[clue-tech] a network mystery - traceroute

[Collins Richey]

I'm trying to gather data to post of the Comcast forum site to work
out a solution to my intermittent connection problems. I've now
squirreled away a few ip addresses to try when I encounter delays to
see if this is a dns problem or another wype of problem.

One of the bits of data they like to see posted is a traceroute to the
comcast.net site. Here comes the mystery. I get different results on
window and Linux. Both computers re on a hub behind the cable modem,
so only the private ip address of each is different.

Windows uses the tracert program, and I get the following results, a
quite normal display.

tracert
Tracing route to www.comcast.net [204.127.205.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3    11 ms     9 ms     *
ge-2-4-ur01.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net [68.86.129.41]
  4     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms
te-8-3-ar01.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net [68.86.103.37]
  5    11 ms    11 ms     9 ms
GE-1-47-ur02.arvada.co.denver.comcast.net [68.86.104.46]
  6    11 ms    11 ms    12 ms  12.116.47.209
  7    50 ms    50 ms    52 ms  tbr2013801.dvmco.ip.att.net [12.123.207.142]
  8    49 ms    50 ms    50 ms  tbr1-cl32.cgcil.ip.att.net [12.122.10.117]
  9    56 ms    55 ms    54 ms  tbr2-p012701.wswdc.ip.att.net [12.122.11.237]
 10    58 ms    54 ms    57 ms  cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.122.1.189]
 11    50 ms    53 ms    52 ms  br2-a3120s4.n54ny.ip.att.net [12.127.0.66]
 12    50 ms    50 ms    50 ms  12.122.81.245
 13    49 ms    50 ms    49 ms  mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.nyc3.attens.net
[12.122.255.162]
 14    51 ms    52 ms    58 ms  63.240.64.102
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17    51 ms    50 ms    50 ms  www.comcast.net [204.127.205.8]

On Linux, the great gurus at ubuntu/debian have decided to drop the
traceroute program, offering instead something called tracepath. I get
no success from this program trying to reach comcast.net  (or any
other external site).  Here's the results.
tracepath www.comcast.net
 1:  cerpc3.local (192.168.0.4)                             0.192ms pmtu 1500
 1:  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)                            asymm  2   1.759ms
 2:  no reply
 3:  no reply
 4:  no reply
 5:  GE-1-47-ur02.arvada.co.denver.comcast.net (68.86.104.46)  16.645ms
 6:  12.116.47.209 (12.116.47.209)                        asymm  9  20.672ms
 7:  tbr2013801.dvmco.ip.att.net (12.123.207.142)         asymm 17  57.548ms
 8:  tbr1-cl32.cgcil.ip.att.net (12.122.10.117)           asymm 16  54.419ms
 9:  tbr2-p012701.wswdc.ip.att.net (12.122.11.237)        asymm 15  59.045ms
10:  cr1.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.122.1.189)                  asymm 14  59.220ms
11:  br2-a3120s4.n54ny.ip.att.net (12.127.0.66)           asymm 13  56.481ms
12:  12.122.81.245 (12.122.81.245)                        asymm 11  53.639ms
13:  mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.nyc3.attens.net (12.122.255.162) asymm 12  55.931ms
 14:  no reply
... (all the same)
31:  no reply

No response to the max of 30 hops after reaching the attns.net site.
Similar results for www.google.com or www.ubuntu.com or www.kde.org or
???. All of these sites are pingable at the time of issuing the
traceroute request.

Does anyone have a clue what is going on here?

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.