sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
 ·Comcast
1 edit | [Speed] High latency in Albuquerque, NM
Hello everyone. I'm trying to figure out what the next steps should be in order to get the issues I've been seeing for a week now resolved.
First, the details:
1) Your location: Albuquerque, NM
2) A description of the problem: Starting last Sunday in the early afternoon I began seeing a large climb in latency while playing World of Warcraft. I logged out of the game and ran a few test trace routes and confirmed the issue was with my Internet connection and not only with WoW. I ran some ping -t's to the gateway router and saw anywhere from 20ms up to 900+ms including a number of time outs. I will include some of those traceroutes below.
3) Is the issue intermittent, constant or does it occur at a specific time of day: The problem seems to happen mostly in the evenings. I noticed it happens between 6-7pm and around 11pm. But it doesn't happen every day. For example, it happened Sunday through about Thursday and then was okay Friday and Saturday (which could correspond with most folks being away for the holiday if anyone is thinking congestion).
4) Your modem make, model & firmware version: I've used two different modems with this issue. The first is an SB5101. That one is not currently running but it did have the latest firmware available from Comcast when I was using it. I also used another modem I had, a SB5100 which is running SB5100-2.3.7.0-GA-00-NOSH right now. The config file downloaded when I switched over to it is d11_m_sb5100_silver_c01.cm.
5) Describe any home networking if applicable: I'm using a Buffalo WHR-G125 router running DD-WRT v24sp1 firmware.
6) List any firewall and/or anti-virus software you have installed: I am using the free version of AVG anti-virus 8.5 and the regular Windows Firewall.
I am currently on a 6Mbps account with Comcast. The same one I've had for going on three years now.
A speed test I just ran has me at 4.57Mbps down, 1.07Mbps up. Here are some other tests I've run when I'm seeing the issue:
Down: 0.62Mbps, Up: 0.27Mbps
Down: 0.74Mbps, Up: 0.68Mbps
Modem Signal Levels:
(Down)
Frequency 705000000 Hz Locked
Signal to Noise Ratio 38 dB
Power Level 6 dBmV
(Up)
Channel ID 1
Frequency 32000000 Hz Ranged
Power Level 40 dBmV
Here is a message I found in the modem log tonight around the time I began having the problem:
2009-07-05 18:32:53 3-Critical R005.0 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out
The rest of the modem logs since about last Wednesday or so when I changed out the SB5101 for this SB5100:
2009-07-05 18:32:53 3-Critical R005.0 Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out
2009-07-01 23:55:02 4-Error B603.0 Map Request Retry Timeout
1970-01-01 00:00:08 3-Critical R002.0 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
2009-07-01 20:53:37 6-Notice E112.0 SW download Successful - Via Config file
2009-07-01 20:53:08 4-Error B603.0 Map Request Retry Timeout
2009-07-01 20:51:18 6-Notice E102.0 SW Download INIT - Via Config file d11_m_sb5100_silver_c01.cm
1970-01-01 00:00:55 3-Critical R002.0 No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
1970-01-01 00:00:49 3-Critical T002.0 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing
1970-01-01 00:00:49 3-Critical T001.0 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing
1970-01-01 00:00:31 3-Critical T002.0 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing
1970-01-01 00:00:31 3-Critical T001.0 SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/QPSK symbol timing
The connection to my modem goes from the cable coming into the box outside to a two-way splitter. It is then split with one cable going to the cable modem inside the house and the other cable going to a TV we have in the front room.
