My Verizon FIOS latency recently jumped from 6-8 ms to 24-26 ms as measured by speedtest.net. I called in for assistance because traceroute shows the hop in the Verizon network with the delay. Rather than address the issue Mike a Network Tech from the Syracuse Call Center told me that FIOS only supports between 25 - 50 ms latency. To add to that he (falsely) claims 25-50 ms latency is the "best in the business". I've looked but I can't find any document that discusses FIOS's agreement with customers. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Is it just me or does everyone else have issues when they work with the Syracuse call center? It seems they spend more time trying to get Customers to "go away" rather than investigate an issue.
Jim
Which speedtest.net server are you testing to? Speedtest.net isn't exactly the most reliable way to check your latency, simply due to the fact that the Flash application has a tendency to bog down the test more than it needs to be, and also since the servers can change routing/hosting providers at any given time. The true way to test your latency, at least in a basic sense is to perform a trace route. Try this:
Go to Start > Run > type cmd and press OK, or go to Start > Search for "cmd" and open cmd. Run the following command once Command Prompt comes up: tracert www.google.com
Once the Traceroute completes, Copy and Paste the results to this thread. You can do so by clicking on the Command Prompt Icon located in the Top Left corner of the cmd window, going down to Edit, and then pressing Select All. From there, press Enter, and then paste the traceroute into a post here.
Also, the best in the industry for latency is a fiber-based connection, but most FiOS connections won't really go below 6ms. This is due to the latency MoCa networking adds to the connection, and MoCa generally lands you in the 6-10ms latency range to Verizon's network; similar to Cable modem or DSL service. Under best case scenarios with FiOS and an Ethernet connection to the ONT, you can achieve 1ms latency after excluding NAT to Verizon. That's as good as it's ever going to get. Realistically you'll see 2-4ms latency while on Ethernet to Verizon's network, but that's how such things work out to be. Ethernet is a far superior medium to deliver a WAN connection to a router, but Verizon is using Coax simply due to convenience of wiring.
I've had 6-8 ms latency until last week. Now I'm around 24-26 ms. All speedtest.net measurements which Verizon Customer Support asked me to use. I have a Ethernet not a MoCa connection. I see the problem but I'm not sure how to get Verizon to fix it ...
If you call the FSC and report a 'latency' problem most of the Customer Support Agents won't have a clue what you are saying.
They are trained to troubleshoot specific problems, such as 'can't connect' or 'can't login to my verizon account'.
If you give them a description of the problem you are having, such as 'slow downloads from a web site' or something like that, then tell them about the latency issue, you'll stand a better chance of getting an technically sound answer.
Do you get the latency if you tracerout to more than one site? It may be a routing issue and the results will identify the bad hop.
@thegeek wrote:Do you get the latency if you tracerout to more than one site? It may be a routing issue and the results will identify the bad hop.
FYI - 8.8.8.8 is one of Google's public DNS servers.
Thanks for the responses. The request must have found its way to someone who did something. It appears that the route in hop 3 was changed to take another path which is cutting my latency measured by speedtest.net from 24-26 ms down to 12 ms. Still not the 6-8 I had but web response time has improved greatly and streaming music no longer times out.
However Sean at the FSC RI office is telling me that I should expect latencies to go up as Verizon takes on more customers and that latencies of 24-26 ms should be expected in the future.
Hmmm ... if that's truly the case I'll likely not be a customer for long.
Comparing it to the original traceroute when delays were noticed it is a substanical improvement ....
I've heard that there are latency issues coming from google sites (and all their other channels like GoogleDocs and YouTube .. etc.) to the VZ network. I suspect that it's possible ERX issues from the central office so it should be fixed. Fios has the best data plan for the money you can get so I think you should be patient in this matter, I'm sure it will get resolved asap.
@jimryan wrote:However Sean at the FSC RI office is telling me that I should expect latencies to go up as Verizon takes on more customers and that latencies of 24-26 ms should be expected in the future.
Hmmm ... if that's truly the case I'll likely not be a customer for long.
For the short term (eg: 1-2 days) I would expect those kinds of latencies if they get a sudden surge of people consuming connections. However, a properly maintained network should not suffer such issues, and would be upgraded before such loads even begin to exist. Running backhaul near capacity is never a good thing for anyone. Both sides (ISP and Customer) wind up getting backlash as a result.
But if that is in fact true, it would devaluate what FiOS has going for it. It'd be essentially like an Interleaved DSL line but with more Jitter than DSL. Essentially you'd be buying a pipe based solely on throughput and not latency bundled into it, which makes no sense.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
