alter.net issues continue for months - verizon doesn't care

[nick_d]

It has gotten a miniscule bit better but that's being generous. I pay for 300 yet can barely watch an Amazon Prime or Netflix show without some buffering pauses during playback. All support is ever willing to do is send a new router -- as if that is even close to the issue.  If they want to just waste time and money with things they know aren't the problem I'd be happy to take a free month every time I called instead of a "new" router. At least then they can waste their money while I enjoy the benefit of not paying for sub-par service.  

[kwgiberson]

Been having issues since July, no resolution yet from Verizon. The below failure @ ALTER.NET is the same for most East Coast individuals after 8PM EST, anyone who plays FFXIV Online knows that with a VPN the game becomes unplayable. 

Tracing route to 199.91.189.36 over a maximum of 30 hops

5 * * * Request timed out.
6 12 ms 13 ms 10 ms 2.ae0.XT2.NYC4.ALTER.NET [140.222.227.27]
7 14 ms 22 ms 23 ms TenGigE0-7-0-9.GW8.NYC4.ALTER.NET [152.63.18.206]
8 29 ms 26 ms 26 ms tinet-gw.customer.alter.net [152.179.72.122]
9 33 ms * 38 ms xe-7-3-0.mtl10.ip4.gtt.net [141.136.106.106]

Any word from verizon would be nice, I don't want to switch ISPs over something as paultry as an online game but this is getting ridiculous.  

[uidzer0]

I'm experiencing the same issue as far as timeframe goes. I'm East Coast (VA) and have both fios residential (150/150) and fios business (75/75) here at the house. In the morning I get speeds that I would expect to see and have no problems at all. At nearly 7:30pm on the dot my speed and reliability drop to nearly nothing. Residential and business speeds both drop to less than 10M up and down. Sometimes all the way down to 2M. I'm on the third night in a row of dealing with this. Calls to verizon only results in them attempting to blame my equipment (even though it happens on both residential and business which have 2 separate routers and aren't connected to each other at all) and doesn't matter if a system is hard wired or wireless, the results are the same) and finally end up with either them wanting to send a tech out or they just tell me they'll fix it offline. Apparently my current ticket is due to be 'fixed' by tomorrow 01/30/2015. We'll see what happens. I've sent them outputs of mtr with over 7000 packets sent showing exactly where the congestion is. It's verizon. I get the feeling that they're playing chicken again with level3, netflix, etc, etc trying to get content providers to pay them for a fast lane. It's getting really irritating.

[biter1]

Did they ever fix this for you?  I'm dropping out between Verizon and Alter.net:

3  g0-14-4-4.tampfl-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (100.41.193.126)  7.758 ms  8.138 ms  7.446 ms

4  * * *

5  0.ae3.gw4.tpa2.alter.net (140.222.227.199)  7.003 ms  6.143 ms  6.642 ms

This is for any site and I can't even use a proxy to bypass the hop.

Traceroute has started…

traceroute: Warning: google.com has multiple addresses; using 65.196.188.59

traceroute to google.com (65.196.188.59), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  0.629 ms  0.373 ms  0.373 ms

2  l100.tampfl-vfttp-39.verizon-gni.net (72.64.153.1)  2.708 ms  1.269 ms  7.494 ms

3  g0-14-4-4.tampfl-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (100.41.193.126)  7.758 ms  8.138 ms  7.446 ms

4  * * *

5  0.ae3.gw4.tpa2.alter.net (140.222.227.199)  7.003 ms  6.143 ms  6.642 ms

6  google-gw.customer.alter.net (152.179.251.98)  6.804 ms  6.313 ms  6.461 ms

7  59.188.196.65.tampa.google-ggc.verizon.com (65.196.188.59)  6.567 ms  6.619 ms  6.513 ms

[bobnkneel]

I too am being bottlenecked at Verizon's beautiful 0.ae2.XT3.DFW9.ALTER.NET server. I mean, who wouldn't I want my packets pinged around a bunch to have my favorite internet game be unplayable. Yay net neutrality....

