Afrihost Line Problem

[Guts237]

I have a problem accessing some websites with my Afrihost line and I just need somebody else who also uses Afrihost to test access to these sites. One such site is www.jetbrains.com

So, a bit more detail regarding my problem. We use Afrihost as our ADSL line provider and WebAfrica as our ISP and we have issues accessing a lot of websites, for example www.jetbrains.com does not load at all, www.ewn.co.za only loads partially. We also tested an Afrihost ISP account (so Afrihost line and Afrihost ISP) and the issues persist. If we use a VPN we can access any websites without issues (I tested using Opera's built-in VPN and Private Internet Access).

I contacted Afrihost last week and they told me it's due to Seacom having issues, but I don't believe this is the problem since my VPN is set to Netherlands and an traceroot of the jetbrains site stops in Ireland (at AWS instances). The problem with accessing certain websites also began before the most recent Seacom cable issues.

So, can somebody with an Afrihost line please test if www.jetbrains.com is accesible? If anybody has any idea what might be the cause of our problem please let me know.

 

[MickZA]

You should be addressing your problem to Webafrica as they're responsible for the routing. Afrihost are merely billing your ADSL line on Openserve/Telkoms behalf.

 

[Guts237]

You should be addressing your problem to Webafrica as they're responsible for the routing. Afrihost are merely billing your ADSL line on Openserve/Telkoms behalf.

I understand that, but I also tested with Afrihost ISP and Vox ISP accounts and the websites were still inaccesible. So the problem is clearly not with WebAfrica.

 

[Geoff.D]

so what do you get when you run tracert or wmtr on those two sites?

Right now on Telkom line and ISP, the jetbrtains site is timing out and not reachable for me. It is not resolving correctly.

Ewn is very slow but ends up working via neotel.ixp.joburg to resolve to 41.168.20.229 (52 ms).
\

 

[MickZA]

You don't give your location but I believe the Durban overseas links are currently redirected through Cape Town leading to some interesting routing in some cases.

FWIW www.jetbrains.com is accessible from PE on Telkom Internet atm but doesn't respond to pings, routing as follows (hop 18 looks decidedly dodgy):

[mick@mick1 ~]$ mtr -rc 10 jetbrains.com
Start: Tue Apr 18 09:59:08 2017
HOST: mick1.mickza                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- mickcop                    0.0%    10    0.2   0.7   0.1   1.7   0.3
  2.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
  3.|-- 105-187-252-61.ti-sen.tel 40.0%    10   26.3  26.6  25.6  27.5   0.6
  4.|-- 105-187-252-62.ti-sen.tel  0.0%    10   25.0  26.5  25.0  28.4   1.0
  5.|-- ipc-aggr-2.south.dsl.telk  0.0%    10   25.6  26.6  25.4  28.2   0.7
  6.|-- 165.165.214.213            0.0%    10   32.5  33.0  32.1  34.9   0.7
  7.|-- lon-ip-hsll-1-gig-7-1-0.t  0.0%    10  172.8 173.6 172.8 175.2   0.6
  8.|-- xe-0-1-0-19.r00.londen10.  0.0%    10  205.1 200.2 190.8 208.2   5.8
  9.|-- ae-13.r24.londen12.uk.bb.  0.0%    10  192.7 196.6 187.2 222.4  10.1
 10.|-- ae-5.r24.nycmny01.us.bb.g  0.0%    10  265.5 267.1 257.4 274.6   5.0
 11.|-- ae-1.r08.nycmny01.us.bb.g  0.0%    10  262.2 267.2 255.5 284.8   8.6
 12.|-- ae-9.amazon.nycmny01.us.b  0.0%    10  258.3 265.9 256.1 276.0   6.6
 13.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 14.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 15.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 16.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 17.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 18.|-- 54.239.110.143            90.0%    10  3626. 3626. 3626. 3626.   0.0
 19.|-- ???                        0.0%     0    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
[mick@mick1 ~]$

 

[Geoff.D]

You don't give your location but I believe the Durban overseas links are currently redirected through Cape Town leading to some interesting routing in some cases.

FWIW www.jetbrains.com is accessible from PE on Telkom Internet atm but doesn't respond to pings, routing as follows (hop 18 looks decidedly dodgy):

[mick@mick1 ~]$ mtr -rc 10 jetbrains.com
Start: Tue Apr 18 09:59:08 2017
HOST: mick1.mickza                Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- mickcop                    0.0%    10    0.2   0.7   0.1   1.7   0.3
  2.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
  3.|-- 105-187-252-61.ti-sen.tel 40.0%    10   26.3  26.6  25.6  27.5   0.6
  4.|-- 105-187-252-62.ti-sen.tel  0.0%    10   25.0  26.5  25.0  28.4   1.0
  5.|-- ipc-aggr-2.south.dsl.telk  0.0%    10   25.6  26.6  25.4  28.2   0.7
  6.|-- 165.165.214.213            0.0%    10   32.5  33.0  32.1  34.9   0.7
  7.|-- lon-ip-hsll-1-gig-7-1-0.t  0.0%    10  172.8 173.6 172.8 175.2   0.6
  8.|-- xe-0-1-0-19.r00.londen10.  0.0%    10  205.1 200.2 190.8 208.2   5.8
  9.|-- ae-13.r24.londen12.uk.bb.  0.0%    10  192.7 196.6 187.2 222.4  10.1
 10.|-- ae-5.r24.nycmny01.us.bb.g  0.0%    10  265.5 267.1 257.4 274.6   5.0
 11.|-- ae-1.r08.nycmny01.us.bb.g  0.0%    10  262.2 267.2 255.5 284.8   8.6
 12.|-- ae-9.amazon.nycmny01.us.b  0.0%    10  258.3 265.9 256.1 276.0   6.6
 13.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 14.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 15.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 16.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 17.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 18.|-- 54.239.110.143            90.0%    10  3626. 3626. 3626. 3626.   0.0
 19.|-- ???                        0.0%     0    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
[mick@mick1 ~]$

Same here from PTA on Telkom ISP. I did not try the site until you pointed out that the site is accessible. I can get to the site as well.

