I live in Ottawa and connect to the internet from home via a DSL line to my ISP, Magma (www.magma.ca). I have excellent connectivity to the dnd site. For instance, viewing a movie, like Carl Gustav, from http://www.army.forces.gc.ca/lf/English/3_2.asp# the video starts almost instantaneously.
To see why this is the case we need to take a closer look at the connection between my computer and the dnd computer.
First a little background (simple version, but good enough for our current purpose):
- in order to view data stored on the dnd computer, my computer sends it a request and it sends my computer a response (like the video)
- all this data moving both ways is broken into nicely sized chucks called packets
- my computer is not connected directly to the dnd computer, there many computers, called servers, in between.
- the series of computers that processes a data packet between the two computers is called a route, in a route these servers are often referred to as nodes or hops
To determine the route between my computer and the dnd computer we use a trace route program like:
http://www.visualiptrace.com/index.html (I'm currently using the free 15 day trial)
Here are the results:
===================================================
=== VisualRoute report on 10-Dec-04 10:35:15 PM ===
===================================================
Report for www.army.forces.gc.ca [131.137.250.62]
Analysis: IP packets are being lost past network "Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK" at hop 11. VisualRoute cannot determine the next network at hop 12. Node 206.108.111.242 at hop 11 in network "Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK" reports "The destination network is unreachable".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Hop | %Loss | IP Address | Node Name | ms | Graph | Network |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 0 | | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | vic | | | (private use) |
| 1 | | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | - | 0 | x | (private use) |
| 2 | | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | - | 0 | x | (private use) |
| 3 | | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | - | 6 | x | Magma Communications Ltd. MAGMA-BLK3 |
| 4 | | 64.26.173.98 | - | 7 | x- | Magma Communications Ltd. MAGMA-BLK3 |
| 5 | | 206.191.0.97 | - | 7 | x | Magma Communications Ltd. MAGMA-BLK |
| 6 | | 209.217.64.38 | border1-faste2-0.magma.ca | 8 | x- | Magma Communications Ltd. MAGMA-BLK2 |
| 7 | | 206.108.111.149 | dis10-ottawa23-atm8-1-101.in.bellnexxia.net | 11 | x- | Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK |
| 8 | | 206.108.99.125 | core2-ottawa23-pos3-0.in.bellnexxia.net | 9 | x | Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK |
| 9 | | 206.108.99.134 | ottcorr02-pos0-1-0.in.bellnexxia.net | 38 | -x-------- | Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK |
| 10 | | 206.108.111.238 | - | 10 | x | Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK |
| 11 | 10 | 206.108.111.242 | - | | | Bell Advanced Communications Inc. BELLADVCOM-2BLK |
| ... | | | | | | |
| ? | | 131.137.250.62 | www.army.forces.gc.ca | | | Defence Research Establishment-Ottawa DRE-LAN3 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roundtrip time to 206.108.111.238, average = 10ms, min = 10ms, max = 13ms -- 10-Dec-04 10:35:15 PM
From the last report line above you can see my roundtrip time to the last accessable Bell server is a very good 10ms.
Other notable parts of the report:
- hop 10 is the last node reported, this is ok, we can just assume that the connection from 10 - ? (www.army.forces.gc.ca) is internal to the dnd/bell setup and quite fast since me and lots of other people on this forum are getting good responses
- the people with slow connections should see problems between their computers and hop 10
- most people will see different routes if they try this since most probably don't use the same public internet access point (even if they have the same ISP)
- note that hop 10 is in Toronto (see the report below) so being 5km from NDHQ really doesn't mean much
What are your options if you have a slow connection? This depends on why it is slow, here are some common reasons and what you can do about them.
- the connection from your computer to your ISP is slow (hops 0 to 4 for me)
- do you have a network in your home (hops 0 to 2)? is it the problem
- if you use dial-up switch to high speed
- if you use high speed see if other people living near you get better service from other providers
- sometimes your particular connection has a problem. If you are slower than a neighboor with the same service type then report it to your ISP
- the connection from your ISP to servers external to them is slow (hops 4 to 7)
- report it, especially if the trace route program you use shows a server with a high %loss
- the connection from the external (greater internet) to the ISP of the destination is slow
- there are none of these hops for me in this particular route, magma goes directly to bell which seems to be dnd's provider
- depending on who owns the server you may:
- be able to find an entity to report it to
- actually get a response, I've had responses in the past from shaw and uunet and AT&T. Generally, if you can give them enough information and you happened to talk to the correct "them"
then after some days (or weeks or months) you may notice the %loss improve or dissappear and/or the route change
- the connection is slow in the destination network (bell/dnd in this case)
- we know this is not the case here
- when it is the case, the destination site owner is sometimes quite happy to be informed and will try and fix it, after all you might be a customer and other customers might also be having problems.
It would be interesting to see the results of other peoples trace route attempts.
Happy surfing
-------------- Hop 10 details -----------------------------
OrgName: Bell Advanced Communications Inc.
OrgID: BAC-14
Address: #350-181 Bay Street
City: Toronto
StateProv: ON
PostalCode: M5J-2T3
Country: CA
NetRange: 206.108.96.0 - 206.108.111.255
CIDR: 206.108.96.0/20
NetName: BELLADVCOM-2BLK
NetHandle: NET-206-108-96-0-1
Parent: NET-206-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS3.BELLGLOBAL.COM
NameServer: NS4.BELLGLOBAL.COM
Comment:
RegDate: 1995-12-12
Updated: 2003-12-05
TechHandle: EQ-ARIN
TechName: Quek, Erone
TechPhone: +1-416-350-1869
TechEmail: equek@on.bell.ca
OrgTechHandle: EQ-ARIN
OrgTechName: Quek, Erone
OrgTechPhone: +1-416-350-1869
OrgTechEmail: equek@on.bell.ca
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-12-10 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
OrgName: Bell Advanced Communications Inc.
OrgID: BAC-14
Address: #350-181 Bay Street
City: Toronto
StateProv: ON
PostalCode: M5J-2T3
Country: CA
Comment:
RegDate: 1990-02-15
Updated: 2003-12-05
AdminHandle: JGI15-ARIN
AdminName: Gilmore, James
AdminPhone: +1-416-353-2070
AdminEmail: James.Gilmore@bell.ca
TechHandle: EQ-ARIN
TechName: Quek, Erone
TechPhone: +1-416-350-1869
TechEmail: equek@on.bell.ca
# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-12-10 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.
--------------------- end hop 10 details ----------------------------------------------
