[NCLUG] testing internet connection

[Quent]

This site:

	http://www.geektools.com/traceroute.php

gives a pretty good list of lookingglass servers where you can traceroute
to between various places. A search of someplace like google will
turn up more.

I don't know whether home.net has a lookingglass server.

	Quent

On Mon, Jan 15, 2001 at 03:46:01PM -0700, Aaron D. Johnson wrote:
> > BTW-I'm using the basic Qwest/Qwest DSL/ISP service, and for the
> > cheaper AT&T @home will probably suffice for most people...  Dealing
> > with the dynamic IP and buggy NAT is troublesome at best... :-(
> 
> Just to counter some oft-heard misconceptions, AT&T's @home service
> provides a static IP and does not do NAT (at least in my neighborhood
> (Stuart and Shields in Fort Collins)).  They do set up their Windoze
> customers with DHCP, but it always assigns the same address.  The
> installation paperwork has a field labelled "CIP" that tells you what
> your IP address is.  I've never seen @home's DHCP servers hand out an
> address other than what's on the paperwork.  And with a routeable,
> static IP address, there's not much use for NAT unless you've got
> another network behind the cable modem.
> 
> As for it being slow, I have to disagree.  I'm fairly certain my
> neighborhood sees pretty light use, but I often see download rates in
> excess of 150Kbytes/sec.  And the occasional 300 to 400Kbytes/sec
> transfer.  Upstream rate does seem to be capped at 128Kbits/sec,
> though.  So average download rates are on par with 1Mbit DSL service.
> 
> Getting large quantities of bits from CSU quickly isn't high on my
> priority list, but there's an issue at hop 6 here:
> 
>     $ /usr/sbin/traceroute www.colostate.edu
>     traceroute to yuma.acns.ColoState.EDU (129.82.100.64), 30 hops max,
>     38 byte packets
>      1  10.67.12.1 (10.67.12.1)  9.493 ms  26.342 ms  13.688 ms
>      2  bb1-fe1-0.greley1.co.home.net (24.5.66.1)  12.425 ms  10.065 ms
>         10.097 ms
>      3  c2-pos6-3.snjsca1.home.net (24.7.75.33)  13.367 ms 
>         c1-se6-0.dnvrco1.home.net (24.7.72.193)  11.207 ms
>         c2-pos6-3.snjsca1.home.net (24.7.75.33)  18.203 ms
>      4  c1-pos6-0.lnmtco1.home.net (24.7.64.93)  11.187 ms  14.040 ms
>         16.131 ms
>      5  c1-pos3-0.snjsca1.home.net (24.7.65.141)  35.172 ms  33.470 ms
>         35.090 ms
>      6  206.24.241.9 (206.24.241.9)  608.701 ms  653.226 ms  663.450 ms
>      7  * acr2-loopback.SanFranciscosfd.cw.net (206.24.210.62)  
>         602.438 ms  657.045 ms
>      8  * acr2.Denverden.cw.net (208.172.162.62)  654.447 ms  716.101 ms
>      9  ucar.Denverden.cw.net (208.172.161.206)  646.594 ms  677.716 ms
>         650.623 ms
>     10  csu-frgp-gw.colostate.edu (129.82.10.5)  424.819 ms  468.769 ms
>         432.636 ms
>     11  129.82.2.10 (129.82.2.10)  433.319 ms  461.143 ms *
>     12  yuma.acns.colostate.edu (129.82.100.64)  661.570 ms
>         686.893 ms *
> 
> Looks like the Cable and Wireless/home.net peering point is really
> congested.  It might look better tomorrow or it might not.  Such is
> life on the net.  If it's a huge issue, go ahead and switch.  I'd
> recommend first trying out your other prospective IPSs and see if
> they're any better, though.  (Just tried the same thing from a machine
> with a DSL connection to FRII.  It does look _much_ better.)
> 
> I'm not trying to imply that @home is perfect.  They do scan their
> customers for servers running on port 119.  They have had the
> occasional outage.  I've got a friend who was turned on on Friday that
> they don't have an in-addr.arpa mapping for yet.  Their AUP is vague.
> Their support folks won't talk to you if you don't run Windows or
> MacOS.  Getting an answer about when service will be available in your
> neighborhood is impossible.  But on the whole, they're not too much
> worse than your average large scale ISP.  To me, it's a whole lot
> better the alternatives (dialup for $20/month or ISDN for more than
> twice what I'm paying AT&T (if Qworst ever decided to get the line
> installed.))
> 
> Aaron
> --
> MTS, tummy.com, ltd.
> Linux and UNIX Consulting and Software