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bitserf

101 posts

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#99427 19-Mar-2012 13:59
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Hi,

Our ISP at work is TelstraClear (our external IP address is  203.97.27.4, which according to APNIC is owned by them).

For the past two months, we have sporadically incredibly poor performance as soon as some international sites hit a content distribution network.

Examples:

apple.com
nytimes.com
engadget.com
msdn.microsoft.com 

As soon as it tries to load, CSS, JS or images from these CDN servers, it stalls for minutes, eventually timing out.

How would you suggest I go about trying to prove its TelstraClear at fault?

I'm fairly certain it has to be, other international sites which do not use the same CDNs load fine, Telecom 3G works fine, Telecom broadband works fine, at these same times.

Work IT guy says it's them, something to do with their locally hosted cache servers being fubar, but how would you recommend I go about proving this in a way that will get them to pull their fingers out?

Is it:

  • Transparent proxy server that they can't manage to scale (this was an issue in 2003...)
  • Transparent DNS that they're still screwing up (this was in issue in 2003, if it's still going....)
  • Local cache servers for Akamai or other networks that they can't keep up for more than minutes at a time
  • All of the above?

Thanks

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Beccara
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  #597149 19-Mar-2012 14:16
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As with most CDN issues what DNS servers are you using and what IP do you get when you ping download.microsoft.com and trailers.apple.com




Most problems are the result of previous solutions...

All comment's I make are my own personal opinion and do not in any way, shape or form reflect the views of current or former employers unless specifically stated 



freitasm
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  #597151 19-Mar-2012 14:19
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What are the DNS your work is using?





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BlakJak
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  #597163 19-Mar-2012 14:29
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if you're (ultimately) ending up at TCL's ISP DNS, the problem likely isn't the CDN... raise a fault with your ISP helpdesk.

Also you're referring to CDNs as if you're talking about more than one; do you mean CDN's aside from Akamai, or just them?





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freitasm
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  #597164 19-Mar-2012 14:31
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We have to first establish that

a) TelstraClear is indeed the ISP
b) they are using the correct DNS (203.97.78.43 and 203.97.78.44)

If TelstraClear is their ISP *ANY* other DNS will cause this kind of problem.





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bitserf

101 posts

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  #597166 19-Mar-2012 14:31
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I'm not certain which TelstraClear DNS servers are being used (as I understand it our DNS servers are caching-only servers that delegate to them).

Will see if I can dig up this information.

Thanks 

bitserf

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  #597168 19-Mar-2012 14:42
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Since I'm experiencing another slowdown at the moment...

D:\> ping download.microsoft.com

Pinging a767.ms.akamai.net [92.123.68.106] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 92.123.68.106: bytes=32 time=322ms TTL=51
Reply from 92.123.68.106: bytes=32 time=319ms TTL=51
Reply from 92.123.68.106: bytes=32 time=312ms TTL=51
Reply from 92.123.68.106: bytes=32 time=320ms TTL=51


D:\> ping trailers.apple.com

Pinging a772.w11.akamai.net [216.156.149.96] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.156.149.96: bytes=32 time=159ms TTL=53
Reply from 216.156.149.96: bytes=32 time=137ms TTL=53
Reply from 216.156.149.96: bytes=32 time=137ms TTL=53
Reply from 216.156.149.96: bytes=32 time=137ms TTL=53


Tracing to them:


D:\> tracert trailers.apple.com

Tracing route to a772.w11.akamai.net [216.156.149.113]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 1 ms 3 1 ms * 1 ms ge-0-2-0-1.xcore1.acld.telstraclear.net [203.98.50.251]
4 1 ms 6 ms 19 ms 203.167.233.10
5 125 ms 143 ms 125 ms i-0-0-4-0.tlot-core01.bx.reach.com [202.84.142.118]
6 137 ms 163 ms 162 ms i-0-5-1-0.paix-core01.bi.reach.com [202.84.140.90]
7 139 ms 139 ms 139 ms i-2-2.paix01.bi.reach.com [202.84.251.58]
8 163 ms 163 ms 168 ms 206.111.12.173.ptr.us.xo.net [206.111.12.173]
9 178 ms 186 ms 185 ms te0-11-4-0.rar3.sanjose-ca.us.xo.net [207.88.12.181]
10 142 ms 143 ms 144 ms 207.88.13.237.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.13.237]
11 137 ms * 137 ms 207.88.14.218.ptr.us.xo.net [207.88.14.218]
12 155 ms 137 ms 137 ms 216.156.149.113.ptr.us.xo.net [216.156.149.113]


