[SOLVED] What does this tracert mean?

[Dylan_]

Tracing route to www.google.com [172.217.6.100]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 53 ms 1 ms 1 ms 253.99.244.66.dyn.smithville.net
2 5 ms 5 ms 4 ms 4.59.41.222
3 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms 4.59.41.221
4 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms ae-2-3603.ear3.Chicago2.Level3.net
5 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 72.14.203.208
6 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms 216.239.56.153
7 11 ms 10 ms 10 ms 108.170.238.91
8 15 ms 16 ms 15 ms ord37s03-in-f100.1e100.net

Trace complete.

1st hop is directly from my fiber "box". I am not using a router.

 

[Dylan_]

Tracing route to www.google.com [172.217.4.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 26 ms 2 ms 253.99.244.66.dyn.smithville.net
2 5 ms 5 ms 25 ms 4.59.41.222
3 12 ms 13 ms 33 ms 4.59.41.221
4 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms ae-2-3603.ear3.Chicago2.Level3.net
5 10 ms 11 ms 35 ms 72.14.203.208
6 17 ms 16 ms 16 ms 216.239.56.153
7 15 ms 14 ms 15 ms 216.239.51.117
8 16 ms 15 ms 16 ms ord37s18-in-f4.1e100.net

Trace complete.

This is another one ran right after for more evidence.

 

[Dylan_]

When I use a VPN this is what I get on tracert

Tracing route to www.google.com [172.217.9.68]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms us-east-070.whiskergalaxy.com
2 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms static-68-235-35-177.cust.tzulo.com
3 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms tz05.rt-13.chi.il.tzulo.com
4 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms 10.0.0.5
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms 108.170.243.174
7 13 ms 13 ms 17 ms 72.14.239.115
8 14 ms 14 ms 13 ms ord38s09-in-f4.1e100.net

Trace complete.

 

[SamirD]

Are you looking for some sort of problem? Those traces look fine. You can use packetlosstest.com to see if you're having packet loss issues.

 

[Dylan_]

Are you looking for some sort of problem? Those traces look fine. You can use packetlosstest.com to see if you're having packet loss issues.

I am indeed, I am getting lag spikes without a VPN and with VPN everything is fixed.

 

[SamirD]

So that means the vpn is just a better route to whatever destination you're connecting to--nothing special about that as it's using a different route to begin with.

The best test would be to run packetlosstest.com with the vpn on and off and compare the ping graphs.

 

[Dylan_]

So that means the vpn is just a better route to whatever destination you're connecting to--nothing special about that as it's using a different route to begin with.

The best test would be to run packetlosstest.com with the vpn on and off and compare the ping graphs.

That's the problem, my ISPs route used to be the best and magically one day it's terrible routing now. I called to complain and they just say there's nothing they can do. I have <Mod Edit> fiber and it's been a terrible experience over comcast... can you believe that, that I sadly miss comcast? There has to be something I can do besides pay for a VPN

 

[Dylan_]

It's also odd how at about 8pm or so until about midnight the connection lags and around 2am I get insanely low latency again and lag free. I have fiber for gods sake I thought I was getting the best internet there is to offer.

 

[SamirD]

That's the problem, my ISPs route used to be the best and magically one day it's terrible routing now. I called to complain and they just say there's nothing they can do. I have <Mod Edit> fiber and it's been a terrible experience over comcast... can you believe that, that I sadly miss comcast? There has to be something I can do besides pay for a VPN

Different isps use different backbones and can change on a whim so there's absolutely no guarantee on the ping times, just bandwidth. Generally, you have to have shorter ping times for faster bandwidth so one does feed the other to a certain extent, but since the bandwidth is basically guaranteed only inside their network and not out on the Internet, there's absolutely nothing you can do. You can also swap back to the other provider.

 

[SamirD]

It's also odd how at about 8pm or so until about midnight the connection lags and around 2am I get insanely low latency again and lag free. I have fiber for gods sake I thought I was getting the best internet there is to offer.

That's classic congestion and over-saturation--your isp is needing more bandwidth on their backbone but are probably not willing to pay for it. Check packetlosstest.com for any real packet loss at that time--that is something the provider must do something about.

 

[bill001g]

You have to be very careful how you look at tracert results. The traces you have a fine. Problems at intermediate hops but not on farther hops just indicates the router had some issue. Many times routers are configured to prioritize passing actual traffic rather than responding to tracert or ping. This is partially to prevent denial of service attacks against a router.

In addition a key factor to remember about tracert is it only show the path from you to the end. The return traffic may follow a completely different path. This is very common since ISP try to keep traffic on their network as long as they can. In addition the routers in the path themselves may have a different path back.

This is really why only a ISP can trouble shoot internet issues since you must be able to get into routers in the path to test. You can see this strangeness in tracert by using looking glass sites that some ISP have that allow you limited testing on their routers.

In the end it all doesn't matter. You only have control of your router..ie hop1 and ability to fix hop 2 which is the connection between your house and the ISP.

The only reason gaming service vpn exist is because some people ISP do not have optimum pathing between them and the game company ISP. A VPN should always make a connection slower because of the time required to encrypt the data and other overhead. Although there is some use for in in the USA an EU most the so called gaming VPN is used in asia. Most these connection travel over undersea fiber which is expensive and not all ISP are willing to pay for direct connections.