[Ordellus]

They know about it.

Verizon actually owns the alter.net domain

http://ip-lookup.net/index.php

Just search any alter.net IP and look at the domain owner info.  -> Verizon business LLC.

Verizon is simply using a different face of it's company to intentionally route traffic through congested crappy servers / routers / whatever..... then they claim it's "not verizons network" and charge you more money.

I don't know about you but I'm currently shopping with comcast. since verizon would rather lie to it's customters than deliver what it's paid to deliver.

[tns2]

---

@biter wrote:

Did they ever fix this for you?  I'm dropping out between Verizon and Alter.net:

3  g0-14-4-4.tampfl-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (100.41.193.126)  7.758 ms  8.138 ms  7.446 ms

4  * * *

5  0.ae3.gw4.tpa2.alter.net (140.222.227.199)  7.003 ms  6.143 ms  6.642 ms

This is for any site and I can't even use a proxy to bypass the hop.

Traceroute has started…

traceroute: Warning: google.com has multiple addresses; using 65.196.188.59

traceroute to google.com (65.196.188.59), 64 hops max, 72 byte packets

1  wireless_broadband_router (192.168.1.1)  0.629 ms  0.373 ms  0.373 ms

2  l100.tampfl-vfttp-39.verizon-gni.net (72.64.153.1)  2.708 ms  1.269 ms  7.494 ms

3  g0-14-4-4.tampfl-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (100.41.193.126)  7.758 ms  8.138 ms  7.446 ms

4  * * *

5  0.ae3.gw4.tpa2.alter.net (140.222.227.199)  7.003 ms  6.143 ms  6.642 ms

6  google-gw.customer.alter.net (152.179.251.98)  6.804 ms  6.313 ms  6.461 ms

7  59.188.196.65.tampa.google-ggc.verizon.com (65.196.188.59)  6.567 ms  6.619 ms  6.513 ms

---

What you are pointing to is NOT a problem.  Many of these servers are set to not to respond.  Others are set to respond at a lower speed.  If it was a problem later servers would also not respond or go up drasticly in response time.

As said Alter.net belongs to Verizon and represents most of its backbone.  Verizon will not claim any real problems in it aren't their problems.  The points where they do so (correctly or incorrectly) are where they pass off to some other company.

[cjvnyc]

I'm glad I found this thread.

It's criminal fraud for Verizon to sell these higher-speed plans knowing they will use a throttled routing system. I was sold on Verizon as the opposite, but find the Timie of Day slowing to be counter the sales pitch I was given.

My tracert:

Tracing route to gw1.ibllc.com [208.245.107.3]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 5 ms 4 ms 3 ms lo0-100.NWRKNJ-VFTTP-333.verizon-gni.net [*]
3 7 ms 6 ms 7 ms T1-12-0-1.NWRKNJ-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [100.41.130.206]
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 8 ms 6 ms 6 ms 0.ae13.GW13.NYC1.ALTER.NET [140.222.234.193]
6 6 ms 6 ms 6 ms interactivebrokers-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.249.134]
7 7 ms 6 ms 6 ms gw1.ibllc.com [208.245.107.3]

Trace complete.

[CRobGauth]

Verizon (as well as most other ISPs) only guarantees service to connect to their network.

That's why you always hear and see ads that say up to X.

And I don't see where you issue is.

Looks like good ping times to me.

[cartographer1]

Same problem here out of Lakeville Massachusetts.  

25/25 Mbps connection, and the speed test says 29/27!

 3  g0-15-2-5.bstnma-lcr-21.verizon-gni.net (100.41.195.224)  12.596 ms  12.389 ms  12.775 ms

 4  * * *

 5  * * *

 6  0.ae3.gw9.ewr6.alter.net (140.222.231.237)  18.603 ms  17.620 ms  17.240 ms

Packet loss in the same location here.    

Trying to download a 6.21 GB file from Apple which should take 31 minutes is taking nearly 2 days!

Direct ethernet connection to the Actiontek modem makes no difference.