BT Hell - 3 weeks of packet loss and poor routing

Hi,

Conversation had between me and an IT guy I know in Sweden (other)
concerning my 3 weeks of grief - this I hope proves the fault is with
BT (their routers or switches faulty or misconfigured - problem only
bad like this the past few weeks). I can get a good logon which seems
to route on different ports and is great (until I logoff) or %99 of
the time bad (stays bad during logon).

One thing I have of note for one 'bad' logon session, is my IP and
Gateway have the same IP? Wish I had that info on my for a good
'logon', but this seems wrong ?

At 12.50am 03/10/05, got a good logon! (first since wednesday 9pm to
thursday 11pm when I logged off - been bad until 12.50am monday! - bad
is below).

<me> Tracing route to 'whatever'
<me> 1 17 ms 18 ms 25 ms 217.47.202.58
<me> 2 14 ms 13 ms 13 ms 217.47.202.161
<me> 3 12 ms 19 ms 29 ms 217.41.168.9
<me> 4 * 66 ms 14 ms 217.41.168.114
<me> 5 19 ms 16 ms 13 ms 212.140.233.34 ?????
his right?
<me> 6 19 ms 13 ms 15 ms 217.47.155.50
<me> 7 * 14 ms 12 ms core2-pos3-2.ealing.ukcore.bt.net
[62.6.200.5]
<me> 8 42 ms 13 ms 13 ms transit2-pos5-0.ealing.ukcore.bt.net
[194.72.17.126]
<me> 9 13 ms 13 ms 30 ms t2c1-p3-0.uk-eal.eu.bt.net
[166.49.168.5]
<me> 10 * 13 ms 13 ms t2c2-p8-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net
[166.49.208.110]
<me> 11 13 ms * 31 ms t2a1-ge7-0.uk-lon1.eu.bt.net
[166.49.135.106]
<me> 12 * 14 ms * 166-49-211-22.eu.bt.net
[166.49.211.22]
<etc>

<other> wtf is that 212 jump doing in your traceroute?
<other> this is strange
<other> [20:28] <me> 4 * 66 ms 14 ms 217.41.168.114
<other> [20:28] <me> 5 19 ms 16 ms 13 ms 212.140.233.34
<other> [20:28] <me> 6 19 ms 13 ms 15 ms 217.47.155.50
<other> see that?
<other> why would it leave 217 for 212 and then go back to 217 again?
<other> well, it seems illogical at a quick glance

<me> Tracing route to www.clara.net [80.168.69.13]
<me> 1 27 ms 17 ms 71 ms 217.47.202.58
<me> 2 13 ms 13 ms * 217.47.202.161
<me> 3 * 14 ms 16 ms 217.41.168.9
<me> 4 13 ms 29 ms 31 ms 217.41.168.114
<me> 5 13 ms 22 ms 15 ms 217.41.168.50
<me> 6 16 ms 12 ms 16 ms 217.47.83.242
<me> 7 22 ms 18 ms 14 ms core2-pos11-1.ealing.ukcore.bt.net
[194.72.17.213]
<me> 8 15 ms 17 ms * core2-pos5-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net
[194.74.65.181]
<me> 9 321 ms * 16 ms
ge-0-2-19-telen-mapple.router.clara.net [217.158.241.33]
<me> 10 * * 19 ms t6-cr1-ge-4-0.router.uk.clara.net
[195.8.86.133]
<me> 11 * 24 ms * gs-cr2-ge-2-2.router.uk.clara.net
[195.8.68.253]
<me> 12 14 ms 23 ms 16 ms gs-ar6-fe-3-0.router.uk.clara.net
[195.8.86.194]
<me> 13 14 ms 29 ms 22 ms www.clara.net [80.168.69.13]
<me> Trace complete.

