It has come to my attention that Telkom is using the INTERSAT satellite as it's downstream link into South Africa for DSL. Below are traces proving this. The traces started in the UK and ended on a South African DSL IP :
Tracing route to 165.165.198.xxx over a maximum of 30 hops
1 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms 10.33.144.xxx
2 20 ms 10 ms 10 ms bro-t2cam1-b-v102.inet.ntl.com [80.1.226.137]
3 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bro-t2core-b-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.1.225.133]
4 20 ms 10 ms 20 ms bre-bb-b-so-320-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.109]
5 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms bre-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.nt
6 30 ms 30 ms 20 ms gfd-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.150]
7 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
8 20 ms 21 ms 10 ms ldn-th-i1-geth3-0.telia.net [195.66.226.48]
9 30 ms 10 ms 20 ms ldn-bb1-pos0-3-0.telia.net [213.248.74.5]
10 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms ldn-bb2-pos0-0-0.telia.net [213.248.64.162]
11 90 m
12 90 ms 90 ms 100 ms nyk-i3-geth2-0.telia.net [213.248.82.150]
13 120 ms 120 ms 140 ms telekomsa-01531-nyk-i3.c.telia.net [213.248.82.238]
14 110 ms 100 ms 110 ms london-dir-telecity-pos-5-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za
[196.43.9.53]
15 711 ms 631 ms 621 ms 196.43.9.82
16 471 ms 561 ms 600 ms rrba-bras-1-int-ipnet-rndf.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.10.94]
17 601 ms 601 ms 561 ms 165.165.198.102
As it can be seen on nodes 12 through 17 the trace jumps from New York back to South Africa in one jump. The SAIX website reveals why. http://www.saix.net/diagrams/ipnet.jpgclearly shows the SAIX infrastructure and the single satellite hop between the United States and South Africa.
In my opinion this is insufficent to support the current and future DSL connections and explains all the problems with DSL at the moment in this country. This INTERSAT link would cause extremely bad pings compounded to the fact that the underwater cable is used by ALL Telkom clients (dial-ups included) it would also cause packet loss due to bottle-hecks to the requested international servers.
I intend to submit on a weekly basis the tracerts and pings for the past 7 days to my ISP and to Telkom.
The second trace is from the UK to the outgoing SAIX router.
1 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms 10.33.144.xxx
2 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms bro-t2cam1-b-v102.inet.ntl.com [80.1.226.137]
3 90 ms 210 ms 10 ms bro-t2core-b-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.1.225.133]
4 10 ms 20 ms 70 ms bre-bb-b-so-320-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.109]
5 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms bre-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.86]
6 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms gfd-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.150]
7 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
8 10 ms 21 ms 20 ms ldn-th-i1-geth3-0.telia.net [195.66.226.48]
9 10 ms 40 ms 10 ms ldn-hex-b1-pos7-0.telia.net [213.248.74.37]
10 20 ms 31 ms 10 ms london-dir-telecity-pos-8-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.9.50]
This clearly shows that there are no bottlenecks or congestion back through the underwater cable linking the UK to South Africa.
I NEVER signed up for an international INTERSAT link Telkom and I would prefer to go though another backbone for international bandwidth. Satellite Internet is fast but the problem comes in when the upstream data is not as fast as the downstream, resulting in the retransmission of packets and therefore packet loss. The high pings are caused by the delay to transmit the data to and from the satellite which adds to the packet loss.
I hope something comes out of this post as it explains how much **** we take from Telkom and how much **** they are in.
A bonus post
Rat
Tracing route to 165.165.198.xxx over a maximum of 30 hops
1 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms 10.33.144.xxx
2 20 ms 10 ms 10 ms bro-t2cam1-b-v102.inet.ntl.com [80.1.226.137]
3 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms bro-t2core-b-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.1.225.133]
4 20 ms 10 ms 20 ms bre-bb-b-so-320-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.109]
5 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms bre-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.nt
6 30 ms 30 ms 20 ms gfd-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.150]
7 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
8 20 ms 21 ms 10 ms ldn-th-i1-geth3-0.telia.net [195.66.226.48]
9 30 ms 10 ms 20 ms ldn-bb1-pos0-3-0.telia.net [213.248.74.5]
10 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms ldn-bb2-pos0-0-0.telia.net [213.248.64.162]
11 90 m
12 90 ms 90 ms 100 ms nyk-i3-geth2-0.telia.net [213.248.82.150]
13 120 ms 120 ms 140 ms telekomsa-01531-nyk-i3.c.telia.net [213.248.82.238]
14 110 ms 100 ms 110 ms london-dir-telecity-pos-5-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za
[196.43.9.53]
15 711 ms 631 ms 621 ms 196.43.9.82
16 471 ms 561 ms 600 ms rrba-bras-1-int-ipnet-rndf.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.10.94]
17 601 ms 601 ms 561 ms 165.165.198.102
As it can be seen on nodes 12 through 17 the trace jumps from New York back to South Africa in one jump. The SAIX website reveals why. http://www.saix.net/diagrams/ipnet.jpgclearly shows the SAIX infrastructure and the single satellite hop between the United States and South Africa.
In my opinion this is insufficent to support the current and future DSL connections and explains all the problems with DSL at the moment in this country. This INTERSAT link would cause extremely bad pings compounded to the fact that the underwater cable is used by ALL Telkom clients (dial-ups included) it would also cause packet loss due to bottle-hecks to the requested international servers.
I intend to submit on a weekly basis the tracerts and pings for the past 7 days to my ISP and to Telkom.
The second trace is from the UK to the outgoing SAIX router.
1 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms 10.33.144.xxx
2 10 ms 20 ms 10 ms bro-t2cam1-b-v102.inet.ntl.com [80.1.226.137]
3 90 ms 210 ms 10 ms bro-t2core-b-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.1.225.133]
4 10 ms 20 ms 70 ms bre-bb-b-so-320-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.184.109]
5 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms bre-bb-a-ae0-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.86]
6 10 ms 10 ms 20 ms gfd-bb-b-so-700-0.inet.ntl.com [213.105.172.150]
7 10 ms 20 ms 20 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
8 10 ms 21 ms 20 ms ldn-th-i1-geth3-0.telia.net [195.66.226.48]
9 10 ms 40 ms 10 ms ldn-hex-b1-pos7-0.telia.net [213.248.74.37]
10 20 ms 31 ms 10 ms london-dir-telecity-pos-8-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za [196.43.9.50]
This clearly shows that there are no bottlenecks or congestion back through the underwater cable linking the UK to South Africa.
I NEVER signed up for an international INTERSAT link Telkom and I would prefer to go though another backbone for international bandwidth. Satellite Internet is fast but the problem comes in when the upstream data is not as fast as the downstream, resulting in the retransmission of packets and therefore packet loss. The high pings are caused by the delay to transmit the data to and from the satellite which adds to the packet loss.
I hope something comes out of this post as it explains how much **** we take from Telkom and how much **** they are in.
A bonus post
Rat