FTTP Pings/Traceroute

Firstly this isn't an issue but more for my understanding.

I'm on Zen 900/900 and pretty happy with the overall performance.

I've seen plenty of people reporting pings to various locations of sub 10ms when on FTTP/FTTH connections and tried a few test of my own.

When pinging the usual suspects BBC and Google i never get lower than 12ms (Not a complaint). When doing a traceroute this 2nd hop is the Zen Gateway and always as the 12ms mark.

PING bbc.co.uk (151.101.192.81): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 151.101.192.81: icmp_seq=0 ttl=59 time=12.937 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.192.81: icmp_seq=1 ttl=59 time=13.552 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.192.81: icmp_seq=2 ttl=59 time=14.330 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.192.81: icmp_seq=3 ttl=59 time=14.574 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.192.81: icmp_seq=4 ttl=59 time=14.609 ms

traceroute to bbc.co.uk (151.101.192.81), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 dsldevice (192.168.0.1) 2.798 ms 1.307 ms 1.351 ms
2 vt1.cor1.lond1.ptn.zen.net.uk (51.148.72.21) 13.648 ms 13.277 ms 13.037 ms
3 lag-8.p2.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.172) 13.229 ms
lag-8.p1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.158) 13.758 ms
lag-8.p2.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.172) 13.757 ms
4 lag-1.br1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.153) 13.301 ms 14.314 ms
lag-2.br1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.167) 13.572 ms
5 * * *
6 * * *
7 * * *

Is this normal or would you expect better?

Just curious.

Cheers

Paul

Two questions:

Wired or wireless?

Where in the UK are you? London, Cornwall, Midland, Wales, Scottish Islands &c.

12-13ms ro london is prob Glasgow / Edinburgh

15-16 in Derry N.Ireland

Tried wired and wireless and both the same and i'm in Derby.

About what you’d expect ping from Derby to London really.

I'm in Derby.

I'm assuming I'm connecting to a gateway in London as no matter where i test to, I always get the first 4/5 hops as Zen.

traceroute to google.com (142.250.178.14), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 dsldevice (192.168.0.1) 3.002 ms 1.285 ms 1.174 ms
2 vt1.cor1.lond1.ptn.zen.net.uk (51.148.72.21) 13.167 ms 13.245 ms 33.743 ms
3 lag-8.p1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.158) 13.334 ms
lag-8.p2.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.172) 13.067 ms
lag-8.p1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.158) 13.427 ms
4 lag-2.br1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.167) 13.152 ms 13.660 ms
lag-1.br1.thn-lon.zen.net.uk (51.148.73.153) 13.099 ms
5 72.14.223.28 (72.14.223.28) 14.398 ms 14.069 ms 13.777 ms
6 * * *
7 142.251.54.28 (142.251.54.28) 14.192 ms
142.251.54.46 (142.251.54.46) 13.078 ms
108.170.246.161 (108.170.246.161) 13.888 ms
8 108.170.246.144 (108.170.246.144) 13.290 ms
108.170.246.143 (108.170.246.143) 13.629 ms
lhr48s27-in-f14.1e100.net (142.250.178.14) 13.839 ms

If is it consistent then not too much to worry about - although maybe a little higher than could be expected for Derby. Which way is it routed to London? Straright down or via Manchester or Leeds ... you will not know as all of the routing is totally transparent.

1st world problems (Not an issue really).

12ms is not a problem for me as being late 40's my gaming days ended with Doom and Quake.

I was more just trying to understand if that is perfectly normal for FTTP as you do see people post much lower pings on FTTP and sometimes on FTTC connections.

Edited by UKFOB (Sat 27-Nov-21 10:35:36)

Yes, it's normal. Depending on how Zen's network is configured, it could be that your packets flow from Derby to Manchester to London, and this all takes place at layer 2 so it doesn't appear in the traceroute.

In rough terms, all you can see is the first "routing" device that the traffic hits; you don't see all the "switching" devices in between.

PING bbc.co.uk (151.101.128.81): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: seq=0 ttl=58 time=15.141 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: seq=1 ttl=58 time=15.160 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: seq=2 ttl=58 time=15.195 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: seq=3 ttl=58 time=15.189 ms
64 bytes from 151.101.128.81: seq=4 ttl=58 time=15.132 ms

--- bbc.co.uk ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 15.132/15.163/15.195 ms



Gives you an idea on BT from far North West of Ireland.