pos-0-2-0-0-pe01.seattle.wa.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.42]
7 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms 208.172.91.5
8 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms esr2-xe-11-1-0.ssd.savvis.net [204.70.224.30]
9 11 ms 10 ms 9 ms internap.SeattleSwitchDesign.savvis.net [208.173.50.22]
10 10 ms 9 ms 10 ms border8.t7-1-bbnet1.sef.pnap.net [63.251.160.18]
11 11 ms 9 ms 9 ms c-66-150-164-23.internap-seattle.nfoservers.com [66.150.164.23]

[EVOL]

Also if you look at the tracert for the quake server, even though the server is in seattle, things are pretty bad. The hops go from where I live to Federal Way (right next to my town), to Seattle (seems reasonable), and then off to NEW JERSEY! In fact, using ip2location.com, I just did all the ips in the tracert in order. Here's the 20,000 mile detour my traffic takes.

73.104.132.1
Location UNITED STATES, NEW JERSEY, MT. LAUREL
Latitude, Longitude 39.935819, -74.909185 (39°56'9"S -74°54'33"E)
Connection through COMCAST IP SERVICES L.L.C
Domain COMCAST.NET

68.85.241.29
Location UNITED STATES, NEW JERSEY, MT. LAUREL
Latitude, Longitude 39.935819, -74.909185 (39°56'9"S -74°54'33"E)
Connection through COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain COMCAST.NET

69.139.164.85
Location UNITED STATES, PENNSYLVANIA, ASTON
Latitude, Longitude 39.8692, -75.440299 (39°52'9"S -75°26'25"E)
Connection through COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain COMCAST.NET

68.86.93.101
Location UNITED STATES, MISSOURI, INDEPENDENCE
Latitude, Longitude 39.091116, -94.415507 (39°5'28"S -94°24'56"E)
Connection through COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain COMCAST.NET

4.59.234.17
Location UNITED STATES, CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Latitude, Longitude 34.052234, -118.243685 (34°3'8"S -118°14'37"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

4.69.147.150
Location UNITED STATES, -, -
Latitude, Longitude 38.9048, -77.0354 (38°54'17"S -77°2'7"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

4.69.132.49
Location UNITED STATES, MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS
Latitude, Longitude 44.979965, -93.263836 (44°58'48"S -93°15'50"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

4.69.153.22
Location UNITED STATES, -, -
Latitude, Longitude 38.9048, -77.0354 (38°54'17"S -77°2'7"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

4.69.152.68
Location UNITED STATES, -, -
Latitude, Longitude 38.9048, -77.0354 (38°54'17"S -77°2'7"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

63.209.21.234
Location UNITED STATES, CALIFORNIA, POLLOCK PINES
Latitude, Longitude 38.761292, -120.586593 (38°45'41"S -120°35'12"E)
Connection through LEVEL 3 COMMUNICATIONS INC
Domain LEVEL3.NET

155.229.57.198
Location UNITED STATES, CALIFORNIA, COSTA MESA
Latitude, Longitude 33.641132, -117.918669 (33°38'28"S -117°55'7"E)
Connection through MEGAPATH NETWORKS INC
Domain MEGAPATH.COM

155.229.57.13
Location UNITED STATES, CALIFORNIA, COSTA MESA
Latitude, Longitude 33.641132, -117.918669 (33°38'28"S -117°55'7"E)
Connection through MEGAPATH NETWORKS INC
Domain MEGAPATH.COM

155.229.101.93
Location UNITED STATES, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Latitude, Longitude 40.714353, -74.005973 (40°42'52"S -74°0'22"E)
Connection through MEGAPATH NETWORKS INC
Domain MEGAPATH.COM

155.229.101.189
Location UNITED STATES, NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Latitude, Longitude 40.714353, -74.005973 (40°42'52"S -74°0'22"E)
Connection through MEGAPATH NETWORKS INC
Domain MEGAPATH.COM

66.80.133.18
Location UNITED STATES, MARYLAND, CAPITOL HEIGHTS
Latitude, Longitude 38.885112, -76.915807 (38°53'6"S -76°54'57"E)
Connection through MEGAPATH NETWORKS INC
Domain MEGAPATH.COM

69.12.104.204 (this is the actual QL server)
Location UNITED STATES, WASHINGTON, SEATTLE
Latitude, Longitude 47.60621, -122.332071 (47°36'22"S -122°19'55"E)
Connection through A468 - MY INTERNET SERVICES
Domain OSG.CC

Google map for the lulz: http://g.co/maps/sa6r9

There's no way that's completely correct. IP Geolocation isn't always accurate (obviously). Some of the named routes that say "seattle" or "federal way" in the dns name show as being somewhere completely different (though my guess is the location indicated in the dns name is the right one). But SOME of them probably ARE accurate. So my traffic is definitely being sent all over the place before it gets to the server. This wasn't always the (sigh. I miss my 13 ping).
The question is, who do I call to get this fixed? Does anyone have experience getting bad routing fixed?

[shrekjr]

Same story for me, I live in Chicago, used to ping 10-20. A few months ago it rose to 50-55 and stays there. Dunno why. I just play on the next best server, Toronto, its pings 25-35. Not bad, but still 10-20 was much better.

[*varem]

I live in Riverside, a suburb close to LA and I get 20 ping there. I have Charter. It's your ISP

[EVOL]

I live in Riverside, a suburb close to LA and I get 20 ping there. I have Charter. It's your ISP

It's a 2 way street. The Quake server has an ISP as well. My ISP is very reliable, and I haven't been negatively affected in any other way (and I work remotely from home full time, making a lot of connections to a lot of places). I used to ping 13 to Seattle. I think it's the ISP where the QL servers are hosted. My guess is id cut back and went with a cheaper (and crappier) data center and/or service plan. Most regular quake players I know have a similar story. Ping went to crap in the last few months.

Come to think of it, I think demos record the server ip. I wonder if they really did switch data centers, and if so if they kept the same IPs or not. I'm going to dig up some old demos and see if the IPs are different, and if tracerts to those old addresses are any different.

[*TeKnORocker]

You can block those hops, 4.0.0.0-4.255.255.255 and 155.0.0.0-155.255.255.255. It is always changing like the borg, one day you'll get routed to a few blocks from the white house's lawn into a hacking protesters laptop....and the next day you'll be routed through a military complex in Colorado, even worse a laggy p3 Chinese pc. IN CHINA!. LOL.

Same problems for years...iRAGE. i block and reformat....if you are in windows use the constant gaurd stuff that is free from comcast. Make some expert rule changes to the iptables in the norton firewall.

[kibliss]

Oh, gee 20 miles away.. Cries for you..

Some of us live 500 miles away from a server.. Want my Hanky?

Even that far away you should be able to ping at least 20 to a server. 500 miles isn't anything. Even if you were on the east coast you should be pinging around 75-100 to a west coast server and thats a few thousand miles.

[p1ants]

Its not a problem with your isp. I live in Seatac and ping the same in LA as I do in Seattle. Have had both comcast & centurylink(interleaving off) and had similar results. L4d & css gives me mid-low teens in Seattle.