Right now the issue seems to have cleared up some. But here are some traceroutes run over the past week during the issue to give you an idea of the problems:
1 82 ms 268 ms 245 ms 73.108.100.1
2 * 31 ms * ge-1-6-ur01.paradise.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.85.224.17]
3 183 ms * 471 ms te-8-3-ur01.sequoia.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.62]
4 * 746 ms * te-8-2-ar01.albuquerque.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.17]
5 31 ms * * te-0-6-0-4-cr01.denverqwest.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.25]
6 293 ms 200 ms 31 ms pos-0-10-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.22]
7 * 275 ms 248 ms te-4-3.car2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.79.82.53]
8 265 ms 203 ms 375 ms ae-32-56.ebr2.Denver1.Level3.net [4.68.107.190]
9 123 ms 71 ms 258 ms ae-2.ebr2.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.69.132.53]
10 * 241 ms 89 ms ae-21-52.car1.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.68.105.34]
11 144 ms 161 ms 271 ms GOOGLE-INC.car1.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.79.104.74]
12 76 ms 385 ms 101 ms 209.85.249.32
13 69 ms 87 ms 271 ms 72.14.239.12
14 139 ms 664 ms 168 ms 64.233.174.127
15 609 ms 135 ms 68 ms 64.233.174.99
16 * 896 ms 143 ms pv-in-f99.google.com [72.14.213.99]
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms TheHouse [192.168.1.1]
2 189 ms 451 ms 29 ms 73.108.100.1
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 683 ms * 128 ms te-8-3-ur01.sequoia.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.62]
5 28 ms 22 ms 26 ms te-8-2-ar01.albuquerque.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.17]
6 44 ms 42 ms 51 ms te-0-6-0-4-cr01.denverqwest.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.25]
7 126 ms 115 ms 31 ms pos-0-10-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.22]
8 114 ms 170 ms 58 ms pos-0-8-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.178]
9 486 ms 102 ms 286 ms a96-17-164-186.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [96.17.164.186]
Here is a trace route I just now ran:
1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms TheHouse [192.168.1.1]
2 427 ms 133 ms 252 ms 73.108.100.1
3 359 ms 48 ms 139 ms ge-1-6-ur01.paradise.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.85.224.17]
4 16 ms 552 ms 70 ms te-8-3-ur01.sequoia.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.62]
5 27 ms 132 ms 115 ms te-8-2-ar01.albuquerque.nm.albuq.comcast.net [68.86.182.17]
6 101 ms 259 ms 28 ms te-0-6-0-4-cr01.denverqwest.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.25]
7 23 ms 35 ms 43 ms pos-0-10-0-0-cr01.denver.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.86.22]
8 296 ms 64 ms 121 ms pos-0-8-0-0-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.178]
9 91 ms 93 ms 86 ms a96-17-164-186.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [96.17.164.186]
Some ping -t's to the gateway router:
Ping statistics for 73.108.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 131, Received = 112, Lost = 19 (14% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 19ms, Maximum = 949ms, Average = 225ms
Ping statistics for 73.108.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 281, Received = 270, Lost = 11 (3% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 8ms, Maximum = 830ms, Average = 141ms
Things I've tried so far:
1. As mentioned I've tried a different cable modem.
2. I bypassed my router.
3. Countless modem resets/powercycles.
4. I've tried different computers with different OS's on them.
5. Moved the modem to different cable drops in the house.
6. Removed the splitter outside and run the cable straight through.
7. Removed a tcpnodelay registry hack I had in place (actually, I just reinstalled my entire OS) to make sure there wasn't something there causing the issue.
At the moment I have actually canceled my Comcast service and I have a month until the end of the current billing period when the service will be cut off. I do already have another local ISP which will be up and working in a couple days.
However, if possible I would really prefer to stick with Comcast (despite my feelings on their service in getting this issue (not) fixed over the last week).
Even a simple "we've oversubscribed your area" would be nice but each and every time I call in or contact Comcast via their support chat it's the same old stuff over and over again. They'll escalate to their engineering group who will give me a call but they never did.
Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the really long post, but I wanted to make sure and get most of the details in there. Let me know if there is anything else anyone needs.
Dave |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
| To add to my above:
1. I have not had anyone actually show up to test the lines from my house. But if it were the lines wouldn't the problem show up all the time or at least a little less "predictable" like each evening?
2. The tech who was scheduled to come out did call me in the early evening to see if the issue was happening and it wasn't so testing the lines wouldn't have done anything... right? I would like to avoid the "I don't see an issue" yet an hour later I'm watching the time outs scroll up the screen.
I work as a network engineer in my daily job so I try not to rule anything out until I confirm something isn't the problem. Should I call Comcast and have them come test out the line anyway?
Dave |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
1 edit | Your modem signals look fine, but the traces show major latentcy between your computer and the CMTS (I'm assuming "the house" is the router, and 73.108.100.1 is your modem/Ip/gateway?) |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
1 edit | said by tshirt  :Your modem signals look fine, but the traces show major latentcy between your computer and the CMTS (I'm assuming "the house" is the router, and 73.108.100.1 is your modem/Ip/gateway?) Yes, TheHouse is my router and the 73.108.100.1 is the gateway I'm being assigned when I receive my IP address.
One of those traceroutes is with the router in place, the other is not.
[Edit] The major latency is the issue. What's weird is the issue comes and goes but so far it has always happened in the late afternoon and into the evenings. It seems to be gone by around 11pm or so on the nights I stayed on the computer.
Should I still be getting on Comcast to come fix it or should I just let the account be disabled in a month and stick with the replacement ISP who should have service up in a couple days?
It's frustrating beyond belief to have to spend so much time on the phone or in chat with Comcast to get them to fix their network.
Dave |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to sgtcasey
Ok the ping to the router looks fine/even/consistant, but both ways show a problem in the next hop.
It's likely a congestion/traffic overload. If local tech's can't/don't/won't fix it ,contact ComcastSteve in the ComcCast direct forum
»/forum/comcastdirect
here on DSLR.
BTW the Comcast VP (name escapes me right now) for the ABQ area has posted/help people here before, and is VERY interested in improving ABQ area service (no he won't run out and rewire your neighborhood, but he can tell you what's going on, and find the right person to work on your problem. |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
1 edit | said by tshirt :Ok the ping to the router looks fine/even/consistant, but both ways show a problem in the next hop. It's likely a congestion/traffic overload. If local tech's can't/don't/won't fix it ,contact ComcastSteve in the ComcCast direct forum » /forum/comcastdirect here on DSLR. Okay, I'll try that. As mentioned my service already has a disconnect order in for next month but if I could get this resolve without changing ISP's I'd be happy.
