Tracing an internet connection

[woody1]

I've been having intermittent problems with my mobile broadband (no internet, slow speed). I wanted to try and trace the route end-to-end but unfortunately tracert returns mostly "* * *". I also tried a 3rd party tool tracetcp which uses TCP packets, instead of tracert's ICMP, but it was the same. Increasing the tracert timeout doesn't make any difference either.

I'm assuming this is because the ISP's routers and gateways have been configured not to return an error message when TTL=0.

Can anyone suggest anything else worth trying?

Thanks.

C:\>tracert bbc.com

Tracing route to bbc.com [151.101.128.81]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 2 ms VodafoneMobile.wifi [192.168.0.1]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 * * * Request timed out.
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 58 ms 55 ms 57 ms 5.53.1.205
10 50 ms 93 ms 60 ms 23.235.41.149
11 45 ms 49 ms 47 ms 23.235.41.148
12 57 ms 44 ms 61 ms 151.101.128.81

Trace complete.

[Lance]

you are correct that some routers won't return a message when TTL reaches 0, and this is why trace route fails to tell you all the hops.
But the hops aren't relevant.

What you need is some Wireshark traces on unreliable connections to see better what is going on.

You need a load more information though. Mobile broadband usually proxies the connections anyway. best bet is to just log a problem with Vodafone and tell them the service is sh1te and you're gonna move to EE. That usually wakes them up. If they can't fix it then move.

I use this 5G Home Broadband - Home Broadband Devices | Three and it's fecking brilliant.

[woody1]

best bet is to just log a problem with Vodafone and tell them the service is sh1te and you're gonna move to EE.

I binned Vodafone a couple of years ago because their service was indeed "sh1te" (kept going down a lot, and losing data packs). I got the router unlocked and switched to giffgaff (O2 network). It's been a massive improvement but I do lose IP every so often for a couple of minutes or so.

What I can't tell is whether it's my router or their network. When it goes down, I can see through the router interface that it's still connected at the telephony level but that's about it.

I've not heard of Wireshark. Do you think this would help narrow it down?

[Lance]

I've not heard of Wireshark. Do you think this would help narrow it down?

It would if you knew how to use it.... But as you've not heard of it I doubt it very much.
Try tech support..

slightly less flippantly...
Wireshark will show you details of the packets, including delays between them so you can get a true picture of what delays and/or packet losses are occurring. It will only tell you about layer 3 though, so if the issue is with 4/5G then you'll just see packet loss.

[woody1]

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb ass question.

I can see through the router interface that O2's DHCP server has assigned it an IPv4 address of 10.146.105.201. (The LAN IPv4 address is 192.168.0.1; my laptop is 192.168.0.101)

It doesn't show the subnet mask, so could be 255.0.0.0, 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0. Don't know which is more likely.

Would I be right in thinking that my router is connecting to an O2 router/gateway with an IP address of 10.x.x.x, 10.146.x.x or 10.146.105.x?

If I could somehow identify (guess) the router IP address, should it be pingable?

Thanks.

[Lance]

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb ass question.

I can see through the router interface that O2's DHCP server has assigned it an IPv4 address of 10.146.105.201. (The LAN IPv4 address is 192.168.0.1; my laptop is 192.168.0.101)

It doesn't show the subnet mask, so could be 255.0.0.0, 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0. Don't know which is more likely.

Would I be right in thinking that my router is connecting to an O2 router/gateway with an IP address of 10.x.x.x, 10.146.x.x or 10.146.105.x?

If I could somehow identify (guess) the router IP address, should it be pingable?

Thanks.

that IP address is a private IP (RFC 1918). 10. , and 192.168. Are all private and not routable over the internet.
so whilst that may be the assigned IP, it is an O2 private network. So you will be using a proxy service in O2.
and whether it’s pingable From the inside is down to router setup.

just log a ticket.

[malvolio]

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb ass question.

I can see through the router interface that O2's DHCP server has assigned it an IPv4 address of 10.146.105.201. (The LAN IPv4 address is 192.168.0.1; my laptop is 192.168.0.101)

It doesn't show the subnet mask, so could be 255.0.0.0, 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0. Don't know which is more likely.

Would I be right in thinking that my router is connecting to an O2 router/gateway with an IP address of 10.x.x.x, 10.146.x.x or 10.146.105.x?

If I could somehow identify (guess) the router IP address, should it be pingable?

Thanks.

One thing to note is that the WAN-side routers are programmed not to pass addresses in the 10.n.n.n and 192.n.n.n ranges. This is so they can be reused ad infinitum on domestic and other LANs. So you may not be seeing what you think you are seeing.

If you can get the real IP address on the WAN side then yes it's pingable - but it may well be set to refuse to respond. Blame cybersecurity...

If you go to CMD line and ping o2.co.uk you can see their public WAN IP - but again that may well not correlate to what you are trying to find.

[woody1]

I stumbled on an old thread on giffgaff's forums which mentioned that the gateway was 10.0.0.1. I can't ping this but it may have changed. Anyway, I've given up on this.

The nearest equipment I've found on their network, which I can ping, are the DNS servers. There are only 3 hops between my router and them. This will have to do for testing the connection when it plays up.

C:\>tracert -d 82.132.254.2

Tracing route to 82.132.254.2 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 33 ms 57 ms 67 ms 82.132.254.2

Trace complete.

[woody1]

BTW, I found that a lot of network folks ping 8.8.8.8 to test internet connectivity.

It's easy to remember, and it removes DNS from the equation.

[hobnob]

It doesn't show the subnet mask, so could be 255.0.0.0, 255.255.0.0 or 255.255.255.0. Don't know which is more likely.
Would I be right in thinking that my router is connecting to an O2 router/gateway with an IP address of 10.x.x.x, 10.146.x.x or 10.146.105.x?

It's hard to say. In some cases, I've seen PPPoE connections that use a /30 subnet, i.e. there are only 2 usable addresses (your machine and the ISP's router). It could also be a much bigger subnet, e.g. a /16 (corresponding to 255.255.0.0).

BTW, I found that a lot of network folks ping 8.8.8.8 to test internet connectivity.

It's easy to remember, and it removes DNS from the equation.

Ironically, that IP address is one of Google's DNS servers, so you're not quite removing it from the equation! However, you're correct that it's a common address to test, because:
a) It should respond to pings
b) It's easy to remember
c) If you can't reach it, the problem is more likely to be at your end than their end