Interesting issue with (Bonded|Balanced) ISP connection

[Xuerian]

Hey all,

I've been having a adventure with my W-ISP's over the years, and the latest issue is no different. I've been trying since July to get my ISP to look into it, but haven't had any luck yet - though technicians have come out and confirmed the issue. So, I come here for plan B.
(I am not within range of any wired internet, and my only other wireless options are Satellite and 3G/4G (iffy))

During the July storm, a lot of infrastructure was knocked out, and apparently their fiber connection went with it. As a (initially) temporary measure, they replaced it with a pair of Comcast Business connections.

(Examples at end of post)
One of these connections - the one seemingly "preferred" - has had no less than 2% packetloss since it was turned on, in the form of 2-5 second spikes at random intervals. It regularly approaches 12%, though not reliably when compared to load.

The other connection has no such problems - I can only tell because certain destinations (For example right now, 74.201.98.46(mph5sw.vivox.com, [one of] Planetside 2's voice servers) are always routed over it - and all of these connections have one less hop in the route (Just after my router -> gateway).
Most others, like 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS) or 199.108.194.39 (A Planetside 2 shard), go over the bad connection.

To clarify, I am not having a specific problem with the two example addresses, they are simply ones that go over each connection in question.


TL;DR: Is there a way for me to force all connections over this "good" connection?

(Edit: Switched these!)
Good (Always has 96.120.80.113 at hop 3)

Bad (Always has 23.25.122.126 at hop 3)

Thanks!

 

[dandragonrage]

Can you give us more detail about the network hardware you use? Modems, router(s), etc. And any network-related software (with version info) that you might use.

In general, you change the routing table to determine which connection to use, but depending on what router you use, it may have features like auto-balancing that might make changing the routing table manually a pain (hopefully the load balancer is very configurable in your hardware). We (probably someone other than me really) can give you better info if we know what we're working with in specific.

 

[Xuerian]

Can you give us more detail about the network hardware you use? Modems, router(s), etc. And any network-related software (with version info) that you might use.

In general, you change the routing table to determine which connection to use, but depending on what router you use, it may have features like auto-balancing that might make changing the routing table manually a pain (hopefully the load balancer is very configurable in your hardware). We (probably someone other than me really) can give you better info if we know what we're working with in specific.

Well, the only hardware in my control is my router, a Asus wl500gp v2 with TomatoUSB 1.28/Shibby - any bonding/load balancing is done with/after the tower's backhaul.

I'm running Windows 8, use Netlimiter to keep latency from deteriorating under my load, and monitor the connections with Pingplotter.

As far as the network topography, it seems to be:

My router -(PoE->Tranzeo antenna)> Mikrotik gateway (Tower) -> (Tower? -> ?) -> Comcast connections
I'm not entirely sure of their setup, though apparently previously (And somehow functioning), it was client -> tower -> tower -> tower -> fiber/ntelos..

This would have to be done entirely on my end, unfortunately. I've tried contacting Comcast Business' support, and they have to (I suppose obviously) speak directly with the account holder. It seemed that the latest tech to visit was sympathetic and had a possibility of getting attention on the issue, but that hasn't gotten any results yet either.

 

[Ehren8879]

I think you mislabeled your "good' and "bad" graphs

The connection with all the packet loss appears to be a cable modem

The fiber connection appears to be solid.

I don't know if you can influence the routing once traffic leaves your network.


I can only recommend bitching to your WISP and constantly beat on them for the packet loss.

 

[Xuerian]

I think you mislabeled your "good' and "bad" graphs

The connection with all the packet loss appears to be a cable modem

The fiber connection appears to be solid.

I don't know if you can influence the routing once traffic leaves your network.

That's embarrassing, I did mislabel them. And I think I was vague; it was previously (Before July) a fiber connection. As far as I know (and the traces indicate) it's now a pair of comcast cable connections.

But that's disheartening if there is no way I can influence it =\

I was hopeful, but there wasn't a whole lot of hope. Ah well.

 

[Ehren8879]

I suspect the packet loss issue is between your WISP and the business cable modem. I'm running ping plotter from my fiber connection to 23.25.122.126

If this verifies then your WISP is solely responsible for getting their wiring straight.

 

[Ehren8879]

This is what I get. No PL from my side.

I'd try to get this issue elevated to a higher level with your WISP

 

[Xuerian]

This is what I get. No PL from my side.

I'd try to get this issue elevated to a higher level with your WISP

Thanks for checking that, I hadn't thought to get someone to ping it from the outside. If it keeps up I'll definitely start being a squeaky wheel. (Just had some major issues this afternoon with the bad connection, I'm assuming they've disabled it for the time being)

 

[RocketTech]

I'd definietly suggest contacting your service provider if the issue is not on your network. Packet Loss is typically caused by too much traffic on a link, e.g. over subscription.

 

[Xuerian]

I'd definietly suggest contacting your service provider if the issue is not on your network. Packet Loss is typically caused by too much traffic on a link, e.g. over subscription.

That would seem to be the most likely cause, but I wasn't exaggerating: Any destination with that hop in the route _never_ experiences any less than 2% packetloss. So while oversale is probably part of it, this is something more =\ (Still something to contact them on, and I have, but this was Plan B after all)