Yannblog

The personal website of Ian Littman

Posts Tagged internet

Verizon WIreless – A Quick Test

Jan 11

Posted by Ian Littman in General

So up until now I’ve tested three of the four providers who have 3G service in Fredericksburg, TX: AT&T, Sprint and CricKet, listed in order of connection speed, descending. I was able to borrow a Verizon aircard from work (Novatel USB727) and check Verizon’s speed at my house. Here are the results:

Traceroute to Google:

traceroute to google.com (74.125.159.104), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1  64.sub-66-174-185.myvzw.com (66.174.185.64)  82.040 ms  71.681 ms  140.969 ms
2  127.sub-66-174-184.myvzw.com (66.174.184.127)  85.990 ms  88.710 ms  93.889 ms
3  146.sub-66-174-44.myvzw.com (66.174.44.146)  94.923 ms  99.735 ms  92.011 ms
4  235.sub-66-174-45.myvzw.com (66.174.45.235)  120.975 ms  88.777 ms  86.127 ms
5  194.sub-66-174-45.myvzw.com (66.174.45.194)  86.937 ms  99.731 ms  92.958 ms
6  98.sub-66-174-44.myvzw.com (66.174.44.98)  89.816 ms  92.702 ms  91.968 ms
7  6.sub-69-83-96.myvzw.com (69.83.96.6)  88.964 ms  90.749 ms  101.982 ms
8  3.sub-69-83-96.myvzw.com (69.83.96.3)  91.973 ms  89.745 ms  92.877 ms
9  253.sub-69-83-97.myvzw.com (69.83.97.253)  86.946 ms  87.701 ms  86.078 ms
10  gigabitethernet3-0-0.gw1.dfw7.alter.net (65.208.8.17)  93.040 ms  86.646 ms  86.916 ms
11  0.ge-2-1-0.xl3.dfw7.alter.net (152.63.103.6)  99.833 ms  102.809 ms  89.928 ms
12  0.ge-6-0-0.br2.dfw13.alter.net (152.63.96.181)  89.939 ms
0.ge-4-0-0.br2.dfw13.alter.net (152.63.96.45)  91.661 ms
0.ge-6-0-0.br2.dfw13.alter.net (152.63.96.181)  89.622 ms
13  te-5-1-0.edge2.dallas3.level3.net (4.68.111.121)  99.987 ms  116.649 ms
te-5-2-0.edge2.dallas3.level3.net (4.68.111.173)  90.885 ms
14  ae-83-80.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.145.180)  92.662 ms
ae-73-70.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.145.116)  92.622 ms
ae-63-60.ebr3.dallas1.level3.net (4.69.145.52)  97.740 ms
15  ae-7.ebr3.atlanta2.level3.net (4.69.134.22)  115.793 ms  137.608 ms  130.824 ms
16  ae-11-51.car1.atlanta1.level3.net (4.68.103.2)  120.070 ms  117.856 ms  116.900 ms
17  google-inc.car1.atlanta1.level3.net (4.78.209.194)  133.861 ms  118.900 ms  117.002 ms
18  209.85.254.241 (209.85.254.241)  122.982 ms  116.700 ms  119.880 ms
19  209.85.254.2 (209.85.254.2)  113.964 ms  120.700 ms
209.85.254.6 (209.85.254.6)  137.883 ms
20  yi-in-f104.1e100.net (74.125.159.104)  109.804 ms  129.913 ms  131.328 ms

Traceroute to SoftLayer (specifically, the server that hosts this website):

traceroute to echo.mddhosting.com (74.86.48.34), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1  64.sub-66-174-185.myvzw.com (66.174.185.64)  73.485 ms  72.917 ms  73.973 ms
2  127.sub-66-174-184.myvzw.com (66.174.184.127)  91.918 ms  94.745 ms  184.212 ms
3  146.sub-66-174-44.myvzw.com (66.174.44.146)  100.537 ms  99.876 ms  95.165 ms
4  235.sub-66-174-45.myvzw.com (66.174.45.235)  94.993 ms  100.098 ms  98.174 ms
5  194.sub-66-174-45.myvzw.com (66.174.45.194)  98.010 ms  99.438 ms  93.713 ms
6  98.sub-66-174-44.myvzw.com (66.174.44.98)  94.994 ms  89.077 ms  85.875 ms
7  6.sub-69-83-96.myvzw.com (69.83.96.6)  100.961 ms  105.189 ms  88.124 ms
8  3.sub-69-83-96.myvzw.com (69.83.96.3)  87.943 ms  96.379 ms  97.863 ms
9  253.sub-69-83-97.myvzw.com (69.83.97.253)  98.888 ms  68.155 ms  87.944 ms
10  gigabitethernet3-0-0.gw1.dfw7.alter.net (65.208.8.17)  86.948 ms  69.442 ms  96.147 ms
11  0.ge-2-1-0.xl3.dfw7.alter.net (152.63.103.6)  112.539 ms  89.027 ms  85.911 ms
12  0.so-6-0-0.gw3.dfw13.alter.net (152.63.100.73)  85.015 ms  91.726 ms  86.006 ms
13  internapgige1-gw.customer.alter.net (65.208.15.230)  113.416 ms  96.205 ms  98.848 ms
14  border3.tge3-1-bbnet1.ext1.dal.pnap.net (216.52.191.22)  125.890 ms  95.198 ms  74.901 ms
15  te2-1.cer03.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com (216.52.189.30)  93.058 ms  94.118 ms  95.968 ms
16  po3.dar02.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com (66.228.118.211)  99.913 ms  100.785 ms  107.881 ms
17  po2.fcr02.dal01.dallas-datacenter.com (66.228.118.182)  111.010 ms  92.603 ms  121.966 ms
18  echo.supportedns.com (74.86.48.34)  97.877 ms  96.688 ms  153.805 ms

