Okay, so, the more net-savvy among you will understand my latest frustration with Comcast. There’s the ongoing DNS issue, which Comcast swears (really and truly this time) that everything is fixed. Though, hell if I’m actually going to try their DNS servers and find out for myself… the alternate list is working just fine thanks, and I intend to keep it that way.
The DNS issue did make the Washington Post though. Yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone at Comcast gets fired soon over this one.
But now that that’s behind us, we hope, I have a new frustration. These geniuses can’t seem to route internet traffic correctly to save their lives!
Generally, the fewer hops – short for intermediate points – a data packet must make to reach its destination, the better. So why is it that Comcast is arbitrarily routing data so that the path adds at least 10 or more hops to each route before the data even makes out of the network?! Lately, routes are being created that ping-pongs traffic around within the the Comcast network, often on the same subnet, before the data actually goes on its way. Observe:
Tracing route to cnn.com [64.236.16.116] over a maximum of 30 hops: 1 * * * Request timed out. < - my home router 2 13 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.86.220.81 <--Comcast 3 15 ms 14 ms 15 ms 68.86.209.222 <--Comcast again 4 16 ms 13 ms 16 ms 68.86.209.226 <--and again... 5 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.230 <--and again... 6 14 ms 20 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.234 <--and again... 7 37 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.238 <--and again... 8 32 ms 15 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.242 <--and again... 9 14 ms 15 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.246 <--and AGAIN... 10 14 ms 15 ms 14 ms 68.86.209.250 <--**yawn** 11 16 ms 15 ms 13 ms 68.86.209.254 <--and again... 12 16 ms 14 ms 14 ms 68.86.208.5 <--and again... 13 16 ms 15 ms 19 ms 68.86.211.2 <--and again... 14 18 ms 18 ms 16 ms 12.118.102.13 <-- *GASP* Finally out to AT&T! 15 18 ms 18 ms 16 ms tbr2-p032501.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.3.86] 16 16 ms 16 ms 18 ms ggr2-p390.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.123.3.62] 17 15 ms 18 ms 18 ms att-gw.ny.aol.net [192.205.32.218] 18 17 ms 16 ms 16 ms bb2-nye-P1-0.atdn.net [66.185.151.66] 19 24 ms 24 ms 23 ms bb2-vie-P12-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.201] 20 23 ms 23 ms 22 ms bb1-vie-P3-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.206] 21 39 ms 39 ms 39 ms bb1-atm-P6-0.atdn.net [66.185.152.182] 22 38 ms 38 ms 38 ms pop1-atl-P4-0.atdn.net [66.185.136.17] [...]
No, your eyes do not deceive you. The above traceroute from a Comcast cable connection to cnn.com had a dozen extraneous hops where packets just bounced around on my neighborhood subnet for no apparent reason.
I really do miss my old broadband ISP, and it's a shame I had to move out of their territory and into Comcast hell.
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