Change gateway?

Is it possible to change which gateway you are routed through?

I'm near Bristol and I've noticed via traceroute that my traffic seems to route all the way up to Manchester before heading back down to London and then going out. London is actually closer to me so I'm wondering if I can just go directly there and lower my latency?

I'm on their 900 FTTP package

Edited by zebb_edi (Fri 20-Aug-21 08:24:38)

In theory dropping the PPP connection and re-establishing it gives you a chance at a gateway change, but in practice I find it just puts you right back where you were.

The inefficient routing that Zen does is one of my major gripes with them, as it doubles my connection's latency.

Yes that's precisely why I want it set to always be London as i'm getting 17ms ping on speedtests and on FTTP it seems higher than necessary.

I've emailed them to see if they are able to switch you.

In reply to a post by zebb_edi:

Yes that's precisely why I want it set to always be London as i'm getting 17ms ping on speedtests and on FTTP it seems higher than necessary.

I've emailed them to see if they are able to switch you.

Did you have any progress with this?

I've picked up the fttp900 package and for the first two weeks I was getting ~9ms now it's ~20ms.

I'm in the southwest and the first traceroute hope is London but I'm not sure that reflects the actual gateway I'm connecting to.

Zen say that they are not able to make the gateway that you are connected through static. You can try rebooting your router, which might get you connected through a better gateway.

Yeah I got that response, the latency I'm getting is actually worse than VDSL.

I'm on the FTTP for business with critical care (~£108 per month), previously on FTTC for business with critical care (~£40).

I'm going to ask them to put me back to FTTC and grab a cheap FTTP from another provider - it will still be cheaper and I get my lower latency back.

EDIT: one gateway gives me 6ms, the others (so far) 18ms - a factor of 3, which isn't great in anyone's book.

Edited by faxfan2002 (Sat 25-Sep-21 16:58:33)

I see the exact same thing with IDNet, 6ms up to 18ms, and also speeds can vary depending on the route. So if you look for another provider for your FTTP, make sure they aren't simply using Zen for backhaul, otherwise you will not see an improvement.

When my latency increased from 7 to 20 earlier this month I raised a ticket with Zen. Here is their response:

Zen servers work to ensure that latency is spread as evenly as possible between our customers. Rather than have one customer with high latency and 10 with tiny latency we want our servers to ensure that no individual has significantly more or less latency than anyone on the server as nobodie's traffic should be prioritized.

Multiple online sources state latencies of less than 50Ms as good. A latency of 20Ms is universally considered excellent or even unrealistic to aim for. Your latency could have increased due to a number of factors, but the most likely one is that usage in your area increased so to ensure everybody had a good browsing experience everyone's latency increased slightly to allow for the greater throughput needs without impacting service.

If internet traffic increases in your area further your latency is likely to increase along side that in order to ensure everyone has the best browsing experience. We cannot save particularly good latencies for individual customers as it would give all our other users a worse experience. If your latency regularly reaches 200-500Ms unloaded then there may be a loading issue on your line that could need investigation and addressing, but with it still being at above excellent rates we are unable to take further action.

In reply to a post by ukwiz:

When my latency increased from 7 to 20 earlier this month I raised a ticket with Zen. Here is their response:

Zen servers work to ensure that latency is spread as evenly as possible between our customers. Rather than have one customer with high latency and 10 with tiny latency we want our servers to ensure that no individual has significantly more or less latency than anyone on the server as nobodie's traffic should be prioritized.

Multiple online sources state latencies of less than 50Ms as good. A latency of 20Ms is universally considered excellent or even unrealistic to aim for. Your latency could have increased due to a number of factors, but the most likely one is that usage in your area increased so to ensure everybody had a good browsing experience everyone's latency increased slightly to allow for the greater throughput needs without impacting service.

If internet traffic increases in your area further your latency is likely to increase along side that in order to ensure everyone has the best browsing experience. We cannot save particularly good latencies for individual customers as it would give all our other users a worse experience. If your latency regularly reaches 200-500Ms unloaded then there may be a loading issue on your line that could need investigation and addressing, but with it still being at above excellent rates we are unable to take further action.

50ms to the 1st hop is NOT satisfactory what about if your a gamer and have to connect to a server that is in Canada such as ubisoft , it's at the lowest 88ms add the 40ms or so extra it's over 100ms which isn't good by any means many ISPs don't see low latency as important and yeah if you are FULLY FIBRE then it should be a little lower as it's light not electrical current, so physical routing being longer should have zero impact the jump in latency maybe down to their backhaul supplier or how it gets from your CPE to Zen

Edited by tommy45 (Sat 25-Sep-21 19:00:55)

No, they never even bothered to reply to my email.