Ok, here's the deal, certain websites load just fine = blazing fast.

Other sites "timed out". I know they are online though and assume this to be JUST my connection. I was able to access these sites just fine a couple days ago, and no I do not have a virus or malware.

Changed DNS servers, flushed & purched cache, to no avail. Tried different web browsers and same result. Tried different computer, same result. Comcast says it's not them.

It has to be router or modem because both my desktop & laptop cannot get to certain sites without "timing out".

Some of the sites I tracert and get a timeout at 66.192.249.238 (TWTELECOM.NET)

Thoughts on how to troubleshoot this?

[Edited on December 8, 2009 at 7:44 PM. Reason : /]

12/8/2009 7:41:48 PM

I had this issue before with Suddenlink and the only thing I could pinpoint was that bypassing the router and plugging directly into my modem worked flawless. Not because the issue was with my router, but because the MAC my NIC had afforded me such a dramatically different IP that I was no longer going through bad routes or losing packets. In the end I had to clone the good MAC to my Buffalo/Tomato router and email my tracert results to a technician. This was months and months ago and eventually the issue was rectified.

Doubt that helped at all though.

12/8/2009 7:46:17 PM

It's so strange because some of my subdomains work and some don't.

One of my subdomains just forwards to google (GAfYD) and i get a time out at 72.14.232.2 which is a google IP, it's a different hop everytime.

The above hop (66.192.249.238) was a timeout when requesting http://www.snapfish.com

[Edited on December 8, 2009 at 7:49 PM. Reason : .]

12/8/2009 7:48:47 PM

Sounds like you're already been weary about DNS, which is good.

For starters, use A records (ip addresses) when diagnosing instead of hostnames. For sites returning multiple A records when digging, if you see issues with one, try another- preferably one from a different subnet. You might get more useful information out of a 'dig wwwdotwebsitedotcom ns', than a 'host' lookup. Try multiple A records, and digging at multiple authoritative name servers, any difference in behavior for those A records?

You might also have better luck with tools other than traceroute, such as tcptraceroute, hping[23], as many providers filter or rate limit ICMP, or at the very least place them in a best effort QoS class. These responses are also control plane operations, and may also be subject to cpu control plane scheduling/policing (they are by default on almost every routing platform I know of).

If you have to use an icmp based traceroute (not sure if this is still the case for windows), you'd be better off using something like mtr- which does a much better job of providing both real-time and trending information.

If you want to get super nerdy, note your source IP address, the destination your trying to get to, and poke around on their router collector (telnet route-server.twtelecom.net, iirc). Correlate that information with your previous findings, to arm yourself for when you interface with their noc.

If all of this research doesn't yield anything useful, you're absolutely right, it could be a routing/congestion issue.

If you're unable to reach multiple sites, do those sites share a common hop, egress point from TWC (or another network)?

Tcpdump your connection- what's causing your connection to time out (no syn+ack), a rst, no ack on a given packet after a number of retrans, etc?

Armed with the information you've gathered in your research, you'll prove to a noc engineers best friend (clueful users go a long way in fixing issues like this). Send an email with all of your findings to whatever your tech support contact, and cross your fingers.

Chances are, by stepping through most of this you'll figure out the issue and why it's affecting you. But if you do stumble onto a problem that's affecting a larger portion of TWC, could be a fun experience to help troubleshoot! If you find you're also having issues reaching one of the bigger content providers (goog, yt, fb, msn, yhoo, etc), they tend to have pretty helpful nocs that you might be able to talk into helping you out with your struggles, if you can provide data suggesting that you suspect its more downforeveryone.com and not justme.com

Hope this helps



[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 3:03 AM. Reason : fuck automatic hyperlinks]

12/9/2009 3:01:38 AM

^ twtelecom.net is not the same company or network as TWC/RR. Also, he said he is using Comcast as his ISP.

not to ask the obvious but have you rebooted your modem and router? i've seen partial outages like you are describing because of something screwy in a consumer-grade router. some sites would be fine, but others would consistently give timeouts or slow performance.

12/9/2009 10:36:04 AM

^Good call, reading comprehension fail on my part.

Almost all of that would still apply, short of the lg

That said, rebooting your modem and/or bypassing your router is a solid suggestion.

