We are in an area of Bangkok – Don Mueang area – where we only can use TOT Fiber 2 U for our broadband. We can use 4G of course, but there is no fiber optic or ADSL option with a third party. That would be fine IF TOT Fiber 2 U would work. But of the 400MB down we tend to get 189-280 MB only

speedtest.totisp.net
Download 65.24Mbps Upload 71.80Mbps Ping 5.02ms Jitter 19.14ms
IP Address: 113.53.xxx.xxx - TOT Public Company Limited, TH (<20 km)

For Fiber optic this is really slow. For what we are supposed to get this is also really slow. And remember, we test using a server less than 20 km away. If we use other tools that test with servers abroad or further away the speed will be worst.

DNS & SSL Issues

We also get issues with DNS and SSL rather often such as:

net::ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED 

and

Failed to load resource: net::ERR_SSL_PROTOCOL_ERROR

Lookup

With ip address you can see we are in this node pool currently:

node-4xn.pool-113-53.dynamic.totinternet.net

We do have a dynamic ip address so this can change of course.

Traceroute

Thought about things some more, also about traceroute to check how our routes are planned reaching websites. Doing a simple traceroute we see even fails and also uses a different node pool node-35t-pool-113-53:

traceroute to imwz.io (157.245.67.243), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 * * *
2 node-35t.pool-113-53.dynamic.totinternet.net (113.53.144.1) 2.752 ms 2.632 ms 3.104 ms
3 172.17.49.21 (172.17.49.21) 4.193 ms 2.978 ms 2.941 ms
4 203.113.44.129 (203.113.44.129) 4.240 ms 5.818 ms 4.719 ms
5 203.113.59.197 (203.113.59.197) 3.404 ms 3.442 ms 3.053 ms
6 203.113.59.202 (203.113.59.202) 3.157 ms
203.113.59.154 (203.113.59.154) 3.785 ms
203.113.37.186 (203.113.37.186) 2.951 ms
7 203.190.250.137 (203.190.250.137) 4.839 ms 6.546 ms
203.190.251.185 (203.190.251.185) 3.247 ms
8 ten-gi-0-4-0-13.hyi-core-01.net (180.180.255.101) 27.499 ms
p.sg.net (180.180.248.137) 32.168 ms
ten-gi-0-4-0-13.hyi-core-01.net (180.180.255.101) 28.852 ms
9 in-addr.net (203.190.251.115) 33.591 ms 28.778 ms
ten-0-2-0-3.sg-gw-03.net (180.180.249.190) 30.647 ms
10 203.190.250.175 (203.190.250.175) 29.932 ms 28.533 ms 29.933 ms
11 xe-0-0-21-3.a00.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (116.51.18.13) 45.952 ms 49.766 ms 47.109 ms
12 ae-4.r01.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.93) 267.011 ms
ae-4.r00.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.75) 292.188 ms 271.943 ms
13 ae-2.r21.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.131) 69.495 ms 66.032 ms
ae-1.r21.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.91) 62.414 ms
14 ae-0.r25.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.8) 345.044 ms 270.832 ms 343.490 ms
15 ae-1.a00.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.230) 306.828 ms
ae-1.a01.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.173) 352.216 ms
ae-1.a00.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.230) 276.861 ms
16 83.231.213.94 (83.231.213.94) 187.841 ms 186.121 ms 185.288 ms
17 138.197.244.79 (138.197.244.79) 196.450 ms
138.197.244.81 (138.197.244.81) 189.949 ms
138.197.244.73 (138.197.244.73) 188.111 ms
18 * * 138.197.250.97 (138.197.250.97) 192.846 ms
19 * * *
20 * * *
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 * * *
24 * * *
25 * * *
26 * * *
27 * * *