D:\Projects> tracert download.microsoft.com

Tracing route to a767.ms.akamai.net [92.123.68.177]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 203.97.27.1
2 1 ms 1 ms 3 22 ms 1 ms 1 ms ge-0-2-0-1.xcore1.acld.telstraclear.net [203.98.50.251]
4 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 203.167.233.10
5 126 ms 125 ms 126 ms i-0-0-4-1.tlot-core01.bx.reach.com [202.84.142.106]
6 125 ms 125 ms 125 ms i-2-5.tlot03.bi.reach.com [202.84.251.242]
7 126 ms 126 ms 125 ms 208.175.201.5
8 133 ms 129 ms 129 ms las-b3-link.telia.net [213.155.141.181]
9 126 ms 131 ms 126 ms las-bb1-link.telia.net [213.155.134.76]
10 190 ms 190 ms 227 ms ash-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.157]
11 306 ms 291 ms 312 ms ffm-bb2-link.telia.net [213.155.135.58]
12 285 ms 285 ms 285 ms ffm-b11-link.telia.net [80.91.246.123]
13 291 ms 291 ms 295 ms akamai-ic-141902-ffm-b8.c.telia.net [213.248.96.138]
14 287 ms 289 ms 288 ms a92-123-68-177.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [92.123.68.177]


D:\> tracert css.nyt.com

Tracing route to a1670.g.akamai.net [96.17.70.67]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 2 1 ms 3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms ge-0-2-0-1.xcore1.acld.telstraclear.net [203.98.50.251]
4 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 203.167.233.10
5 126 ms 126 ms 126 ms i-0-0-4-1.tlot-core01.bx.reach.com [202.84.142.106]
6 280 ms 429 ms 423 ms i-1-1.tlot03.bi.reach.com [202.84.251.234]
7 126 ms 127 ms 126 ms be-10-703-cr01.losangeles.ca.ibone.comcast.net [75.149.228.221]
8 127 ms 127 ms 127 ms a96-17-70-67.deploy.akamaitechnologies.com [96.17.70.67]


Is it just me or should those have resolved to local servers? 

freitasm
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  #597169 19-Mar-2012 14:43
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You have to find what DNS you are using... I'm on TelstraClear and for Akamai (download.microsoft.com) I'm getting a local IP, the same for Apple.




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bitserf

101 posts

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  #597171 19-Mar-2012 14:44
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Awesome, thanks.


Zeon
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  #597175 19-Mar-2012 14:54
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Sounds like you are using non Telstra DNS servers as the chosen Akamai mirrors are ages away. E.g. I can get to an Akamai cache sub 1ms with 100mbps throughput here.




Speedtest 2019-10-14


bitserf

101 posts

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  #597181 19-Mar-2012 14:57
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Thanks guys, that was it.

I apologize to any TelstraClear employees in this thread, that was two months of venting :)

Hardcoded it on my machine to those two TelstraClear servers, and:


D:\Projects> ping download.microsoft.com

Pinging a767.ms.akamai.net [203.167.141.138] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 203.167.141.138: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.167.141.138: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.167.141.138: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=61
Reply from 203.167.141.138: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=61

Ping statistics for 203.167.141.138:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms
D:\Projects> tracert download.microsoft.com

Tracing route to a767.ms.akamai.net [203.167.141.137]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 203.97.27.1
2 <1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 203.167.236.53
3 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 203.167.141.137

Trace complete.


That's more like it.

freitasm
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  #597183 19-Mar-2012 14:58
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Yes, but this fixes for your machine. What about the entire network? Unnecessary high times because of badly configured DNS?




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bitserf

101 posts

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  #597185 19-Mar-2012 15:02
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Have sent an email that will probably ensure IT get on the case for everyone else ;)

freitasm
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  #597189 19-Mar-2012 15:07
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Not being mean, but being mean... Probably someone who (wrongly) decided to use Google DNS or OpenDNS thinking they would greatly improve performance for the company.





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Kiwipixter
246 posts

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  #597225 19-Mar-2012 15:53
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bitserf: Have sent an email that will probably ensure IT get on the case for everyone else ;)


Make sure your email doesn't say they are wrong and you found the solution. IT guys doesnt like that.  Laughing

exportgoldman
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  #598379 21-Mar-2012 20:53
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freitasm: Not being mean, but being mean... Probably someone who (wrongly) decided to use Google DNS or OpenDNS thinking they would greatly improve performance for the company.



+1 Such a common problem for IT guys which don't understand DNS and start messing around. I see this quite a bit.  

Nothing like sucking out Windows Updates from Spain at 20KB/s :-)




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