Ping.

kitfit1 · 16 Jan 2014 at 23:02

I've had FTTC for just over a year now and have always had good upload and download speeds. But one thing that has always bugged me a bit is the rubbish "Ping" rates i get. Just did the test below and a ping of 29ms is fairly typical of all the time i've been on FTTC. Is there anything i can do about this from my end, or is it a case of suck it and live with it ?

bledd · 17 Jan 2014 at 01:18

How are you connected to the router?

kitfit1 · 17 Jan 2014 at 13:58

bledd. said:
How are you connected to the router?

Wireless on the laptop and Cat5 on my main computer. I get the pretty much the same speeds up and down and the same pings whichever computer i use. Router is an Asus RT-N56U.

Ignitionnet · 17 Jan 2014 at 14:12

Ignore the ping reported there, it is dependent on Flash running and is unreliable.

Follow these instructions and try perhaps www.linx.net as the destination, that should show where the ping is jumping.

If you are on an interleaved line, hence ping going up straight after your router, you're probably SOOL as the ISP has no control over this, it's automatic.

kitfit1 · 17 Jan 2014 at 15:53

Checked with Zen, they say that all FTTC lines at the moment are Interleaved until Openreach let the ISP's have control over it. So your right, looks like i'm SOOL for the moment.

Ignitionnet · 17 Jan 2014 at 16:58

kitfit1 said:
Checked with Zen, they say that all FTTC lines at the moment are Interleaved until Openreach let the ISP's have control over it. So your right, looks like i'm SOOL for the moment.

That's not true. They're not all interleaved, it's an automatic thing. The software in the cabinet tries fast path first and if the error rate is too high switches to interleave.

Neither of mine are interleaved, yet.

Tracing route to maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 12 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 8 ms 6 ms 6 ms 217.32.143.234
3 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms 217.32.144.30
4 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms 213.120.181.18
5 10 ms 8 ms 9 ms 213.120.180.167
6 11 ms 9 ms 8 ms 217.41.169.107

Tracing route to maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 6 ms 6 ms 7 ms 217.32.143.234
3 7 ms 6 ms 12 ms 217.32.144.30
4 15 ms 13 ms 14 ms xe-0-2-0.ptw-cr01.plus.net [212.159.0.248]
5 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms ge0-0.pr1.linx.net [195.66.225.254]
6 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms fe1-1-112.tr1.linx.net [195.66.248.226]
7 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]

(Second one starts BT then goes to Plusnet part way through)

Pinging maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 195.66.234.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 18ms, Average = 17ms

Caged · 17 Jan 2014 at 17:17

I get the same as above, also on Infinity:

Pinging maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=53
Reply from 195.66.234.8: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=53

Ping statistics for 195.66.234.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 17ms, Maximum = 18ms, Average = 17ms

PistolPete · 17 Jan 2014 at 19:10

Speedtest.net servers can show massive variations in latency.
I can get 15ms on one server in France, yet get 90ms from a server in the UK.

I've found that once you find a server that reports what seems to be correct info, stick with that one for any test you do then you are comparing apples and apples each time

Orcvader · 17 Jan 2014 at 19:58

You also need to consider the distance, 150 miles is quite long OP. Preferably you want to ping something closer to you. As someone has mentioned above, do a tracert/ping to a different website, the server the speed test is using could be slightly congested hence the 29 ms.

bigredshark · 17 Jan 2014 at 23:21

Orcvader said:
You also need to consider the distance, 150 miles is quite long OP. Preferably you want to ping something closer to you. As someone has mentioned above, do a tracert/ping to a different website, the server the speed test is using could be slightly congested hence the 29 ms.

It's not anywhere near far enough to make a distance...light travels 1km in about 3.3 microseconds, refractive index of single mode fibre is about 1.5, so you can say roughly 5 microseconds per km...

So for 150 miles (241km) that's around 1.2ms, or 2.4ms for the round trip...

There is additional delay in routers and in signal regeneration but the point is...the distance has nothing to do with the latency in this case.

kitfit1 · 18 Jan 2014 at 10:09

Ok peeps, just done the following tracert's. Would i be right in thinking the hold up is with Zen's DNS servers ?

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.244.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 72 ms 16 ms 16 ms losubs.subs.dsl6.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.83.21]

3 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms no-dns-yet-62-3-86-41.zen.co.uk [62.3.86.41]
4 97 ms 16 ms 16 ms ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.49]
5 24 ms 25 ms 23 ms ge-3-0-0-0.cr2.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.45]
6 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.41]
7 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms 82.71.254.134
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 24 ms 23 ms 23 ms ae0.er01.telhc.bbc.co.uk [132.185.254.109]
11 24 ms 25 ms 24 ms 132.185.255.149
12 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms bbc-vip113.telhc.bbc.co.uk [212.58.244.68]

Tracing route to maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms losubs.subs.dsl6.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.83.21]

3 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms no-dns-yet-62-3-86-45.zen.co.uk [62.3.86.45]
4 16 ms 16 ms 15 ms ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.49]
5 24 ms 46 ms 23 ms ge-3-0-0-0.cr2.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.45]
6 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms ge0-0.pr1.linx.net [195.66.225.254]
7 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms fe1-1-112.tr1.linx.net [195.66.248.226]
8 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]

Trace complete.

Tracing route to maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms losubs.subs.dsl6.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.83.21]

3 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms no-dns-yet-62-3-86-45.zen.co.uk [62.3.86.45]
4 16 ms 16 ms 16 ms ge-2-0-0-0.cr1.wh-man.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.49]
5 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms ge-3-0-0-0.cr2.th-lon.zen.net.uk [62.3.80.45]
6 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms ge0-0.pr1.linx.net [195.66.225.254]
7 23 ms 23 ms 23 ms fe1-1-112.tr1.linx.net [195.66.248.226]
8 24 ms 24 ms 24 ms maroon.linx.net [195.66.234.8]

Trace complete.

bigredshark · 18 Jan 2014 at 10:46

To, the majority of the delay is at the 2nd hop, which is your DSL line, not much you can do about that on FTTC right now...the delay on zen is longer than absolutely optimal but not 'bad' really...

drizzy · 20 Jan 2014 at 14:09

I think you've got a little bit of interleaving, and it looks like your traffic is heading up north to Manchester before heading back down to London, which might add a little latency too.

There's nothing you can do about any of this right now. It's not at all related to DNS.

Without meaning to be unkind, if you think it might be related to DNS, then for your usage 29ms is probably not really a 'rubbish "ping" rate'.