 

[Guts237]

My location is Midrand

I ran the mtr command of MicZA two times, got different results between the runs, both are pasted below.

run 1:

$ mtr -rc 10 jetbrains.com
Start: Tue Apr 18 10:05:49 2017
HOST: X                   Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- router.asus.com            0.0%    10    0.4   0.4   0.3   0.5   0.0
  2.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
  3.|-- cdsl2-rba-vl2766-ipc.ip.i  0.0%    10   95.5 108.7  56.1 235.5  55.2
  4.|-- 196.38.73.85               0.0%    10  101.9 101.1  53.4 179.8  39.7
  5.|-- cdsl2-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.  0.0%    10  101.0 121.3  88.5 201.5  37.0
  6.|-- core1-pkl-tg0-7-0-0.ip.is  0.0%    10   88.7 128.6  79.1 252.8  64.5
  7.|-- core2b-dock-pos-0-3-4-0.i  0.0%    10  235.3 262.0 216.6 388.4  55.8
  8.|-- xe-4-3-2.edge3.London1.Le  0.0%    10  239.2 271.7 226.8 399.1  58.5
  9.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 10.|-- AMAZON.COM.edge1.Washingt  0.0%    10  402.9 348.6 295.5 451.6  50.6
 11.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 12.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 13.|-- 54.239.110.211            10.0%    10  384.2 387.3 358.5 455.2  30.4
 14.|-- 54.239.111.67             10.0%    10  328.9 339.2 301.3 397.5  35.6
 15.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0

run 2:

$ mtr -rc 10 jetbrains.com
Start: Tue Apr 18 10:09:23 2017
HOST: X                   Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- router.asus.com            0.0%    10    0.4   0.4   0.4   0.6   0.0
  2.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
  3.|-- cdsl1-rba-vl2253-ipc.ip.i  0.0%    10   38.9  79.8  38.5 159.6  45.6
  4.|-- cdsl1-rba-vl2253.ip.isnet  0.0%    10   36.9  76.8  36.9 150.5  38.6
  5.|-- cdsl1-rba-vl150.ip.isnet.  0.0%    10   50.2  95.9  38.3 144.6  33.0
  6.|-- core1b-pkl-te0-0-0-0.ip.i  0.0%    10   41.6  89.7  41.6 207.1  50.5
  7.|-- core1b-dock-pos-0-3-4-0.i  0.0%    10  207.2 252.2 207.1 338.2  44.8
  8.|-- core2b-dock-ten-0-3-0-0su  0.0%    10  203.7 248.5 203.7 340.8  42.3
  9.|-- xe-4-3-2.edge3.London1.Le  0.0%    10  205.2 243.2 204.9 328.8  39.4
 10.|-- ae-2-3201.ear1.London1.Le 90.0%    10  293.1 293.1 293.1 293.1   0.0
 11.|-- unknown.Level3.net         0.0%    10  206.3 250.8 206.2 334.0  41.5
 12.|-- ???                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0

I looks like the first mtr command stopped at Amazon's Hosting, which might be fine if Jetbrains uses them for hosting. The second one stopped at a Tier 1 provider, which I don't believe is correct. I don't know what to make of the high losses on the route. Could that be my problem?

Testing EWN directly is a bit difficult since it partially loads. I believe some of their third-party hosting providers does not respond. I'll look for other problematic sites.

 

[MickZA]

Your local hops are fine, seems the problem lies with whoever IS partners with overseas.

 

[Guts237]

Okay, thank you very much for analyzing it. It there anything I can do about it?

 

[GuileX]

Definitely something wrong on Afrihost side.

Tracing Zone:

Hop IP Address Host Name Loss(%) Min/Avg/Max Ping
--- --------------- -------------------------------- ------- ----------------
1 192.168.1.1 router.asus.com 0.0 0 0 0
2 ... ... 0.0 1000000 0 0
3 169.1.5.29 jhb-up3.ip.adsl.co.za 0.0 10 10 20
4 169.1.5.42 jhb-in1.ip.adsl.co.za 0.0 10 20 60
5 169.1.5.52 jhb-net1.ip.adsl.co.za 0.0 10 10 20
6 169.1.5.55 169-1-5-55.ip.afrihost.co.za 46.1 10 190 1000
7 169.1.5.21 jhb-dn1.ip.adsl.co.za 91.6 10 10 10
8 169.0.227.1 169-0-227-1.ip.afrihost.co.za 33.3 50 100 280
9 ... ... 0.0 1000000 0 0
10 ... ... 0.0 1000000 0 0

Cycles: 12