So pings are a bit lower, on average, than either AT&T or Sprint. They’re also rather predictable, unlike those of CricKet. Then again, I have full EvDO signal sitting at the dining room table with the USB727’s antenna extended. For what it’s worth, this traceroute is pretty close, after the MyVZW hops, to what I see on the family’s brand-spanking-new DSL connection, though that can be expected since both services are from the same company.

Here’s a speedtest…

Well gosh, at least at my location Verizon is nearly as fast as AT&T on the downstream, respectable on the upstream and a good bit more enjoyable to use than AT&T. Heck, the EvDO connection soundly beats the new Verizon DSL, though the DSL connection doesn’t cost $60 per month, nor does it have a ridiculously low data transfer cap.

That said, I’m not the only one on the tower…

Still respectable, just not quite as nice.

Now for a ping test…

Right in line with what I’ve seen on Sprint EvDO, except with a little less latency.

The bottom line: Verizon knows how to run a solid mobile broadband network. So does Sprint. Whether one serves you better than the other depends on who has the big pipes to the towers in your area, and who has the towers in your area period.

Well, and there’s the question of whether you want a 10GB cap for $60 or unlimited service for $70, both via Millenicom of course…unless you really, really want to sign a contract in exchange for a free EvDO modem.

Which provider would I choose at this point, if I had to pick up mobile broadband again? Tough decision; I own an AT&T aircard and don’t want to sign a contract, so the other options have an added expensve for me. With that in mind, I might end up going with AT&T for a month or two, but Sprint if I needed a home replacement connection. If I didn’t need to use the connection as my only internet and didn’t have an AT&T card already, I’d likely choose Verizon, with Sprint as a very close second.

At this point though, for someone new to mobile broadband, there’s one company I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go with, at least for my area: AT&T.

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My experience with GVTC

Dec 22

Posted by Ian Littman in General

So I’m headed down to South Padre Island for some downtime with the family before Christmas. We made a pit stop at the Flagstop Café and my mom noticed that there was a big sign in the window advertising the availability of WiFi.

So naturally I pulled out my HTC Touch Pro, which has WiFi, to see what network they were running on. After registering for an account on the hotspot provider (Less Networks, never heard of them) I checked whatismyip.com to see who I was on. Sure enough, the connection there was GVTC, registered as “Guadalupe Valley Telephone”. Right before we pulled out of the place I opened up my laptop, logged into the WiFi network that way and did some tests. Read the rest of this entry »

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State Of The Internet, Fredericksburg, TX

Aug 21

Posted by Ian Littman in Tech

Interesting stuff happening lately about internet service in this area:

  1. My mom saw a Verizon truck in the county fair parade today (I didn’t go; saw no need and was tired). The truck has “High Speed Internet coming soon!” or similar painted on te side. This is DSL, not FiOS (Verizon always refers to their fiber offering by its trademarked name). However from what I hear Verizon’s DSL release is just a ploy to drive up the sale cost of their system here; Fredericksburg isn’t a large metropolitan area, and there are too mayn bridged taps and other phone system anomaies here for DSL to reach beyond a small part of town. At least that’s what the scuttlebutt says. My prediction: Verizon offers some flavor of DSL to folks who can currently get Windstream DSL, then sells the system to whoever will take it, using the “we have DSL in our central office” argument to jack the price up slightly above what the system is worth.
  2. Bee Creek Communications, the local our-hands-are-tied-and-if-anyone-competes-with-us-we-lose wireless ISP, was in the parade today as well. They also have a third-of-a-page ad in the paper advertising free installation to new customers until September 15th. A few years ago an installation with similar equipment would have run you around $220. The problem here is that their network is already over capacity in some areas, they’re spread too thinly in terms of manpower and their speeds are the stuff of yesteryear, barely competitive with satellite internet (though their monthly transfer caps are higher). The service also requires a two-year contract with a $125 early termination fee. If you want a one-year agreement service will run you another $10 per month. In short, don’t buy. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Perfect Set Top Box