BTW the Comcast VP (name escapes me right now) for the ABQ area has posted/help people here before, and is VERY interested in improving ABQ area service (no he won't run out and rewire your neighborhood, but he can tell you what's going on, and find the right person to work on your problem. That would be simply awesome. I've been using Comcast for a few years now and I've never had any issues until recently. I mean there would be the occasional outage or something that usually lasted for a brief amount of time, but this latency problem makes it impossible to do any online gaming which honestly is about all I really depend on having that 'net connection for. If it wasn't for that I probably wouldn't even notice the latency.
Thank you for the reply!
Dave |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to sgtcasey
wscottw3 is
scott.westerman@comcast.net
Scott Westerman
Vice President
Comcast Southwest
Albuquerque
but actually only posted a few times himself. |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
2 edits | said by tshirt : wscottw3 is scott.westerman@comcast.net Scott Westerman Vice President Comcast Southwest Albuquerque but actually only posted a few times himself. Thank you.
It looks like we're climbing up the latency meter again tonight. I'm seeing sporadic timeouts in a ping -t to the gateway.
[EDIT] Chatted with a VP in Comcast via Twitter tonight and a short while later a supervisor called me. He had one of the on-call guys come out to the house and check the lines... tonight. Luckily the issues I've been having were going on so hopefully he got some good information from the test.
Anyway, right after he left the pings looked good. They seem to be climbing up some now but they're still well within what I would consider okay. Time will tell. 
Dave |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
| This is the kind of ping -t I like to see:
Ping statistics for 73.108.100.1:
Packets: Sent = 699, Received = 699, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 6ms, Maximum = 116ms, Average = 20ms
We'll see if it holds this good tomorrow evening.
Dave |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
| So here is what happened last night. Around this time the latency began it's usual climb up into the "no more online gaming for you!" zone.
As I sat here stewing about not being able to get some World of Warcraft in and surfing around these forums I saw someone mention the @comcastcares Twitter user. So I sent a message... and received a reply rather quickly. A couple of direct messages through Twitter later and a modem reset I received a message saying they'd have the local guy call me.
About an hour later they called and asked about the issues I was having. I explained and they said they'd have their on-call tech come out and test the lines. A short while later they were outside checking stuff. I lost my 'net connection while they tested (understandable) and then a little bit later it came back. They left and then it went out.
Another hour passed and they were back and seemed to be working on the green stumpy thing between my house and the house next door. Around 11:30pm my connection was back and they were gone. The connection rocked.
This morning the connection rocked. Great latency and no time outs in the ping -t to my gateway router. Tonight so far the latency still rocks. Hopefully as I get more into the evening it will stay this way.
Suffice it to say Comcast has saved an account from leaving their business. I had actually canceled my Comcast service already (effective at the end of this billing period) but today I felt so good about the customer service I was getting that I called in and canceled my service cancellation.
Good job Comcast. I only wish it hadn't taken this long to get this looked at and worked on.
Dave |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA | reply to sgtcasey
Glad they were able to fix it to your satisfaction. |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
1 edit | And... latency back tonight:
Granted, only one time-out but the latency is higher than normal.
Here is a traceroute to the WoW server I'm playing on (trying to anyway):
[edit] @ 6:44pm now back to normal:
Dave |
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tshirt
Premium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA | Then keep after them! you have the right people working on it, just not the full solution...yet. |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
1 edit | said by tshirt : Then keep after them! you have the right people working on it, just not the full solution...yet. I came home to the Comcast guy parked in front of the house and some wires laying around. A little while later he came into the house and said he found some kinked cable at the little green pedestal outside.
He also said there was some upgrades done to the equipment which serves this area last night starting at midnight. Now I'm sitting with a different IP address and a much, much lower latency than before.
My ping -t to the gateway almost never gets above 9ms now versus before when lower than 10ms was the exception. We shall see later on tonight how things go.
All in all, I'm very happy now with the response from Comcast. All it took was the Twitter message to @comcastcares to get folks involved. :)
[edit] Here is a ping -t. :)
Dave |
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sgtcasey
It's hot in NM.
Premium
join:2009-07-06
Albuquerque, NM
·Comcast
| Apologies in replying to myself (again) but I just wanted to let everyone know about the outstanding service I'm getting from Comcast right now.
It was a little rocky at first, but once I was able to get the right folks notified my issue was resolved quickly. In fact, the local tech who was out at the house the other night has called back to check to see how the latency is doing.
Since my last post above I've had nothing but great latency. In fact, it's lower now than it ever was that I noticed.
Great job by the folks at Comcast! They surely did save themselves a customer.
Dave |
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