<other> there you go
<other> it's the 81.153 <-> 217.47 that's bad
<other> If I'd wager a guess, it's the connection from the 81.153 net
to 217.47 net that is broken
<other> and vice versa
<other> but this thing you have looks to be a router configuration
thing
<other> since it's all within bt when it happens

I wonder if any IT bod's can provide any insight from the info given
below - 3 weeks on, plugged to different card in exchange (no
improvement but I guessed that anyway), exchange engineer found no
fault from my PC to the exchange (with fw off or on), zero packet loss
each way but I hve major packet loss through BT as above, and a home
visit from a BT engineer found nothing wrong (good for 6-8Mb/s he said
- but as luck would have it things were good then anyway

When I get a good logon, things stay fine all the way through - superb
as it used to be. Can't get BT local, BT wholesale, BT IP to do sod
all of any use.

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 08:23:19 +0100, Luxo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

><other> it's the 81.153 <-> 217.47 that's bad

Eh? can't see 81.153 anywhere

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:15:18 +0100, Phil Thompson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 08:23:19 +0100, Luxo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>><other> it's the 81.153 <-> 217.47 that's bad
>
>Eh? can't see 81.153 anywhere
>
>Phil

- that was part of my IP addy at the time - sorry, I masked off mine and their IP's - although they are dynamic.

Just wish I could sort this mess out - not sure what to do next,

On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 16:52:24 +0100, Luxo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 11:15:18 +0100, Phil Thompson
><(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 05 Oct 2005 08:23:19 +0100, Luxo <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>
>>><other> it's the 81.153 <-> 217.47 that's bad
>>
>>Eh? can't see 81.153 anywhere
>>
>>Phil
>
> - that was part of my IP addy at the time - sorry, I masked off mine and their IP's - although they are dynamic.
>
>Just wish I could sort this mess out - not sure what to do next,

Good now - anyone having problems, read below !

Been bad for 3 weeks+. Talking to the helpdesk takes years off your
life - mention ping (they think of pong), mention traceroutw their
eyes glaze over, always your pc, you have virus's and trojans, duff
modem/router, it's always your firewall, their s/w has proven it
(that's what a fw does - stop unknown probes - doh).

It took ages to logon, packet loss and timeouts persistently - the
random chance of 1in100 of getting a good logon had gone. Tracerouting
to www.bbc.co.uk, www.btinternet.co.uk (or com) or www.yahoo.co.uk
failed badly and differnently each time - pings lost %20-100 on
average.

Phoned the cancellation department and asked for a MAC code. Got some
of the usual 'records show it's your firewall, etc' - told the person
I had lowered it for the BT exchange engineer to do some packet tests
(he was talking to me on the phone at the time), and line tests, etc,
had a home eng visit - all showed my line to be fantastic, good for
6-8Mb/s, with no loss from me to the exchange or vice versa in terms
of packets. At the same time, packet loss and timeout galore outside
the BT network. Also have had many, many duff IP's or such - connected
but nothing working at all.

Eventually the MAC lady asked if I would give them one more chance and
put me through to yet another tech person. Got some more drivel but he
said he would put it through to the engineers one last time.
Tracerouts to BT sometimes have internal 10.x.x.x addy's in them
(!!!!!) along with loss. This stays bad (almost guaranteed) or good
(virtually never now) dependant on logon.

ADSL went dead a while later, came back - and what do you know -
without any changes to my PC, fw, sw (use known good ghos), etc, logon
was then fast and pings / tr's all fine - speed is perfect - as it
used to be - gone from dire and shitty all the time to rock solid. 3
weeks of hell to fantastic in 30 minutes or so after telling them I
wish to cancel.

So, chose another provider (such as Zen with monthly contracts) and
ask for a MAC code and be willing to leave - only then will BT
actually fix anything.

I was supposed to be swapped to another 32 user card lat week (just
for BT to say they had done something) - this made no difference - if
they did it as the ADSL conenction went off last week for a bit.
Whether they did this, swapped to another DSLAM, don't know - but it's
damn fine now.

Hopefully it will last - if not, I am off to Zen (BE offer 24Mbit for
£24 unlimited - but have fair use with no details - basically caps).