Using https or port 443 I get

traceroute to imwz.io (157.245.67.243), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 * * *
2 node-35t.pool-113-53.dynamic.totinternet.net (113.53.144.1) 5.693 ms 2.663 ms 2.011 ms
3 172.17.49.21 (172.17.49.21) 3.154 ms 3.345 ms 3.136 ms
4 203.113.44.129 (203.113.44.129) 3.153 ms 4.720 ms 5.227 ms
5 203.113.59.197 (203.113.59.197) 4.075 ms 3.297 ms 3.208 ms
6 203.113.37.182 (203.113.37.182) 2.992 ms 2.886 ms
203.113.59.154 (203.113.59.154) 3.076 ms
7 bun-eth3-kkm-core.net (203.190.251.69) 3.470 ms
in-addr.net (203.190.251.181) 3.123 ms
in-addr.net (203.190.250.137) 3.369 ms
8 in-addr.net (203.190.251.135) 31.513 ms
p.sg.net (180.180.248.137) 32.312 ms
ten-gi-0-6-0-4.cwt-core.net (203.190.251.133) 30.546 ms
9 in-addr.net (203.190.251.115) 32.770 ms 32.062 ms 31.174 ms
10 in-addr.net (203.190.250.175) 27.955 ms 29.163 ms 28.329 ms
11 xe-0-0-21-3.a00.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (116.51.18.13) 29.763 ms 34.152 ms 28.596 ms
12 ae-4.r01.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.2.93) 264.349 ms 355.940 ms 264.934 ms
13 ae-1.r21.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.91) 32.394 ms
ae-2.r21.sngpsi07.sg.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.131) 35.455 ms 30.601 ms
14 ae-0.r25.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.8) 351.534 ms 268.463 ms 267.033 ms
15 ae-1.a00.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.3.230) 385.753 ms
ae-1.a01.amstnl02.nl.bb.gin.ntt.net (129.250.4.173) 305.604 ms 277.902 ms
16 * 83.231.213.94 (83.231.213.94) 190.132 ms *
17 138.197.244.73 (138.197.244.73) 190.273 ms
138.197.244.81 (138.197.244.81) 188.864 ms
138.197.244.77 (138.197.244.77) 196.486 ms
18 * * *
19 *

They both hang at

138.197.244.77

in Canada.

Hops in Thailand

But more interestingly is the first steps within Thailand. After the node center stop it hits private ip address

172.17.49.21

private addresses are in these ranges

10.0.0.0 ~ 10.255.255.255 (10.0.0.0/8 prefix)
172.16.0.0 ~ 172.31.255.255 (172.16.0.0/12 prefix)
192.168.0.0 ~ 192.168.255.255 (192.168.0.0/16 prefix)

Then, using http 4 steps are 203.113.44.129 and siblings using https there are 3 followed by a local hub followed by a few more visits to same ip address. The 203.x ip address belongs to TOT and seems to be in Lat Bua Luang Sri Ayuthaya.

traceroute to 203.113.44.129 (203.113.44.129), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 * * *
2 node-35t.pool-113-53.dynamic.totinternet.net (113.53.144.1) 5.149 ms 2.562 ms 2.542 ms
3 172.17.13.221 (172.17.13.221) 3.099 ms 3.277 ms 3.097 ms
4 203.113.44.129 (203.113.44.129) 5.339 ms * 5.639 ms

Then we hit

p.sg.net

plus

ten-gi-0-4-0-13.hyi-core-01.net

using http or

ten-gi-0-6-0-4.cwt-core.net

using https. In both cases it takes about 10 hops to hit a TOT ISP core network hub. A lot of steps really.

VPN Approach

Now, if I use my VPN which is sometimes need for work I get this trace

traceroute to imwz.io (157.245.67.243), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets
1 172.16.0.101 (172.16.0.101) 189.360 ms 188.792 ms 189.278 ms
2 178.20.172.190 (178.20.172.190) 189.825 ms 188.618 ms 189.123 ms
3 178.20.168.86 (178.20.168.86) 190.223 ms 189.695 ms 189.382 ms
4 r2.p11.131.ams11.as50655.net (178.20.168.98) 188.956 ms 191.197 ms 191.417 ms
5 r1.ae0.ams11.as50655.net (178.20.168.65) 192.817 ms 189.063 ms 193.163 ms
6 93.158.217.64 (93.158.217.64) 201.831 ms 191.651 ms 193.282 ms
7 185.8.179.33 (185.8.179.33) 229.356 ms 191.980 ms 191.738 ms
8 80.249.211.163 (80.249.211.163) 191.426 ms 191.691 ms 191.987 ms
9 * 138.197.250.81 (138.197.250.81) 192.339 ms *
10 * * *
11 *

So instead of 17 steps / hops to get to 138.197.250.81 I do this is only 9 hops. That is almost twice as few steps to get to where I need to be!

Ping

Ping times with or without VPN do not have large differences. Here the ping using the VPN:

PING imwz.io (157.245.67.243): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=194.806 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=194.051 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=191.056 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=192.625 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=4 ttl=52 time=193.859 ms
^C
--- imwz.io ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 191.056/193.279/194.806/1.314 ms

Ping without VPN:

PING imwz.io (157.245.67.243): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=0 ttl=52 time=192.435 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=1 ttl=52 time=192.093 m
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=2 ttl=52 time=191.854 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=3 ttl=52 time=193.795 ms
64 bytes from 157.245.67.243: icmp_seq=4 ttl=52 time=193.529 ms
^C
--- imwz.io ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 191.854/192.741/193.795/0.779 ms

which is a bit odd, but perhaps ICMP traffic is not routed the same way as regular TCP traffic.. not sure but could be.