What is a good number of hops for you to have to take to get to a web site, I ran Tracert one site and I got 19 hops, is this very bad? Its ping had an average of 462ms, is this good or bad?

That's pretty high

The number of hops at a given time between two specific sites, though, isn't all that significant in and of itself. It's somewhat useful as a relative thing: that is, if you mean it took 19 hops from your location and most other sites took significantly less, that migh tbe a bad sign. If most places you traceroute too take approximately the same number, it says more about your own (lack of) connectivity than it does about theirs.

If you want to get useful information out of it, go to a site like traceroute.org and compare whatever set of sites you're considering by running traceroutes from different locations. Yeah, it's a little bit of work, but the information you'd get that way would be a little more useful.

Think of it like each hop is another potential point of failure.

That's why I like VDI, it takes 9-11 hops to get to VDI from most servers in the UK, I did traces from locations in the USA that were taking between 10-15 hops from the west coast.

It's pretty tough to get additional hops through the Atlantic!

heh ;)) I'd say, that number of hops and oing time is acceptable. also make sure, that there's no lost packts, whn you ping a site. ping it a couple of times during the day..

Originally posted by greatgraddage
Its ping had an average of 462ms, is this good or bad?

On a good day, the average ping time to my server at VDI is less than 30ms... Currently, the average is about 14ms... But ping does not tell too much, does it? it depends on your the kind of connection you have... For sure, ping time using cable modem/dsl is faster than using 33.6kbps modem... It also depends on where you are located (how far is your geogrpahic location to the server you are pinging). Number of hops is probably better indication than ping...

cheers,
:beer:

Traceroutes are all relative.
You can't just look at them as potential points of failure, problem spots flare up all the time.

Thee less the better, but just because a host has more hops than another isn't grounds for forming an opinion about them.

Network connectivity plays a key role also. For instance my ISP peers at SIX a local NAP, and from there it's a staight shot, to a number of backbones.

DOnt pay attention to hops pay more attention to the ms rating anything over a 120 is too high

ms rating? you mean ping time? Well.. isn't that really also depend on your geographical location? I still think the number of hops is a better indication than ping time. CMIIW.

cheers,
:beer:

Originally posted by cbaker17
DOnt pay attention to hops pay more attention to the ms rating anything over a 120 is too high

hmm, i assume you're talking about domestic hosts.
speed of light makes it impossible for european and asian hosts to get that sort of time from the US.

Cheers,
Raj.

Actually the speed of light doesn't make it impossible.

Speed of light: 299792.458 Km/s
Distance from NY - London: 5885 Km
Distance Light can travel in 120ms:
=Speed of light * 0.12
=35975.09496 Km

Therefore light can travel (35975.09496 / 5885) 6.11 times the distance between New York and London in 120ms.

Other then that, yes you are right it is rare to ping times of 120ms for the distance.

That's what i call "lighning-fast internet" ;)

As of the matter of discussion, ~350-400ms is normal for trans-atlantic... you should ask your friends from different ISPs to ping and traceroute that site, and if you'll get nearly identical responses, you can live with this speed, i think..

I get 300ms to VDI from my current location in the North of England, and I'm on a 56k modem so it is pretty darn good if you ask me.

Yeah - I get that on a 56K modem.
When Im at work, Im sitting on a leased line (between 2-4mbit, I don't quite know what it is) I get:


Reply from 216.74.127.109 bytes=32 time=83ms ttl=240
Reply from 216.74.127.109 bytes=32 time=95ms ttl=240
Request Timed Out
Reply from 216.74.127.109 bytes=32 time=84ms ttl=240

Ping Statistics for 216.74.127.109:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3 Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate Roundtrip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 83ms, Maximum = 95ms, Average = 65ms

PING 216.74.127.109 (216.74.127.109): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=402.6 ms
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=415.5 ms
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=405.1 ms
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=407.7 ms
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=402.1 ms
64 bytes from 216.74.127.109: icmp_seq=5 ttl=239 time=437.7 ms

--- 216.74.127.109 ping statistics ---
7 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 14% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 402.1/411.7/437.7 ms

That's from Ukraine ;) Quite good, though... But lost packets with VDI is a bad sign, i'm starting to fear them ;)

VDI Worry me too ;)

Originally posted by Vladimir
That's what i call "lighning-fast internet" ;)

As of the matter of discussion, ~350-400ms is normal for trans-atlantic... you should ask your friends from different ISPs to ping and traceroute that site, and if you'll get nearly identical responses, you can live with this speed, i think..

Here's a traceroute from my dialup (in Connecticut, US) to a site in the UK:


Tracing route to http://www.theregister.co.uk [212.113.5.84]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 141 ms 125 ms 109 ms tnt9.bos2.da.uu.net [206.115.150.137]
2 109 ms 125 ms 109 ms 207.76.44.98
3 109 ms 125 ms 110 ms 127.ATM1-0-0.HR1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [152.63.16.18]
4 109 ms 109 ms 110 ms 121.ATM2-0.XR1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [146.188.176.202]
5 109 ms 125 ms 125 ms 191.at-2-0-0.XR1.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.16.210]
6 125 ms 125 ms 125 ms 0.so-2-1-0.XL1.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.23.137]
7 156 ms 125 ms 110 ms POS6-0.BR2.NYC9.ALTER.NET [152.63.22.225]
8 125 ms 110 ms 125 ms 137.39.52.10
9 110 ms 125 ms 125 ms so-4-1-0.mp1.NewYork1.level3.net [209.247.10.37]
10 187 ms 188 ms 187 ms so-4-3-0-0.mp1.lon2.level3.net [212.187.128.189]
11 188 ms 187 ms 188 ms 212.187.131.7
12 * * * Request timed out.


Less than 200mS at every hop, until it hits the firewall.