12/9/2009 12:43:29 PM

Quote :

"not to ask the obvious but have you rebooted your modem and router? i've seen partial outages like you are describing because of something screwy in a consumer-grade router. some sites would be fine, but others would consistently give timeouts or slow performance."

yes, rebooted modem & router.

removing router is next scenario. this was on my list. if this doesn't fix it i'll look into the other suggestions. thanks to both.



[Edited on December 9, 2009 at 1:47 PM. Reason : .]

12/9/2009 1:45:11 PM

Quote :

"i've seen partial outages like you are describing because of something screwy in a consumer-grade"

Heck, I've seen this in tons of carrier-grade equipment, too.

12/9/2009 2:06:05 PM

issue resolved itself, one second you could just see the internet come back alive, more responsive and no timeouts to those specific URLs. i guess i'll never know what the issue was.

12/10/2009 12:22:13 AM

santa and his elves must have just finished torrenting all of the movies they are giving to good little boys and girls

12/10/2009 7:55:03 AM

^i chuckled

12/10/2009 7:59:14 AM

bump

6/7/2010 12:11:07 PM

bump

6/7/2010 12:13:09 PM

sooooo, lately i've been having incredibly high ping issues, via packet sniffer and just plain disconnecting the other computers on the local network i've isolated the problem to the router or the modem or TWC being shitty.

i've done the typical reboot and reset stuff to the router, the modem, and the computer with no apparent effect.

I need to run a tracert i suppose to see if it's a fuckup here or farther down the line, if it's here the next step i think is to default the wired router to factory settings and see if that helps, after that I'll be on the horn with TWC's horrible customer service where i will lie repeatedly about resetting the network/hardware (which i would have done multiple times by this point) in order to get a line test to the modem. If that comes back clean time to get a new router i suppose..... (or try the default process above just in case)

now the slightly tricky part, which wired router to get, need 10/100 at least, 4 ports +wan, do not need or want wireless. the router is located in a external storage room attached to the house which tends to get warm in the summer and cold in the winter (don't ask why it's there i would have preferred it be in the closet in the middle of the house inside.... but it wasn't my deal or my setup, on the upside i'm moving out of here in 2 months or less), so it needs to be relatively robust without breaking the bank, the current router has lasted several years and is a standard linksys pos blue box.
i suppose for the price i'm probably well enough off just to get another one or something...

thoughts?

6/7/2010 12:24:29 PM

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\admin>ping http://www.google.com

Pinging http://www.l.google.com [74.125.65.106] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 74.125.65.106: bytes=32 time=698ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.106: bytes=32 time=522ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.106: bytes=32 time=610ms TTL=54
Reply from 74.125.65.106: bytes=32 time=751ms TTL=54

Ping statistics for 74.125.65.106:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 522ms, Maximum = 751ms, Average = 645ms

C:\Documents and Settings\admin>tracert http://www.google.com

Tracing route to http://www.l.google.com [74.125.65.106]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1060 ms 924 ms 850 ms 10.121.128.1
2 889 ms * 902 ms gig0-2.rlghncc-ubr2.nc.rr.com [24.25.2.230]
3 954 ms 833 ms 520 ms gig0-0-0.rlghnca-rtr2.nc.rr.com [24.25.20.37]
4 465 ms 419 ms 353 ms xe-4-0-1.chrlncpop-rtr1.southeast.rr.com [24.93.
64.6]
5 24 ms 23 ms 99 ms ae-3-0.cr0.atl20.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.82]
6 89 ms 215 ms 146 ms ae-0-0.pr0.atl20.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.171]
7 344 ms 419 ms 265 ms 66.109.9.90
8 559 ms 452 ms 624 ms 72.14.239.100
9 603 ms 494 ms 373 ms 209.85.254.249
10 260 ms 324 ms 282 ms 209.85.253.221
11 313 ms 494 ms 348 ms gx-in-f106.1e100.net [74.125.65.106]

Trace complete.

6/7/2010 5:25:09 PM

turns out it seems to be one of the other network connections, i will find out exactly who later tonight when someone complains about no internet.... I systematically unplugged all the ethernet cables and then plugged them back in testing each time until I isolated the bad connection. Saved me some $$.

now hopefully it's just one of their computers and not the wireless access point that's giving me problems. (i'd just change the security settings on it if that was the case... or reverse trace them.... eheh...)

6/8/2010 6:04:54 PM