Traceroute failed hops, is this normal? Optimum Online

[itakey]

I have been having some odd internet speed/drop issues so I decided to check a Traceroute to my IP address and i'm getting lots of dropped hops. I had a few friends in the neighborhood with the same provider test their Traceroute with the same results. Is it common to have this many failed hops?

To test, I'm using a site that tests from 14 different locations around the globe.
https://tools.keycdn.com/traceroute

Here are 3 of the tests, and notice there are usually at least 3 failed hops within the first 10. Is this common? I've tried all sorts of things including hooking my computer directly to the cable modem, moving the cable modem to the direct line coming in the house, etc. Is this common and a firewall security type failed hop, or there there a bigger problem at the providers switch end or network?

However, if I run www,SpeedTest.net I have no issues and it runs fast and successfully both upload and download speeds.

Do these Traceroute results show a problem of some sort with my provider?

--------------------------------------------------
Traceroute Results
New York
Start: Sun Mar 4 19:07:45 2018
Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 207.99.1.13 0.0% 4 0.9 1.8 0.7 4.9 1.9
2.|-- 173.255.239.4 0.0% 4 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.8 0.0
3.|-- 173.255.239.8 0.0% 4 0.8 0.9 0.5 1.2 0.0
4.|-- 62.115.41.60 0.0% 4 0.9 3.7 0.9 12.0 5.5
5.|-- 213.248.104.69 0.0% 4 1.8 1.8 1.7 2.2 0.0
6.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
7.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
8.|-- 67.83.230.149 0.0% 4 5.9 6.7 5.9 8.8 1.2
9.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
--------------------------------------------------
Dallas
Start: Sun Mar 4 19:07:55 2018
Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 45.79.12.202 0.0% 4 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.9 0.0
2.|-- 45.79.12.2 0.0% 4 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.7 0.0
3.|-- 45.79.12.9 0.0% 4 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.0
4.|-- 173.205.38.101 0.0% 4 1.0 1.9 1.0 3.4 0.6
5.|-- 89.149.184.230 0.0% 4 43.0 42.9 42.8 43.0 0.0
6.|-- 173.205.37.34 0.0% 4 40.7 40.9 40.7 41.2 0.0
7.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
8.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
9.|-- 67.83.230.145 0.0% 4 43.3 44.2 43.1 47.2 1.9
10.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
--------------------------------------------------
London
Start: Sun Mar 4 19:07:54 2018
Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1.|-- 46.101.0.254 0.0% 4 0.3 1.2 0.3 2.0 0.6
2.|-- 138.197.251.204 0.0% 4 0.5 1.3 0.4 4.0 1.6
3.|-- 212.187.195.85 0.0% 4 1.4 1.8 1.4 3.0 0.6
4.|-- 4.69.214.26 25.0% 4 69.8 70.0 69.8 70.2 0.0
5.|-- 4.35.20.30 0.0% 4 70.3 70.4 70.2 70.6 0.0
6.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
7.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
8.|-- 67.83.230.149 0.0% 4 75.4 75.9 75.3 77.3 0.6
9.|-- ??? 100.0 4 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

 

[anotherdrew]

You notice how hop 8 to London and NY and hop 9 to Dallas are all the same (similar) router. Since in every case it's the 2 routers before and the one after that are failing, I suspect they have been instructed to ignore icmp packets. I don't think this is a problem.

 

[itakey]

You notice how hop 8 to London and NY and hop 9 to Dallas are all the same (similar) router. Since in every case it's the 2 routers before and the one after that are failing, I suspect they have been instructed to ignore icmp packets. I don't think this is a problem.

You make a good point, looking at others I see similar drops based on if its USA based or Overseas. So there is definitely consistency.

Unless someone else comments with feedback stating otherwise I guess i'll accept it as normal.

 

[bill001g]

You can not trust traceroute too much. If a node in the path was actually dropping all the traffic then you would never even see the nodes past it.

Many times as stated the device is configured to not respond. It can also give you strange results even if it does respond. Most routers are designed to always favor passing actual data rather than responding to ping/trace. So the router may just be busy doing more important things rather than responding in a timely manner.

The other major issue with tracert is it only shows you the path TO the device. The path coming back can be different and it can actually be different for each router in the trace. This is why you will see traces with a hop in the middle that has really high latency but all the other hops are fine. This basically happens because ISP will keep traffic on their network as long as possible but the connections between the cities may not follow the same path.

 

[itakey]

You can not trust traceroute too much. If a node in the path was actually dropping all the traffic then you would never even see the nodes past it.

Many times as stated the device is configured to not respond. It can also give you strange results even if it does respond. Most routers are designed to always favor passing actual data rather than responding to ping/trace. So the router may just be busy doing more important things rather than responding in a timely manner.

The other major issue with tracert is it only shows you the path TO the device. The path coming back can be different and it can actually be different for each router in the trace. This is why you will see traces with a hop in the middle that has really high latency but all the other hops are fine. This basically happens because ISP will keep traffic on their network as long as possible but the connections between the cities may not follow the same path.

That all makes sense. I guess I shouldn't worry about it then. I may have my internet provider come and test my signal at my house and through my house connectors/lines in case one is failing and causing intermittent speed issues.

Thanks for the replies!