ISP Problem? Streaming & gaming fine, but web browsing painfully slow

Sumanji · 12 Jan 2016 at 17:30

Hey,

I'm wondering if you guys can help me out please. I'm in the US on Time Warner Cable, who have horrific tech support, so if I can avoid contacting them, that would be great.

Basically the internet is working perfectly fine for things like Netflix, YouTube, and gaming (PS4 and PC). However, web browsing is painfully slow, with some pages taking up to several minutes to load, or simply not loading at all.

I've tried changing DNS servers to Google and OpenDNS, it doesn't make a difference. The problem occurs on both my PCs and my Android devices. If I connect my laptop via my tethering to my phone (T-Mobile LTE), all websites load perfectly fine.

LinkedIn is a website that is suffering the worst, so I ran traceroutes for both the cable and hotspot connections.

Time Warner Cable:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert www.linkedin.com

Tracing route to any-na.www.linkedin.com [2620:109:c002::6cae:a0a]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  2    19 ms     *       20 ms  2606:a000:0:4::8:65a
  3    17 ms    10 ms    16 ms  2606:a000:0:4::4:ac
  4    19 ms    15 ms    11 ms  2606:a000:0:4::a4
  5     *        *       20 ms  2001:1998:0:4::128
  6    14 ms    15 ms    17 ms  2001:1998::66:109:6:171
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *      280 ms  vl-52.car1.Atlanta2.Level3.net [2001:1900:1c:2::
3]
  9    28 ms    33 ms     *     2001:1900:1c::4e
 10     *        *       29 ms  vl-60.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [2001:1900:15
:5::13]
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>

T-Mobile Hotspot:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert www.linkedin.com

Tracing route to any-na.www.linkedin.com [108.174.10.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     7 ms    38 ms     6 ms  192.168.43.1
  2    95 ms    39 ms   123 ms  10.164.150.49
  3    51 ms    62 ms   141 ms  10.168.132.5
  4    45 ms    77 ms    38 ms  10.168.132.11
  5   169 ms    41 ms    32 ms  10.164.167.224
  6   110 ms    38 ms    40 ms  10.164.165.107
  7   132 ms    47 ms    38 ms  128.177.108.241.available.zip.zayo.com [128.177.
108.241]
  8   172 ms    43 ms    52 ms  zayo-ntt.iad10.us.zip.zayo.com [64.125.14.70]
  9   174 ms    78 ms    60 ms  te-0-6-0-14.r04.asbnva02.us.ce.gin.ntt.net [165.
254.191.66]
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11   138 ms    42 ms    47 ms  108-174-10-10.fwd.linkedin.com [108.174.10.10]

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>

Is there anything I can do on my end to solve this, or do I have to endure pain with the tech support guys...?

Cheers,

Su

xGBHxPegasus · 12 Jan 2016 at 17:40

From your tracert it looks like the routing is buggered with time warner as after hop 10 it goes dead.

Can you ping a game server or a ts server? what about another website, does it show the same?

I'm sure someone more qualified will come along shortly and confirm/call me an idiot

philip2009 · 12 Jan 2016 at 18:00

Sumanji said:
Hey,

I'm wondering if you guys can help me out please. I'm in the US on Time Warner Cable, who have horrific tech support, so if I can avoid contacting them, that would be great.

Just out of curiosity, since I notice you're using IPv6, what happens when you go to your desktop PC, turn off IPv6(on the LAN interface) - so you're effectively browsing using only IPv4 - and try to load web pages?

Sin_Chase · 12 Jan 2016 at 18:08

xGBHxPegasus said:
From your tracert it looks like the routing is buggered with time warner as after hop 10 it goes dead.

Can you ping a game server or a ts server? what about another website, does it show the same?

I'm sure someone more qualified will come along shortly and confirm/call me an idiot

Hops don't necessarily HAVE to respond to ping, in-fact many nodes are configured not to.

You have tried different DNS which would have been my first port of call. Out of interest, if you proxy/VPN do the pages load properly? Might rule out a traffic shaping issue.

Sumanji · 12 Jan 2016 at 18:31

So I switched over to IPv4 only, and the trace route looked slightly better I think? Although I also disconnected everything else except for my hard-wired PC from the router, and also turned off wireless, so it could just be down to reduced load...

