alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
Sarsfield1
Enthusiast - Level 2

I am having serious connection problems with a few websites (so are many others) and when I perform a traceroute, it seems the failures (errors, 50-100% packet loss, total drops) all point to the alter.net hubs that verizon uses.  All of the addresses where the drops, packet loss and errors occur have a 152. prefix.  Would it be possib;le just to block the whole 152.XX.X.XXX range in the router?  I am sick of paying for 75/35 speed and getting speeds slower than dial-up.  Can anyone help before I call Verizon?

I checked one of the offending addresses-152.179.50.138 on IP Lookup and an error on the page indicates that the DNS is broken at this host? 

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
tireyjp
Newbie

I have noticed the same issues with alter.net connections. My download speed drops to useless levels every night. .Performing a traceroute to google.com I'm currently seeing 120ms+ pings to 152.179.51.30 (which is alter.net). Sadly, so far my interactions with the phone support has been beyond worthless. 

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
Sarsfield1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Yeah, this is getting painful.  If anyone wants to see where their packets are getting dropped I suggest downloading Pingplotter free version here (Windows):

http://www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html

so that you can tell Verizon exactly where the problems on the routes seem to be.  Invariably for me, it has been at one of the many alter.net addresses with the 152 address prefix.

I have done a search of these fora and it seems this issue crops up periodically and there seems to be no solution that I could find?  That is why I'm asking if it would be possible to block this range of addresses and see if the alternate routes Verizon may use would be free from this issue?  I don't know.  I'm tired and grasping at straws.

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
tns2
Community Leader
Community Leader

Probably the routers in question are not the problem.  The problem is most likely the ones these connect to next. 

Verizon and some of the others are in peering disputes.  They want free peering and verizon says they are not peers and should pay more/all the cost of Verizon connecting to them.  Cogent is the current biggest dispute and that effects Netflix and Youtube for some users. 

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
Sarsfield1
Enthusiast - Level 2

I really hope someone from Verizon would contact me so I could show them the traceroutes.  Some sites are almost completely inaccessible to me and others have packet losses up to 100%.  This sucks.

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
Maxszx
Newbie

I think I have the same issue as you. Some websites are completely inaccessible, most of which are foreign websites.

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
Sarsfield1
Enthusiast - Level 2

Verizon has to know about these issues.  i have been piecing together other bits of information from across the web and it does seem that Verizon shares these hubs with other ISP's and all of the ISP customers getting routed through these servers are suffering serious speed degradation because of an overload issue.  When I first got FIOS I was so excited about the speeds I was getting.  Now, it's a crapshoot as to whether some sites will ever even load.  Too bad they're the only game in town (for me) for speeds like the 75/35 plan that I have.  Google, please fiber up Western NY, will you?

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
nokomisfl
Newbie

Hey tireyjp,

I saw another post you had about losing connx at the same time every night.  They closed out the thread so I could not respond there - does not seem like they fixed anything for you - what did they tell you?  I lose mine at 9pm EST.  If I am watching Amazon, I can pretty much tell what time it is when the quality starts dropping.  I was never quite sure if it was Amazon or Verizon, but

I have additional issues:

-Roku box hardwired into router - cannot download new firmware - verification failure. Cold reboot on router, no change.

-Laptop on wireless could not download itunes thru apple update software, always fails.  Was able to direct download itunes exe and install.  Again, verification failure.  Seems like downloads are incomplete...

-ipad/iphone cannot update ios, had to take to work and updated fine on their internet.  Tried for 3 weeks with ipad to make sure it was not busy servers.  Always some "could not verify download" error.  I can't even download an app that is 1.5mb, and have to try multiple times to successfully download songs.

-Then there is the 9pm slowdown on amazon.

I have not wanted the trouble of trying to deal with verizon on this.  Now I see others have tried and gotten the response we all expect.

My tracert's aren't bad to google.com. But out of 3 tried, I did get one failure right after the Miami alternet.  Feels like I am getting packet drops, but cannot prove it.  However, a tracert to amazon.com, which they won't let resolve, showed some loss and bad speed.

