High latency and poor speed tests lately

Question

For the past 4-5 days, I've been working with various Verizon techs to resolve a high latency/slow Internet problem.  Their ultimate solution was that they have no idea why it's doing this, and since I can reach a few websites at full speed and their line tests show I'm operating at full provisioning, it's not their problem.  "We can't control traffic outside of our networks."  Well, my results are also showing problems with the Verizon servers, so I would think they should be more concerned.  Most websites, however, exhibit the problem.  So I'm stuck, looking for a better answer than "go away."  Maybe some of you are experiencing a similar problem with latency or sporadic speeds?
My provisioning is 20M/5M.  I'm in the L.A. area. (In the traceroutes below, I masked Hop 2 for privacy.)
I've experienced this problem with 2 computers (1 desktop, 1 laptop), both using Ethernet ports; one test using wireless on the laptop.  I've plugged the router directly into the ONT coax to eliminate my house wiring as the culprit.  Westell 9100EM router.
A few websites seem okay, and speedtest.net results always show provisioning at full speed to the L.A. server, but the problem persists when using the non-L.A. server.  With speakeasy.net, even the L.A. server exhibits the problem.  The latency gets worse as the night goes on, sometimes over 1000ms for some traceroute hops.  In the morning, it seems to be back to normal.
Thanks for any help....
Jeff
Some examples...
In the past 2 mornings, I've had good results:
Speed Test (speakeasy.net, Los Angeles): ~ 19798K/4581K
Speed Test (speedtest.net, Los Angeles): always shows full provisioning ~19.74M, 4.56M, 19ms ping
Speed Test (speedtest.net, Dallas): ~ 19.81M/4.37M, 49ms ping
Tracing route to www.l.google.com [74.125.19.104]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  myrouter.home [192.168.1.1]
  2     8 ms     7 ms     7 ms  xxxx.xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx.verizon-gni.net [173.55.xxx.xxx]
  3     8 ms    10 ms     9 ms  G4-0-6-1142.LSANCA-LCR-11.verizon-gni.net [130.81.140.122]
  4    11 ms    53 ms    11 ms  so-4-3-0-0.LAX01-BB-RTR1.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.244]
  5    13 ms    12 ms    12 ms  0.so-1-2-0.XL3.LAX15.ALTER.NET [152.63.10.133]
  6    12 ms    11 ms    13 ms  0.ge-7-0-0.BR2.LAX15.ALTER.NET [152.63.116.157]
  7     9 ms    12 ms    42 ms  xe-11-0-0.edge1.SanJose3.level3.net [4.68.111.249]
  8    14 ms    12 ms    17 ms  ae-63-60.ebr3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.69.144.52]
  9    21 ms    34 ms    35 ms  ae-2.ebr3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.132.9]
 10    26 ms    19 ms    19 ms  ae-83-83.csw3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.134.234]
 11    21 ms    22 ms    22 ms  ae-3-89.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.142]
 12    23 ms    22 ms    23 ms  GOOGLE-INC.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.146]
 13    29 ms    34 ms    22 ms  209.85.251.98
 14    20 ms    23 ms    19 ms  nuq04s01-in-f104.1e100.net [74.125.19.104]
In the past 4-5 evenings, I've had poor results:
Speed Test (speakeasy.net, Los Angeles): ~ 2441K/194K
Speed Test (speedtest.net, Los Angeles): always shows full provisioning ~19.74M, 4.56M, 19ms ping
Speed Test (speedtest.net, Dallas): ~ 8.28M/1.22M, 49ms ping
Tracing route to www.l.google.com [74.125.19.105]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  myrouter.home [192.168.1.1]
  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  xxxx.xxxxx-xxxxx-xxx.verizon-gni.net [173.55.xxx.xxx]
  3   531 ms   502 ms   514 ms  G4-0-6-1242.LSANCA-LCR-12.verizon-gni.net [130.81.140.162]
  4   519 ms   506 ms   530 ms  so-4-3-0-0.LAX01-BB-RTR2.verizon-gni.net [130.81.29.246]
  5   563 ms   564 ms   553 ms  0.so-1-2-0.XL4.LAX15.ALTER.NET [152.63.10.125]
  6   577 ms   544 ms   524 ms  0.ge-6-1-0.BR2.LAX15.ALTER.NET [152.63.116.153]
  7   477 ms   469 ms   459 ms  xe-10-1-0.edge1.LosAngeles9.Level3.net [4.68.63.129]
  8    11 ms    17 ms    19 ms  ae-93-90.ebr3.LosAngeles1.Level3.net [4.69.144.244]
  9   515 ms   559 ms   536 ms  ae-2.ebr3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.132.9]
 10    20 ms    19 ms    19 ms  ae-83-83.csw3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.134.234]
 11   524 ms   499 ms   544 ms  ae-3-89.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.142]
 12   490 ms   479 ms   464 ms  GOOGLE-INC.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.146]
 13    24 ms    22 ms    32 ms  209.85.251.98
 14    23 ms    22 ms   489 ms  nuq04s01-in-f105.1e100.net [74.125.19.105]
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

MisterJefferson, your problem looks to be with hop #3. That is a Verizon router just after the gateway router for you. This will need to be addressed by a Verizon Network technician. Your hops to your router and your hop to the gateway look fine. Verizon will need to reboot that second router or re-route your hops.
Chernabog, yours is more difficult, you dont have any obvious big issue. However you do have a moderate jump at hop number 8. this is off the verizon network and is out on the internet. on one of the ATT routers. Unlikely you are going to be able to do anything about this. And as it is off the Verizon network, there would be nothing verizon could do about it either. Usually though, if it is a router needing rebooting, it will generally self correct after a few days. Or you could be unlucky enough to be going through a system that is overloaded or just plain old. This can be frustraiting. I myself play a lot of online games and if the server is in Washington DC (I'm in California) one of the hops I have to go through is in kentucky with sprintlink and their routers constantly give me a 500ms ping and I havent been able to get it corrected in over 4 years. Something we sometimes have to live with when it is out of our control.
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