RE: [Nolug] Cox Problem

Hi Charles.

Thanks for taking this seriously.

Ping is just a tool. Yes it has its limits. I believe that I understand
those limits well enough to be able to interpret the results correctly.
PingPlotter is also a traceroute tool and it graphs everything. When it shows
a "vertical line" (occurring at the same time) of packet loss from a given
point outward it is VERY damming evidence.

Indeed, it was PingPlotter that I used to isolate a similar problem back in
Sept 2003. It was a Cox router in New Orleans, but higher up the chain. It
caused packet loss about every 62 seconds or so. CommTech reported the
problem to Cox on 9/15/03, if you care to research it.

To make a long story short.... It was finally fixed on 10/3 when Cisco found
out that a default buffer setting on some interface was 10 times too small,
hence causing packet loss when the router got busy every minute doing the
routing calculations.

I faced the same problem then convincing CommTech of the problem. They
wouldn't accept "that unreliable ping data". Finally a FTP while watching
PerfMon convinced them. It painted a steady line which dropped to 0 for a
second every 62 seconds.

But I digress... :-)

The bottom line is that the problem causes customers using your connection to
suffer when connecting to my mail and web servers. I imagine that it causes
problems for them at other sites too, but I can't say.

As for your ping flood filters: Where are they set? OK, security dictates
that you shouldn't say. Consider this: I ran PingPlotter at 5 times the
normal speed and saw the identical results. Now, if I was going to trip your
flood filters I would have seen more loss at the faster ping rate, right?

But feel free to check your security logs. I was testing from 209.205.179.3.

You are right about 10 complaints not being much out of 90K. But how do you
know there are only 10? I only knew about 5 when I asked here. What I find
VERY significant is that 100% of those asked have the problem. Now what are
the odds of that unless it is a widespread problem.

Hey, nobody saw the 9/15/03 problem till I reported it too, right? It
affected EVERYONE that Cox feeds in New Orleans. EVERYONE.

That's why I called you, Charles. I didn't want to waste another week
convincing CommTech then your people. Oh well....

Regards,

John

    John Souvestre - Southern Star - (504) 888-3348 - www.sstar.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nolug@nolug.org [mailto:owner-nolug@nolug.org] On Behalf Of
Charles Jouglard
Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 10:19 AM
To: John Souvestre
Subject: [Nolug] Cox Problem

John,
Thank you again for the information and your concerns. I will not go into
specifics here as I cannot comment on specific customer issues or related
details. I can tell you that the information your referenced on DSLReports is

being worked. I have one of our engineers working directly with the customer
involved.

And again while not going into specifics, if you are relying on "pings" to
tell
you a true picture, that will not work 100% of the time within or into the Cox

network. All routers on our network (and especially in New Orleans) respond
to
ICMP traffic as the "last" priority type of protocol and or traffic.

Also, if you are doing a continuous pings into our network our security
devices
have caught the activity and.... (well, I won't say what they are programmed
to
do when possible perceived ping floods are detected). I'll have to check the
logs for your IPs.

John, I really do appreciate your concerns and attempts to help all involved.

And yes our entire team in New Orleans is dedicated to resolving real customer

issues. While the number of complaints you reference may seem like a small
number compared to 90K + customers in New Orleans they are still important.

If the management team in New Orleans wasn't concerned with customer service
we
would not have moved our Tier I and Tier II troubleshooting teams in house
into
the New Orleans Offices. We no longer rely on our call center in CA for
primary
troubleshooting.

 
Thank you,
Charles Jouglard
504-417-3627
 

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Received on 03/14/05