Tot And Internet Traffic Routing

[Bardeh]

I live in Phuket and use TOT as my ISP currently. I have no issues with the bandwidth or the speed of my connection - downloads are always fast, and pages load very quickly. However, latency to many servers outside of Thailand is just awful. As far as I can tell, it's because the way the traffic is routed just makes no sense. I can ping Paris and London based servers for around 250-300ms, but Singapore based servers are very often 350-400ms. I'm not quite sure where the information is being routed before it finally ends up in Singapore, but it seems like it's often going all the way to the US and back.

This is very frustrating for me, because I like to play online games from time to time, where having a low latency is often important.

Is there anything I can do about this? Are there any VPN services that will help with the latency between Thailand and Singapore that anybody knows about? I don't have much faith in actually calling TOT and asking them to do anything about it, but does anybody think it's worth a shot?

[DonaldBattles]

Try streaming live video and then check your speeds on TOT. In Chiang Rai at my place the range from around 150 kbps on a 10 mb line and cut off frequently. I have 2 ADSL lines and new TP Link modems. The problem is the allocated international bandwidth. I am not able to get a Fiber Optic line as they say they do not have a card to connect me. AMAZING for 4 years.

[vel_tins]

but it seems like it's often going all the way to the US and back.

Do a "traceroute"

In Windows, open a cmd shell and type:

tracert ip.of.singapore.server

replace "ip.of.singapore.server" with the real IP or hostname.

[muratremix]

Try streaming live video and then check your speeds on TOT. In Chiang Rai at my place the range from around 150 kbps on a 10 mb line and cut off frequently. I have 2 ADSL lines and new TP Link modems. The problem is the allocated international bandwidth. I am not able to get a Fiber Optic line as they say they do not have a card to connect me. AMAZING for 4 years.

Sorry but problem is not in international connections. It is a domestic connection issue. There is just too many farangs living in north of thailand and they are consuming domestic connection to Bangkok internet gateway by watching online TV (sarcasm).

Think it like you have access to 100 Gigabit international connection via 2-5 Gbit domestic line, which causes the bottleneck.

I don't think anytime in near future they will deploy new fiber links from Chiang Mai to Bangkok which is over 700 km in distance!

[DonaldBattles]

I agree there is nothing wrong with the international side of the link. From Chiang Rai the data all has to go through Chiang Mai. I don't see TOT doing anything about this problem in the future. The free Wi-Fi spots in the city provided by TOT does not help the problem.

I am aware of a service in town that has a fiber link and they offer boxes with the ability to link to many worldly TV channels through the internet. If this broadcast is done through the local domestic ISP it may be a partial solution.

[Gregory Morozov]

Are you downloading something while measuring your ping?

We are in Phuket on TOT, ping to a Singaporean hosting provider is 60-80 ms pretty much all the time.

You might want to invest in a router with a proper QoS.

Traceroute (first 2 nodes omitted)

3 172.17.53.1 (172.17.53.1) 34.362 ms 34.395 ms 37.092 ms

4 ten-0-15-1-0.cwt-core-03.totisp.net (203.114.118.173) 52.736 ms 55.530 ms 55.415 ms

5 ten-3-2.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net (203.114.118.134) 58.139 ms bun-eth-100.kkm-core-03.totisp.net (203.114.118.5) 60.894 ms ten-3-4.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net (203.114.118.142) 63.574 ms

6 61.19.10.13 (61.19.10.13) 94.581 ms 95.165 ms 97.633 ms

7 61.19.9.158 (61.19.9.158) 98.424 ms 71.934 ms 69.979 ms

8 36351.sgw.equinix.com (202.79.197.69) 72.542 ms 72.435 ms 75.053 ms

9 ae5.dar02.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.199) 79.389 ms ae5.dar01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.197) 79.459 ms 79.510 ms

10 po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.133) 84.001 ms po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131) 84.463 ms po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.133) 88.994 ms

11 singaporehost.sg (216.185.109.92) 89.071 ms 67.956 ms 69.912 ms

Edited December 14, 2012 by Gregory Morozov

[roban]