Aug 18

Posted by Ian Littman in Tech

So I’ve got some crazy ideas about launching a fiber-optic triple play operator somewhere. Or maybe someone else has those ideas and I’m just throwing in my own ideas. Now the hardest “play” would be TV, once you’ve got all your infrastructure in place. Internet is pretty much a given, as is VoIP; just white-label a solution from someone who already does it well (VOIPo for example, or so I hear). But with TV you have to not only make deals with all your content providers, but also figure out how you’re going to get video from point A (the content providers) to point B (subscribers’ TVs). Cable providers have fallen down on this a bit with utterly crappy set top boxes. Sat providers are a good bit better, as are TelcoTV providers (like U-Verse and FiOS) though, except in the case of FiOS, a better set top box goes hand in hand with lower picture quality. Which is unfortunate.

So the big question in my mind is, how would I design the perfect set top box, from both a consumer and a provider point of view? Here are some specs I came up with: Read the rest of this entry »

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As It Turns Out, HughesNet Is Horrible, Rest Stop Edition

Jul 22

Posted by Ian Littman in Tech

I pity him, to think how, with no man to care for him, and seeing no companion’s face, suffering, lonely evermore, he is vexed by fierce disease satellite internet service, and bewildered by each want his ire as it arises. – Chorus, Philoctetes The Man With HughesNet, a Greek tragedy

Okay, so maybe not everyone using HughesNet is suffering, always lonely, is stuck on a deserted island and has a bunch of people in the background chanting about his doom. Still, the plight of someone on HughesNet these days can’t be overstated by much. Hence the excerpt from a play that I acted in my sophomore year in high school. Four years later, I had to Google it to make sure I got it word for word, but I was close enough to find the passage.

What does this have to do with my short, albeit rather painful, experience with HughesNet? Not much, other than the painful part. In fact, the rest stop west of Eden, TX, while remote, is quite different than a deserted island. For one thing, the structure on which the internet satellite dish was purched was well-maintained. Second, US-87 runs by said rest stop. Third, the Texas Department of Transportation instituted the free wireless hotspot as a public safety measure, seeing as how some carriers’ cell phones (ahem, Sprint…ever heard of roaming on Five Star Wireless in the Eden area?) just flat out don’t work around those parts. Of course, you can’t use any sort of voice communication technology over HughesNet, but I suppose that’s beside the point. Still better than a deserted island with vipers and no free public WiFi, right?

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That’s Comcastic (in a good way)

Jul 12

Posted by Ian Littman in Tech

So I’m back in my apartment in Colorado. And, as usual, I’ve got my ear to the ground on tech. Especially since, mysteriously, my quite-reliable router had dropped off the ‘net sometime a few weeks ago…or so it seemed.

What had really happened is the modem has been kicked off the network for a bit, been reassigned a new IP address, and I had forgotten to set up DynDNS again on my router (easy to overlook when you’ve had the same IP for months on end). So in reality the internet at my place was hunky dory…I just didn’t know where “my place” was on the ‘net.

So what was the cause of the modem reboot and subsequent switch from 76.xxx.xxx.xxx to 67.xxx.xxx.xxx for my IP address (people with 24.xxx.xxx.xxx addresses probably didn’t see a change; they’re still around here)? A DOCSIS 2.0 upgrade, as a matter of fact.

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Big Spring, TX (aka I Get A Networking Green Belt)

Jul 9

Posted by Ian Littman in General, Tech

So I’m here in Big Spring, TX on a mission trip at Gateway Baptist Church. I’m helping with sound and various other things. Lots of community events and a Vacation Bible School program are how my home church is ministering to the populace. So far, life’s good; despite hot sleeping quarters for the guys I think we’ve God through us has had a huge impact here this week. So far twelve kids have come to Christ; there will probably be more salvations before the week’s up. That’s really cool. I’ll link to a slideshow once I’m done here on Twitter (I’m leaving Saturday morning for Colorado).

So if you’re a techie and am wondering what the “Networking Green Belt” part of the post is, bear with me. First let me lay out the internet situation in Big Sprint: Alltel EvDO, Basin 2Way as a WISP, Suddenlink for cable, one or two numbers for dialup. Sprint (my typical cellular carrier) is 1xRTT-only here, as is Verizon for the moment (but they’ll be EvDO soon once they integrate Alltel’s network). Not sure yet abut Basin 2Way’s services and pricing, though I’ll bet it’s only economical for folks who can’t get cable. For cable, Suddenlink is the provider; I’ve detailed their pricing plans and traceroutes here, here and here. Please disregard the extraneous discussion about DOCSIS modulations. Dialup is one of two phone numbers to my knowledge, one for AOL and one for everyone else. This is one of the few areas where TOAST.net has no local numbers, depiste their aggregation of dozens of dialup access number providers. The numbers here are owned by SBC/AT&T, but not WorldNet. Fun stuff.

So back to my networking green belt.

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