Satellite Internet

getut · Apr 20, 2005

I love getting technical... didn't figure anyone wanted it though. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Ping is universal standard diagnostic command for TCP/IP networks. Any computer system regardless of vendor has a ping command. Whether it is PC-Windows, PC-Linux, PC-Unix, MAC-Linux(OS-X), mainframes, midrange (iSeries, RS6000, etc).... all have a Ping command.

It entails getting to a command prompt, however that is done for each system, and issuing the command, usually in the following format...
PING, a space, and then the IP address or hostname. Some systems like Unix or Linux automatically ping forever until stopped. Windows pings 4 times unless "switches" (special sub-commands
for ping) are given to make it ping endlessly.

Edit: I just noticed you said 25 words or less so here goes. (Windows XP/2000 specific)

Start/Run type CMD then hit enter or click OK
In the black box type PING 216.105.167.65 and hit enter

BillG_in_TX · Apr 20, 2005

Don,

I found a website where you can "Ping":
http://network-tools.com/

Just select Ping on the left and put in the address in the box and then Submit.

Here's my latency using a shared T1 in Dallas:

Ping 216.105.167.65
[www.bluesnews.com]

Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 58 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 59 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 58 ms
Round trip time to 216.105.167.65: 58 ms

Average time over 10 pings: 58.7 ms

BillG_in_TX · Apr 20, 2005

Robert,

Thanks for that clarification. What's your point to point latency? It looks like mine is 1ms (at most) on the initial hop, if my interpretation of the Trace is correct:

TraceRoute to 216.105.167.65 [www.bluesnews.com]

Hop (ms) (ms) (ms) IP Address Host name
1 1 1 0 66.98.244.1 gphou-66-98-244-1.ev1.net
2 0 0 0 66.98.241.4 gphou-66-98-241-4.ev1.net
3 1 1 1 129.250.10.105 ge-0-1-0-50.r00.hstntx01.us.bb.verio.net
4 12 11 12 129.250.5.42 p16-1-1-1.r21.dllstx09.us.bb.verio.net
5 11 12 11 129.250.9.38 p16-0.att.dllstx09.us.bb.verio.net
6 10 11 11 12.123.17.82 tbr1-p012101.dlstx.ip.att.net
7 45 50 45 12.122.2.90 tbr2-cl1.attga.ip.att.net
8 45 45 45 12.122.9.157 tbr1-p012501.attga.ip.att.net
9 45 45 45 12.122.10.69 tbr2-cl1.wswdc.ip.att.net
10 61 57 57 12.122.10.53 tbr2-cl1.n54ny.ip.att.net
11 56 57 56 12.122.11.18 gbr1-p70.n54ny.ip.att.net
12 56 57 56 12.123.1.129 gar1-p360.n54ny.ip.att.net
13 57 57 57 12.122.255.162 mdf1-gsr12-2-pos-7-0.nyc3.attens.net
14 59 59 59 63.240.64.110 mdf1-bi8k-1-eth2-2.nyc3.attens.net
15 59 60 60 63.240.74.122 -
16 59 59 58 216.105.167.65 www.bluesnews.com

Trace complete

getut · Apr 20, 2005

Bill.. point to point latency is exactly what ping measures. That value changes depending on which two points are involved.

For example the ping numbers that you posted were the ping values from the SERVER to that IP address. The server ran the ping, not your actual PC. So the point to point measured are www.network-tools.com to www.bluesnews.com.

If you were to open a command prompt and type the command I posted above, it would be ping values from your actual PC to www.bluesnews.com. This would give you the point to point latency.

Tracert (Trace route command) actually is PING on steroids. Behind the scenes it pings each router for each hop between you and a remote address. So those 1110 values you see are 4 pings to the very first router encountered (1ms or less each time). Keep in mind, it appears you are running those commands from the network tools website. So the values you are getting are from one website to another. Not from your PC to a website.

So, given that, I'll answer your question with another question.. .from my house to which other point would you like me to ping, because the values will change greatly depending on where that other point is physically located.

MadReferee · Apr 20, 2005

( point to point latency is exactly what ping measures. That value changes depending on which two points are involved.)

It will also change depending the the route packets take from your ISP to the destination. Some network clouds have much less latency than others. If you look at the DNS names for the router IP addresses you can most of the time determine the path the packets take.

I wrote a program that uses the TraceRoute functionality to determine the paths from a PC to a destination. Here is a printout for TBN.

Tracing Route to tractorbynet.com [66.216.78.243]

Hop #1 1ms 192.168.1.1
Hop #2 21ms 69.21.248.1 wltonhbas01-lo0.network.tds.net
Hop #3 37ms 69.128.250.157 nycmnyhed01-a1-0-1110033.network.tds.net
Hop #4 36ms 64.50.237.132 nycmnycor02-gi2-1-224.network.tds.net
Hop #5 38ms 198.32.118.36 NYCL-PEER-03.twtelecom.net
Hop #6 37ms 66.192.240.197 core-01-so-1-0-0-0.nycl.twtelecom.net
Hop #7 60ms 66.192.255.23 core-02-so-0-0-0-0.atln.twtelecom.net
Hop #8 92ms 66.192.246.21 dist-02-so-1-0-0-0.snan.twtelecom.net
Hop #9 93ms 66.192.246.141 hagg-01-ge-1-3-0-508.snan.twtelecom.net
Hop #10 90ms 64.132.228.26
Hop #11 91ms 64.39.2.33 vl130.core1.sat.rackspace.com
Hop #12 91ms 64.39.2.82 vl905.aggr5.sat2.rackspace.com
Hop #13 91ms 66.216.78.243 tractorbynet.com

You can see that my path to TBN goes thru NYC to Atlanta to San Antonio. I get different latency values depending on where I run the trace and usually when I run it more than once on the same PC.

BillG_in_TX · Apr 20, 2005

from my house to which other point would you like me to ping (?)
The initial hop from your house to the ISP. Wouldn't that correspond to the 5-7ms latency that Motorola is bragging about?

Thanks again for the education. I opened a command prompt and did a Ping and a Tracert, and got an average latency of 52ms and 18 hops to bluesnews.com (see attachment).

getut · Apr 20, 2005

That true wireless (not satellite) is pretty good and compares very closely with wireless ethernet. In fact I would not be surprised if the Motorola service is just another proprietary offshoot of 802.11b.

I'm getting 5-12ms on my first hop ping (5 low - 12 high) when I hooked my computer straight to the network and bypassed my firewall.

With the firewall (a Sonicwall firewall/router) in the loop, it brought it up to 15-23ms for the first hop. The hardware firewall is truly my first hop from my PC but that is a wired connection and would skew the results (It would be 0-1ms).

gsganzer · Apr 20, 2005

BillG,
Thanks for the link to Partnership wireless. They're checking to see if I'll have coverage with the old or new towers. I had a guy from Speednet come out and he couldn't see the tower he needed.

Jagmandave · Apr 20, 2005

Here's another "sortof" vote for Starband. We had it at our company location, speed averaged 5-600 down and 128 up, which was respectable. We had 5 computers hooked to it (the maximum) and when all were on at once it slowed down somewhat, but not to dialup speeds. If I was the only one online it worked pretty well. We did have "issues" from time to time, usuallly due to weather, but not often. Cost was $595 install and $70/mo.

getut · Apr 20, 2005

gsganzer,

If you have room don't forget about the tower option I mentioned, it may get you direct line of site to alternate towers. If you have quite a few people in you're particular area that are in the same dilemma as you, and you have room for a tower, then as a plum for them to hook you up, allow them to distribute to your community off of your tower that you put up.