Inefficeint Routing

[JJDinsay]

Hey:

I performed a tracert on my company's mail server in the US just out of curiosity and HOT ###### it takes about 18 hops to get to it:

1 48 ms 47 ms 47 ms 192.168.2.1

2 49 ms 49 ms 47 ms 10.20.12.9

3 51 ms 51 ms 51 ms ppp-203.144.161.5.revip.asianet.co.th [203.144.161.5]

4 49 ms 49 ms 49 ms ppp-203.144.144.157.revip.asianet.co.th [203.144.144.157]

5 49 ms 49 ms 49 ms ppp-203.144.144.2.revip.asianet.co.th [203.144.144.2]

6 128 ms 127 ms 129 ms 211.180.13.225

7 255 ms 255 ms 255 ms 210.120.192.136

8 254 ms 255 ms 255 ms 203.255.234.166

9 254 ms 266 ms 255 ms 203.255.234.36

10 266 ms 261 ms 263 ms GigabitEthernet2-0.IG2.PAO1.ALTER.NET [157.130.214.5]

11 262 ms 264 ms 263 ms 536.ATM3-0.XR2.PAO1.ALTER.NET [152.63.51.42]

12 263 ms 262 ms 261 ms 0.so-0-0-0.XL2.PAO1.ALTER.NET [152.63.54.77]

13 262 ms 267 ms 393 ms 0.so-3-0-0.TL2.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.54.10]

14 340 ms 338 ms 341 ms 0.so-1-0-0.TL2.DCA8.ALTER.NET [152.63.10.61]

15 419 ms 345 ms 340 ms 0.so-4-2-0.CL2.PHL1.ALTER.NET [152.63.37.93]

16 344 ms 343 ms 339 ms POS7-0.GW6.PHL1.ALTER.NET [152.63.38.201]

17 342 ms 365 ms 345 ms 63.119.97.1

18 344 ms 349 ms 343 ms 63.119.97.62

Is this simply inefficient routing?

[JJDinsay]

Oh forget it - 21 hops tracing my BKK server from a Philly PC. Although I get different numbers of hops from every trace it's pretty consistent in the number of hops. My bad.

[grayhat]

Looks like you have an internet account with asianet going through their switch and router and over to Korea. Then over to MAE WEST in California, jumping onto UUNET/Worldcom's network. Some hops in Palo Alto, Sacramento, then across the country to Washington DC and on to Philadelphia.

The bottle neck is leaving Thailand as your milliseconds more than double on the way to Korea, not from Korea to the US.

Different providers route differently coming out of Thailand, some use teleglobe in the sky and some use underwater fiber to go to the west.

Is this simply inefficient routing?

It's normal to see that many hops within the backbone providers' switches/routers