Tracing route to amazon.com [72.21.215.232]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 2 ms 3 ms Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 3218 ms 7 ms 6 ms L100.TAMPFL-VFTTP-123.verizon-gni.net [173.78.12
7.1]
3 12 ms 14 ms 12 ms G0-9-1-2.TAMPFL-LCR-22.verizon-gni.net [130.81.1
33.142]
4 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms so-4-0-0-0.TPA01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81
.199.28]
5 * 18 ms 17 ms 0.ae2.BR1.MIA19.ALTER.NET [152.63.87.178]
6 19 ms 18 ms 18 ms 204.255.168.42

Sending 1000 byte pings to google is fairly steady at 25-30ms.  A few 2000ms pings, but no drops.

Reply from 74.125.229.201: bytes=1000 time=26ms TTL=57

Ping statistics for 74.125.229.201:
Packets: Sent = 98, Received = 98, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 24ms, Maximum = 2896ms, Average = 86ms

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
NSparks1
Newbie

I'm having issues at the Alter.net addresses too - starting today, though, so maybe whatever was being reported last month got fixed?  

C:\Users\Me>tracert google.com

Tracing route to google.com [74.125.226.194]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 6 ms 1 ms Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 7 ms 4 ms 4 ms L100.BSTNMA-VFTTP-165.verizon-gni.net [96.252.13
.1]
3 10 ms 9 ms 6 ms G0-5-5-6.BSTNMA-LCR-21.verizon-gni.net [130.81.1
88.148]
4 12 ms 9 ms 6 ms ae0-0.BOS-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.209.86
]
5 12 ms 11 ms 14 ms 0.xe-2-1-0.XT1.NYC4.ALTER.NET [152.63.18.58]
6 25 ms 25 ms 23 ms TenGigE0-6-2-0.GW8.NYC4.ALTER.NET [152.63.21.117
]
7 * 12 ms 12 ms google-gw.customer.alter.net [152.179.72.62]
8 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms 209.85.255.68
9 14 ms 16 ms 14 ms 72.14.239.250
10 14 ms 14 ms 14 ms lga15s28-in-f2.1e100.net [74.125.226.194]

The tech at Verizon (I got to speak to a level 2 support person) seemed to think that because the router was in my basement and I was on the main floor, this was the issue, despite both the router and my laptop having been in these positions most of the last four years!  Then he decided it was because we hadn't reset the router to factory defaults.  Both of these comments were AFTER I'd told him to look at the trace route I'd pasted into the chat I had earlier with their level 1 tech.  At that point, I decided it was not worth my time on the phone with him and hung up in frustration.

Is this their way of trying to force me to switch to their "quantum" fios?  Seriously, I've never had any issues with them, and I've had fios since it was first offered in my neighbourhood, which was four years ago, but I'm ready to go look for alternatives.  There should be a "I know what I'm doing, and I don't need you to walk me through resetting my router or rebooting my computer, take me to your leader!" button when you go to contact support.

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Re: alter.net issues (152.XX.X.XXX ADDRESSES)
NSparks1
Newbie

While I was waiting for a website to load (it didn't, it timed out) I was playing around with traceroute and decided to do one to verizon.com:

C:\Users\Me>tracert verizon.com

Tracing route to verizon.com [192.76.85.245]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms 1 ms <1 ms Wireless_Broadband_Router.home [192.168.1.1]
2 5 ms 4 ms 4 ms L100.BSTNMA-VFTTP-165.verizon-gni.net [96.252.13
.1]
3 9 ms 7 ms 9 ms G0-5-5-6.BSTNMA-LCR-22.verizon-gni.net [130.81.1
88.150]
4 12 ms 19 ms 9 ms ae0-0.BOS-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.209.94
]
5 75 ms 76 ms 74 ms 0.ae1.XT2.SAC1.ALTER.NET [140.222.225.217]
6 75 ms 76 ms 74 ms GigabitEthernet7-0-0.GW9.SAC1.ALTER.NET [152.63.
55.77]
7 75 ms 75 ms 75 ms verizon-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.193.66]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * verizon-gw.customer.alter.net [157.130.193.66] reports: Destinati
on net unreachable.

Trace complete.

So, that'd be why posting on here is taking me ages...  I really hope someone at Verizon has noticed and is working on getting traffic through alter.net restored, since the domain appears to be owned by Verizon Business.  

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