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert www.linkedin.com

Tracing route to any-na.www.linkedin.com [108.174.10.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    11 ms    14 ms    20 ms  mta-75-190-32-1.carolina.rr.com [75.190.32.1]
  3     8 ms     9 ms    10 ms  mta-75-190-32-1.carolina.rr.com [75.190.32.1]
  4    25 ms    36 ms    24 ms  cpe-174-111-096-233.triad.res.rr.com [174.111.96
.233]
  5    13 ms    11 ms    17 ms  cpe-024-074-248-034.carolina.res.rr.com [24.74.2
48.34]
  6    18 ms     7 ms    15 ms  24.93.67.204
  7    18 ms    19 ms    23 ms  bu-ether44.atlngamq46w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [107.1
4.19.46]
  8    16 ms    21 ms    20 ms  0.ae1.pr0.atl20.tbone.rr.com [66.109.6.177]
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10    31 ms    28 ms    32 ms  ae-1-60.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [4.69.149.1
8]
 11    31 ms    28 ms    28 ms  ae-1-60.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [4.69.149.1
8]
 12    27 ms    31 ms    28 ms  LINKEDIN-CO.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [4.53.1
16.150]
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14    30 ms    27 ms    39 ms  108-174-10-10.fwd.linkedin.com [108.174.10.10]

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>

I'm assuming that under normal operation there shouldn't be any "Request time out" lines, right?

Here's a trace route to PlayStation Network login server:

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>tracert 63.84.59.18

Tracing route to 63.84.59.18 over a maximum of 30 hops

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    11 ms    22 ms    11 ms  mta-75-190-32-1.carolina.rr.com [75.190.32.1]
  3    13 ms     9 ms    15 ms  mta-75-190-32-1.carolina.rr.com [75.190.32.1]
  4    36 ms    35 ms    31 ms  cpe-174-111-096-233.triad.res.rr.com [174.111.96
.233]
  5    12 ms    12 ms    12 ms  cpe-024-074-248-034.carolina.res.rr.com [24.74.2
48.34]
  6    14 ms    15 ms    15 ms  24.93.67.204
  7    17 ms    19 ms    19 ms  bu-ether24.atlngamq46w-bcr00.tbone.rr.com [107.1
4.19.18]
  8    18 ms    15 ms    21 ms  0.ae5.pr0.atl20.tbone.rr.com [107.14.19.99]
  9    17 ms    18 ms    14 ms  216.156.108.45.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.108.45]
 10    41 ms    41 ms    36 ms  67.111.23.190.ptr.us.xo.net [67.111.23.190]
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12    49 ms    47 ms    47 ms  TenGigE0-7-0-0.GW2.CHI13.ALTER.NET [152.63.65.13
]
 13    47 ms    53 ms    41 ms  akamai.customer.alter.net [152.179.92.34]
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 20     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 21     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 22     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 23     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 24     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 25     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 26     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 27     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 28     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 29     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 30     *        *        *     Request timed out.

Trace complete.

C:\Windows\system32>

Seems like a large number of hops... and a tonne of packet loss. I have been smashing Destiny online all week though, and haven't noticed any problems with disconnects or latency.

Well I managed to get a bod on the end of live chat and they are sending an engineer round early tomorrow morning... at least that part of the process was painless!

Cheers,

Su

philip2009 · 12 Jan 2016 at 18:52

Sumanji said:
So I switched over to IPv4 only, and the trace route looked slightly better I think?

Any improvement in loading web pages?

Sumanji · 12 Jan 2016 at 19:12

Yeah I think so - it's still quite laggy, but at least they are loading eventually now!

Good tip, thank you

Thinking about it, could it be that PS3/PS4 only use IPv4, which is why they have been fine?

I feel like there's still another problem somewhere, so hopefully engineer dude tomorrow can figure it out...

Sumanji · 12 Jan 2016 at 19:54

Ok, I did a bit of reading around about IPv6 and certain US ISPs... supposedly they are doing some half-assed implementation with v4 tunnelling through v6?

Re-enabling IPv6 and changing the MTU from 1500 to 1400 in the router settings seems to have done the trick for browsing. [edit] Nope it hasn't worked. If I try and load more than 2 or 3 pages at once, they all slow to a crawl... this is supposed to be a 100 Mbps connection, lol.

Trace route still seemed buggered though, so not sure what's going on there...

:confused:

r7slayer · 12 Jan 2016 at 21:40

Just keep using IPv4 for now. Not many websites or services have migrated over to IPv6 to warrant its use. However it will happen sooner or later in the future. You will know about it don't worry.
This is why it's causing you issues. At work the new Mac update El Capitan or what ever has enabled IPv6 on macs and is causing all sorts of issues for our customers. We have to go through the steps of disabling IPv6 and getting them back to default IPv4 which solves connection issues.

thebennyboy · 13 Jan 2016 at 00:28

Have you tried using a VPN? May be some form of traffic shaping from your ISP.

Caged · 13 Jan 2016 at 00:39

TWC are clowns so don't try and use IPv6 with them.

Timeouts on tracerts are not a problem at all, not every router responds to a ping. The fact you can ping the destination means the routing is working.