Digital BW, The Print

Peter Marquis-Kyle writes:
 > George Hartzell wrote:
 > > Here are some diagnostic things that might be worth trying.
 > 
 > Thanks, George. I have tried your tests -- my results are interspersed:
 > [...]
 >
 > Here is a trace, which seems to show the packets taking a wrong turn (step 18):
 > 
 > 
 > 07/29/04 07:50:48 Fast traceroute 206.46.189.90
 > Trace 206.46.189.90 ...
 >  1 10.50.64.1       10ms   10ms   10ms  TTL:  0  (No rDNS)
 >  2 211.28.132.1     10ms   10ms   10ms  TTL:  0  (rdl4-ge7.gw.optusnet.com.au
 > ok)
 >  3 211.29.129.141   20ms   20ms   20ms  TTL:  0  (mas1-pos4-7.gw.optusnet.com.au
 > ok)
 >  4 211.29.129.17    20ms   20ms   20ms  TTL:  0  (mas4-ge4-2.gw.optusnet.com.au
 > ok)
 >  5 211.29.129.2     40ms   30ms   40ms  TTL:  0  (meb1-pos9.gw.optusnet.com.au
 > ok)
 >  6 198.142.0.2      40ms   40ms   40ms  TTL:  0  (meb2-ge4-1.gw.optusnet.com.au
 > ok)
 >  7 61.88.143.37     30ms   40ms   40ms  TTL:  0  (No rDNS)
 >  8 202.139.190.33   40ms   40ms   40ms  TTL:  0  (Gi3-0.ig5.optus.net.au ok)
 >  9 203.208.148.57  200ms  191ms  190ms  TTL:  0  (No rDNS)
 > 10 203.208.168.133 190ms  190ms  190ms  TTL:  0  (No rDNS)
 > 11 203.208.168.114 190ms  200ms  190ms  TTL:  0  (No rDNS)
 > 12 65.57.244.1     200ms  190ms  190ms  TTL:  0
 > (ge-2-1.hsa3.SanJose1.Level3.net ok)
 > 13 4.68.114.153    191ms  190ms  200ms  TTL:  0
 > (so-2-1-0.bbr1.SanJose1.Level3.net ok)
 > 14 64.159.1.109    220ms  230ms  221ms  TTL:  0
 > (ge-0-1-0.bbr1.Dallas1.Level3.net ok)
 > 15 4.68.112.166    220ms  221ms  221ms  TTL:  0
 > (so-8-0.core1.Dallas1.Level3.net ok)
 > 16 4.24.242.94     230ms  221ms  230ms  TTL:  0  (p1-0.verizonol4.bbnplanet.net
 > ok)
 > 17 206.46.128.78   231ms  220ms  220ms  TTL:  0
 > (gigchannel9-0--12-0.core1.dfw-tx.vzlink.com ok)
 > 18   No Response      *      *      *
 > 19   No Response      *      *      *
 > 20   No Response      *      *      *
 > [...]

I spoke to some of my Internet/ISP management friends about this, and
the most likely explanation seems to be that the Australian ISPs (or
someone between here and there) are dropping traffic from the
Verizon/GTE network where Paul has his website.

The traceroute packet above is probably making it to Paul's server,
but the return packet is being dropped so you never learn that you
actually got there.

Apparently many, many, many verizon's home-based users end up with
viruses, etc... on their machines and end up wreaking havoc on the
rest of the net.  This leads to networks black-holing the entire
address space in self defense....   

If this is indeed the case, there's not much that Paul can do except
move the server (or the site) to another network.

g.