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Networking treasure hunt!

H

HiFiGuy1

Well-known member
Authorized Kaleidescape Dealer
We've been conversing lately in the CES thread about differences in download speeds versus our ISP's account limits. Many of us have accounts that offer 75-250 Mbps. Many of those are getting download speeds from K which are a substantial portion of, if not maxing out, our account settings, at least the guys who have accounts up to about 100 Mbps. Guys who have 75 Meg accounts are getting at least mid-high 60s from K. I am supposed to be getting 105/10, and every speed test I've done in the last couple of days from this computer, from a variety of test servers across the country, has validated that ability, but I am seeing K download rates on a per movie average of no better than about 37, and as low as 16.

So, I think it would be good to start a thread dedicated to the variability of downloads that some (me for sure, but there have to be others) are seeing when we get content from The Store. I have been on the phone with K a couple of times today, and with my ISP's escalated support a couple of times, and we've made some early progress.

I am sending in logs for a couple of trace routes that I did today, but in order to validate my theory, I need some comparative data, so I have a request for the class.

Everyone, whether you get downloads at nearly 100 Mbps or 20 Mbps, who can do a trace route would be immensely useful. All you have to do is:

If you have a PC:
1. Open the command prompt of your (Windows) computer
2. At the prompt, type in tracert www.kaleidescape.com and hit enter.

Let the results happen. It will stop after 30 hops.

If you have a Mac:
Take the following steps to run a traceroute on Macintosh OS X:
Double-click the Macintosh hard drive.
Double-click the Applications folder.
Double-click the Utilities folder.
Double-click the Network Utility icon to open the Network Utility window.
Click the Traceroute tab

Then repeat (on either machine) with tracert store.kaleidescape.com and hit enter.

Let the results happen.

Easy way for the next step is to capture the screen for both results so we can see the hops. If you'd rather not have ALL the hops, back to you, showing, just please send me the ones with names in the suffix, like comcast.net, or att.net or cogentco.com, etc. Leave out the first one or two if you're "security conscious".

The last one, I suspect, will end with something like pnap.net, with an address of 66.151.144.92 or very similar, which would indicate we are getting very close to the K servers. Those are hidden behind firewalls, so we can't ping them directly.

E-mail the results to me please.

My goal is to work out from the K server vicinity back towards the endpoints, and compare data rates on the client end with the routes that the data take. Once the data leaves K, it all goes out some common paths, and then begins to diverge at some point. Guys like House72 (Raj) and Poindexter who live outside the front door of the K facility will provide some useful data, and guys who live in places like Atlanta and Miami can offer some excellent data. The more commonality that is discovered, the easier it will be to whittle down to the actual culprit.

This is kind of a treasure hunt, and unfortunately you guys are not going to directly receive any treasure (I am sorry for that!) but it would be a magnanimous gesture, and would be helping your fellow man to achieve a better (Kaleidescape) life. If it helps even one other person resolve this critical, life-altering issue, it will be worth it. :D
 
On Mac

If you are using Yosemite OS on Mac Network utility has moved. You can go to finder and then click go to folder and type /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications

Cheers

Raj
 
Do you have an email address I can send these results to?

By the way, I am getting request timed out responses about half way through the 30 hops. Hope my data helps when you get it.
 
happy to help. I just PM'd you my results.
 
Mr.Poindexter said:
Do you have an email address I can send these results to?

By the way, I am getting request timed out responses about half way through the 30 hops. Hope my data helps when you get it.
Click to expand...

My screen name at Gmail. I am seeing the tracert time out starting at hop 17, and going to 30. The last one with a result has been the one that is very near 66.151.144.92. One result gave me 93, but the first three octets are the same. If you think of the store as a garden, I think that hop is the last one before the fence. That's why the rest of them are timing out, or at least that's my theory.
 
House72 said:
If you are using Yosemite OS on Mac Network utility has moved. You can go to finder and then click go to folder and type /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications

Cheers

Raj
Click to expand...

Raj,
Thanks for the heads up. Do you results for me, by chance? :)
 
The funny thing is, I just noticed that all three of you so far live within minutes of K's doorstep. Ironically, I used to live in San Bruno, but that was eons ago.
 
Thanks to all the guys who have come through so far. I really do appreciate it!!

I would love to hear from JohnJ and Cinelife, too, since I know that you are in different regions, and the data may be useful. Not that we don't want all the data we can get, but I know John's in Big D, and Jim's in FL.
 
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It occurs to me now that an ideal data set would include the following:
1. Empirical data from several movie downloads, incl. date, time, avg. rate, file size
2. Your server's location (just city/state), assuming it's the same network as your test computer
3. Your tracert data
4. Your data plan (so, for example, you're showing around 40 Mbps downloads, we don't think we have an anomalous low DL rate, when really you're actually only paying for 50 Mbps service ;) )
 
Thank you, Jerry! We're getting a great looking sample together now. Lots of diversity in location and providers.
 
Thanks again, guys! This has become kind of a fun project, especially with everybody stepping up and contributing. I was kind of disgusted with my ISP at first, and now unexpectedly, I find myself enjoying the process.
 
I don't think submitting trace routes from ones computer to store.kaleidescape.com is going to solve the issue.

What needs to be done by Kaleidescape is to do a reverse Trace Route from the movie download server BACK to ones Kaleidescape server. Doing a trace route from you computer to Kaleidescapes store does not tell you anything about the hops going from their movie download servers to your Kaleidescape server.

If you know the IP address of the server(s) Kaleidescape movies download from then you can do a trace using the DNS NS of their movie servers and that MAY help a LITTLE. But in order to resolve this issue you need to look at traffic/hops coming from Kaleidescapes movie servers to your Kaleidescape server.
 
That's what the guys at the ISP are trying to do, I think. The several data sets I have gotten so far have shown some consistency in paths, all ending at the same address group, outside their server farm. I spoke with the guys inside at K, and their system will not allow a ping or tracert to get to the K server farm. Understandably, I might add.

Using data from a variety of different systems around the country is allowing us to eliminate variables and work towards a solution based on what's different about each path. Only using data from any one of the systems doesn't give enough information to determine anything, even if it was to mine, or another problematic link. Ideally, with all the data sets in, there would only be one unique section of the path, and that would indicate the likely location of the problem. I am not counting on that much specificity, but I hope, with more and more sets of data, we can really narrow it down.

I would be happy to let K hit my router if they want, though. So if that's the best solution, we'll definitely pursue it.
 
Not sure how useful they are, but I just emailed you my two screen shots from the requested traces. Have fun.





Jim
 
Sent you my tracert.

A few recent downloads:
  • Feb 15, 2015: Theory of Everything (HD). Completed in 1 hour, 11 minutes @ 77.8 Mbps
  • Jan 24, 2015: IMAX: Hubble. Completed in 26 minutes @ 79.1 Mbps

I'm in Saratoga, CA.

ISP: Comcast

I pay for a 80Mbps line, but tonight Speedtest.net (Ookla) showed me getting 110Mbps down, 10Mbps up.
 
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