But there is definetely something wrong with the ToT routing to SG

tracert singaporehost.sg

Routenverfolgung zu singaporehost.sg [216.185.109.92] über maximal 30 Abschnitte:
1	 1 ms	 1 ms	 1 ms fritz.box [192.168.1.3]
2 30 ms 30 ms 31 ms node-6bl.pool-125-27.dynamic.totbb.net [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
3 30 ms 30 ms 30 ms 172.17.52.1
4 34 ms 33 ms 33 ms node-1h.203-114-118.static.totisp.net [203.114.118.53]
5 38 ms 36 ms 39 ms pos-0-2-0-0.cwt-core-03.totisp.net [203.114.118.2]
6 37 ms 38 ms 36 ms ten-3-4.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net [203.114.118.142]
7 166 ms 169 ms 166 ms 61.19.10.13
8 168 ms 169 ms	 *	 61.19.9.158
9 205 ms 182 ms	 *	 36351.sgw.equinix.com [202.79.197.69]
10	 *	 167 ms 165 ms ae5.dar02.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com [50.97.18.199]
11 168 ms 167 ms 174 ms po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com [174.133.118.133]
12 168 ms 169 ms 169 ms singaporehost.sg [216.185.109.92]

tracert thaivisa.com (Thaivisa.com is hosted in Singapore)

Routenverfolgung zu thaivisa.com [175.41.131.133] über maximal 30 Abschnitte:
1 <1 ms	 1 ms <1 ms fritz.box [192.168.1.3]
2 32 ms 31 ms 30 ms node-6bl.pool-125-27.dynamic.totbb.net [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
3 30 ms 31 ms 30 ms 172.17.52.1
4 33 ms 32 ms 33 ms node-1p.203-114-118.static.totisp.net [203.114.118.61]
5 32 ms 33 ms 33 ms node-u.203-114-118.static.totisp.net [203.114.118.30]
6 33 ms 33 ms 34 ms bun-eth4-kkm-core.totiig.net [203.190.251.77]
7 173 ms 171 ms 171 ms po0-2-0-0.sg.totiig.net [180.180.248.246]
8 171 ms 171 ms 172 ms p38895.sgw.equinix.com [202.79.197.87]
9 174 ms 174 ms 173 ms 203.83.223.4
10 171 ms 171 ms 172 ms 203.83.223.23
11 177 ms	 *	 170 ms ec2-175-41-128-232.ap-southeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com [175.41.128.
232]
12	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
13	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
14	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
15	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
16	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
17	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
18	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
19	 *	 *	 *	 Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
..............

Edited December 14, 2012 by roban

[Gregory Morozov]

For Thaivisa - it's hosted in the Amazon cloud, their border router is not allowing ICMP...

[Gregory Morozov]

Just for comparison -

from CAT FTTH (Phuket)

1  110.77.231.1 (110.77.231.1)  14.162 ms  14.087 ms  14.055 ms
2  110.77.254.133 (110.77.254.133)  28.236 ms  28.265 ms  28.240 ms
3  110.77.255.37 (110.77.255.37)  31.489 ms  31.466 ms  31.443 ms
4  61.19.15.125 (61.19.15.125)  31.418 ms  31.396 ms 61.19.15.185 (61.19.15.185)  31.352 ms
5  61.19.9.141 (61.19.9.141)  53.860 ms  53.799 ms  53.716 ms
6  61.19.9.18 (61.19.9.18)  53.812 ms  54.606 ms  54.386 ms
7  61.19.9.158 (61.19.9.158)  64.297 ms  64.583 ms  64.560 ms
8  36351.sgw.equinix.com (202.79.197.69)  60.928 ms  60.807 ms  60.847 ms
9  ae5.dar02.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.199)  60.121 ms  60.105 ms  60.076 ms
10  po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131)  52.805 ms po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.133)  55.382 ms po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131)  52.650 ms
11  singaporehost.sg (216.185.109.92)  53.366 ms  53.401 ms  54.471 ms

3BB ADSL (Phuket):

2  10.121.83.49 (10.121.83.49)  30.809 ms 10.121.83.29 (10.121.83.29)  30.849 ms 10.121.83.53 (10.121.83.53)  31.129 ms
3  10.121.83.14 (10.121.83.14)  34.187 ms  35.792 ms  37.475 ms
4  mx-ll-110.164.0-156.static.3bb.co.th (110.164.0.156)  37.109 ms  38.782 ms  40.252 ms
5  mx-ll-110.164.1-65.static.3bb.co.th (110.164.1.65)  42.026 ms mx-ll-110.164.1-5.static.3bb.co.th (110.164.1.5)  41.976 ms mx (110.164.1.65)  42.686 ms
6  mx-ll-110.164.1-11.static.3bb.co.th (110.164.1.11)  46.106 ms  45.517 ms  47.207 ms
7  253.84.50.182.crs-bb-ix-jastel.co.th (182.50.84.253)  52.418 ms  35.215 ms  31.959 ms
8  xe-0-0-0-0-bkk.crs.bb1-ix-jastel.co.th (182.50.84.17)  62.555 ms  64.246 ms  65.086 ms
9  pos-0-1-1-0-sg.crs.bb1-ix-jastel.co.th (182.50.84.250)  66.726 ms pos-0-1-1-2-sg.crs.bb1-ix-jastel.co.th (182.50.84.242)  70.030 ms pos-0-1-1-4-sg.crs.bb1-ix-jastel.co.th (182.50.84.190)  74.822 ms
10  36351.sgw.equinix.com (202.79.197.69)  67.420 ms  68.177 ms  72.992 ms
11  ae5.dar01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.197)  72.065 ms  72.062 ms  74.676 ms
12  po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131)  82.226 ms po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.133)  75.430 ms po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131)  82.036 ms
13  singaporehost.sg (216.185.109.92)  61.302 ms  61.799 ms  65.657 ms

