Issue with tracert and pathping from Chicago area to West Coast

[just_pedal]

I called and went through AT&T support on the phone and they did find a trace route issue and resolved it.  But, they do not see another issue with the trace route they perform.  The address I route to for this test is for a game client:

63.240.161.189

1) Arlington Heights, IL

2) AT&T DSL
3) tracert and pathping before AT&T support

Tracing route to 63.240.161.189 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
  2    12 ms     8 ms     7 ms  adsl-75-57-175-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [75.57.175.254] 
  3     8 ms     8 ms     7 ms  68.250.251.66 
  4    11 ms     *      138 ms  dist1-g2-1.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.88] 
  5     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  bb1-g0-0.emhril.ameritech.net [151.164.43.82] 
  6    21 ms    22 ms    21 ms  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
  7    23 ms    23 ms    22 ms  12.122.251.22 
  8    25 ms    24 ms    23 ms  63.240.130.210 
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Tracing route to 63.240.161.189 over a maximum of 30 hops

  0  Desktop 1 [10.0.0.8] 
  1  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
  2  adsl-75-57-175-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [75.57.175.254] 
  3  68.250.251.66 
  4     *        *     dist1-g2-1.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.88] 
  5  bb1-g0-0.emhril.ameritech.net [151.164.43.82] 
  6  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
  7  12.122.251.22 
  8  63.240.130.210 
  9     *        *        *     
Computing statistics for 200 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           Desktop 1 [10.0.0.8] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    1ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  2   16ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  adsl-75-57-175-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [75.57.175.254] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   11ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  68.250.251.66 
                              100/ 100 =100%   |
  4  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  dist1-g2-1.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.43.88] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  5  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  bb1-g0-0.emhril.ameritech.net [151.164.43.82] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  6  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  12.122.251.22 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  63.240.130.210 

Trace complete.

 4) tracert and pathping after AT&T support

Tracing route to 63.240.161.189 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1     1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
  2     9 ms     9 ms     7 ms  adsl-76-203-7-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [76.203.7.254] 
  3    12 ms     7 ms     7 ms  68.250.251.66 
  4    12 ms     8 ms     8 ms  dist1-g1-3.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.94.166] 
  5    12 ms    10 ms    12 ms  12.83.49.174 
  6    21 ms    22 ms    21 ms  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    23 ms    22 ms    22 ms  63.240.130.210 
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Tracing route to 63.240.161.189 over a maximum of 30 hops

  0  Desktop 1 [10.0.0.8] 
  1  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
  2  adsl-76-203-7-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [76.203.7.254] 
  3  68.250.251.66 
  4  dist1-g1-3.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.94.166] 
  5     *        *     12.83.49.174 
  6  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
  7     *        *     12.122.251.50 
  8  63.240.130.210 
  9     *        *        *     
Computing statistics for 200 seconds...
            Source to Here   This Node/Link
Hop  RTT    Lost/Sent = Pct  Lost/Sent = Pct  Address
  0                                           Desktop 1 [10.0.0.8] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  1    2ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  READYSHARE [10.0.0.1] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  2   18ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  adsl-76-203-7-254.dsl.emhril.sbcglobal.net [76.203.7.254] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  3   13ms     0/ 100 =  0%     0/ 100 =  0%  68.250.251.66 
                              100/ 100 =100%   |
  4  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  dist1-g1-3.emhril.sbcglobal.net [151.164.94.166] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  5  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  12.83.49.174 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  6  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  gar3.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.132.213] 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  7  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  12.122.251.50 
                                0/ 100 =  0%   |
  8  ---     100/ 100 =100%     0/ 100 =  0%  63.240.130.210 

Trace complete.

[gregzoll_1]

I really would not worry about it. As for the first hop, you really should not be using 10.0.0.x IP's, since those are reserved by ATT, so you will run into issues in the long run.

[just_pedal]

I'm trying not too, but with 100% packet drop between 3 and 4 anything routed through that hardware fails to work. I'll give it until tomorrow and then a call to tech support will be in order...

[gregzoll_1]

I do not see any packet drops from the tracert. The first does show a odd high, but the rest are okay. I really would not worry about it.

If you are consistently getting 100% packet drops, that means you are not connecting to the network. People place too much thought into their tracert & ping results, without really looking at the big picture.

[just_pedal]

The issue is present in the pathping at 100% and I'm not sure how you can't see that unless you are just looking at the tracert output.  Here's another data point to see the lost packets and also high RTT.  Using the smokeping test from dslreports.com that I setup for 24 hours has loss showing up for CA, but not KS.  NY hasn't collected any data at the time I looked.

Overview link: http://www.dslreports.com/r3/smokeping.cgi?target=network.721f1a5f3606395948220d153d8009b8

CA1 link: http://www.dslreports.com/r3/smokeping.cgi?target=network.721f1a5f3606395948220d153d8009b8.CA1

NY link: http://www.dslreports.com/r3/smokeping.cgi?target=network.721f1a5f3606395948220d153d8009b8.NY

KS link: http://www.dslreports.com/r3/smokeping.cgi?target=network.721f1a5f3606395948220d153d8009b8.KS

And I do see this impacting my interent experience.  Some websites fail to load or are extremely slow to load.  Two online games played in the house are either not working or you get kicked out if you get logged in to the client.

Speed tests do not show this issue, AT&T line test does not show this issue,  nor do most websites.  The issue I'm experiencing is realy and the tracert and pathping where used to show that the issue is infact real.

[gregzoll_1]

The NY server has been offline for over 3 years now. As for the lost packets, if it happens at a certain time that there is high use on those servers (say 3pm to midnight), it can be attributed to that, not to issues on the path from you to the servers.

As I stated before, I would really not place too much thought into this, since you are talking about gaming, not something that is critical, like say a connection from a remote office to the main through VPN, and having issues along the path.

Might want to read this paper from Cisco http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/iosswrel/ps1831/products_tech_note09186a00800a6057.shtml to understand Ping & Trace route.