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Ok, so my Internet at home has been behaving rather weirdly. At night, usually after 9pm, connecting to certain overseas websites will get really slow, and frequently time out (so I only get partially loaded pages or blank pages). So, for example, connecting to Halforums or Reddit will often run into problems. Connecting to all of the Taiwanese websites I've tested so far will work fine. Connecting to Facebook and Google also work fine, generally speaking. The Steam client will sometimes run into problems connecting when I first start it.

I've run traceroutes to Reddit and Halforums, and I find little asterixes appear when it gets to a certain Taiwan-based ISP. That's as far as my knowledge regarding traceroutes goes, though. I don't know for sure what the little asterixes mean, or whether they indicate the cause of the issue.

So, I guess what I'm asking is:

1. Is this something I can solve myself? Or do I need to whine to my ISP?
2. If I do whine to my ISP, is there something in particular I should tell them?
3. Will upgrading my Internet speed alleviate the problem? I've noticed that my ISP has a package deal that will give me faster U/DL speeds at an even cheaper price. But if this is indicative of a crappy ISP, then I'd rather look into dumping them entirely.

The asterisks merely signify a "hop" that does not respond to ping requests.
It is possible they could be a reason your service is slow, but unless you can actually see that round trip time, the fact that they aren't responding means nothing, latency-wise.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

The asterisks merely signify a "hop" that does not respond to ping requests.
It is possible they could be a reason your service is slow, but unless you can actually see that round trip time, the fact that they aren't responding means nothing, latency-wise.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Is there a way for me to see the round trip time?

bhamv3 said:

Is there a way for me to see the round trip time?

Click to expand...

Not if you're just getting the stars, because those stars are where the RTT would be.
There are tools which will let you see the response time of things other than ping requests, but they are usually not very intuitive.

--Patrick

So... should I call my ISP and whine at them?

bhamv3 said:

So... should I call my ISP and whine at them?

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No reason not to. They may have an answer. Or they may tell you it's not their problem. Either way they won't try to kill your family.

Shakey said:

No reason not to. They may have an answer. Or they may tell you it's not their problem. Either way they won't try to kill your family.

Click to expand...

Well, first check the small letters in the contracts. And be sure not to talk about Blueberry Waffles. Then you should be fine, probably. But check the fine print if this might be a concern.

Kept forgetting to mention:
See if you can't bring another computer/phone/whatever onto the same network as the misbehaving computer while it is misbehaving. If the phone/computer#2/whatever is fast while your problem computer is slow, then it is not a network issue. Any network issue would have them both performing the same and at the same time.

--Patrick

I whined at the ISP and they fixed it. They didn't say what the issue was though.

bhamv3 said:

I whined at the ISP and they fixed it. They didn't say what the issue was though.

Click to expand...

Rattata's snacking on the cables.

bhamv3 said:

I whined at the ISP and they fixed it. They didn't say what the issue was though.

Click to expand...

"Can you give me any idea what to do if this happens again?"
"No."
"Oh, all right then."

--Patrick