[muratremix]

Roban,

Your weak link is

6 37 ms 38 ms 36 ms ten-3-4.cwt-gw-01.totisp.net [203.114.118.142]

7 166 ms 169 ms 166 ms 61.19.10.13

Tot to Cat TH IX (on 7) looks like oversaturated. After that step, nothing will reduce your pingtime.

[muratremix]

Here is my output on True Ultra 20/2 Docsis 3.0 Cable Internet

admin@RT-N66U:/tmp/home/root# traceroute singaporehost.sg

traceroute to singaporehost.sg (216.185.109.92), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets

1 10.22.96.1 (10.22.96.1) 5.481 ms 5.750 ms 9.624 ms

2 10.92.225.1 (10.92.225.1) 7.106 ms 5.675 ms 6.253 ms

3 203-144-128-18.static.asianet.co.th (203.144.128.18) 9.547 ms 203-144-128-22.static.asianet.co.th (203.144.128.22) 8.246 ms 119-46-185-214.static.asianet.co.th (119.46.185.214) 9.541 ms

4 119-46-185-217.static.asianet.co.th (119.46.185.217) 6.356 ms 6.988 ms 6.357 ms

5 61-91-210-225.static.asianet.co.th (61.91.210.225) 7.245 ms 9.362 ms 7.584 ms

6 61-91-213-36.static.asianet.co.th (61.91.213.36) 8.211 ms 10.814 ms 12.133 ms

7 61-91-210-5.static.asianet.co.th (61.91.210.5) 10.833 ms 8.307 ms 7.578 ms

8 TIG-Net242-41.trueintergateway.com (113.21.242.41) 8.929 ms 9.822 ms TIG-Net242-53.trueintergateway.com (113.21.242.53) 14.022 ms

9 SG-ICR-GS2-26-214.trueintergateway.com (122.144.26.214) 45.621 ms 41.477 ms 43.984 ms

10 TIG-Net242-33.trueintergateway.com (113.21.242.33) 43.310 ms 46.310 ms 43.858 ms

11 TIG-Net241-190.trueintergateway.com (113.21.241.190) 43.372 ms 40.709 ms 43.930 ms

12 36351.sgw.equinix.com (202.79.197.69) 41.337 ms 41.903 ms 45.585 ms

13 ae5.dar01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.197) 43.173 ms ae5.dar02.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (50.97.18.199) 41.759 ms 43.869 ms

14 po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.131) 41.191 ms po2.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com (174.133.118.133) 40.093 ms 43.197 ms

15 singaporehost.sg (216.185.109.92) 46.089 ms 42.575 ms 46.102 ms

[RandomSand]

Sophon Internet (CAT Telecom reseller) Pattaya

Tracing route to singaporehost.sg [216.185.109.92]

over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms my-router [192.168.1.1]

2 3 ms 19 ms 16 ms 119.42.65.1

3 8 ms 14 ms 17 ms 110.77.253.17

4 16 ms 16 ms 15 ms 110.77.255.37

5 19 ms 16 ms 36 ms 61.19.15.185

6 38 ms 33 ms 38 ms 61.19.9.141

7 42 ms 34 ms 35 ms 61.19.9.30

8 52 ms 53 ms 54 ms 61.19.9.150

9 42 ms 45 ms 53 ms 36351.sgw.equinix.com [202.79.197.69]

10 65 ms 69 ms 53 ms ae5.dar01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com [50.97.18.197]

11 51 ms 36 ms 45 ms po1.fcr01.sr03.sng01.networklayer.com [174.133.118.131]

12 36 ms 46 ms 43 ms singaporehost.sg [216.185.109.92]

Trace complete.

edit: Same route as CAT FTTH posted by Gregory. I note many times in the past that CAT & 3BB have the best routing overall.

Edited December 14, 2012 by RandomSand