Recent connection routing problem

[talthos]

Within the past week or so, my connection latency to a specific game server (located in or close to either Las Vegas, or San Diego) has increased by over twice its usual average.

Running a traceroute to the server's IP address, indicates that Shaw seems to be routing my connection all the way to Winnipeg, instead of moving the connection south through Vancouver (as it usually did prior to this issue).

For reference, the destination IP address (the game server address) is 64.37.174.140

Below are the results of the traceroute I ran:
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| router.lan - 0 | 100 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 70.67.160.1 - 80 | 25 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 16 | 9 |
| rd1cv-be115-1.gv.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 13 |
| 24.244.61.85 - 80 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 10 |
| 24.244.61.117 - 80 | 25 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 14 |
| 24.244.61.109 - 80 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 13 | 17 | 10 |
| rd1lp-be1.gv.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 10 |
| rc1wt-be40.wa.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 19 | 17 |
| rc3so-be82.cg.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 38 | 42 | 39 |
| rc4ec-be13.il.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 67 | 70 | 69 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ae2-3608.msr2.Washington12.Level3.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 79 | 82 | 81 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No response from host - 100 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

[talthos]

Noticed how messy the WinMTR copy-pasted text formatting was, so I ran the test again and took a screenshot of the results this time:

[mdk]

Tracing route to lvspsn-liv-gw01.station.sony.com [64.37.174.140]

Could "lvs" be "Las Vegas" ?

rd1lp-be1.gv.shawcable.net     - 80 | 25 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 10 |
rc1wt-be40.wa.shawcable.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 19 | 17 |
rc3so-be82.cg.shawcable.net  - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 38 | 42 | 39 |
rc4ec-be13.il.shawcable.net    - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 67 | 70 | 69 |
ae2-3608.msr2.Washington12.Level3.net - 80 | 25 | 5 | 0 | 79 | 82 | 81 |

where: ae2-3608.msr2.Washington12.Level3.net  is [4.69.220.142]

Notes:

GV == Greater Victoria

WA == probably misnamed of a Shaw router in Vancouver  [66.163.75.245]

CG == Calgary  [66.163.78.37]

IL == Illinois [66.163.65.18] judging by its IP-address, probably the other end of the fiber-optic cable connecting Calgary to Illinois

Washington == in Washington State, as determined, below. Presumably, a fibre-optic cable from Illinois to the Seattle area, and presumably managed by "LEVEL3", *not* by SHAW.

Now, a trace to one of those routers in the USA:

Tracing route to ae2-3608.msr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.220.142]
6  8 ms rd1lp-be1.gv.shawcable.net [66.163.72.22]
7 11 ms rc1wt-be40.wa.shawcable.net [66.163.68.18]
8 12 ms rc2wt-be18-1.wa.shawcable.net [66.163.64.82]
9 12 ms lag-111.ear3.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.71.152.133]

10 12 ms ae12.3602.ebr4.Seattle1.level3.net [4.69.203.170]
11 37 ms ae7.3.ebr6.Denver1.level3.net [4.69.203.238]
12 46 ms ae9.9.ebr1.KansasCity2.level3.net [4.69.227.37]

13 63 ms ae15.15.ebr2.Cleveland1.level3.net [4.69.226.201]
14 63 62 ms ae1.11.ebr1.Cleveland1.level3.net [4.69.133.189]

15 71 ms ae5.5.ebr2.Washington12.level3.net [4.69.210.101]
16 74 ms ae2-3608.msr2.Washington12.Level3.net [4.69.220.142]

This implies that [4.69.220.142] is in Washington State, not Washington in the District of Columbia.

It seems to be strange routing between #10 (above) and #16 (also above) -- in-and-out of Washington State.

Notice that Shaw is routing from Vancouver to Seattle, via [4.71.152.133]

In summary, the routing-tables (inside every router, both operated by Shaw and operated by others) define the "best" path to reach every destination, given information about which "hops" are currently working (and bypassing those those "hops" that are not active).   So, it's up to SONY to "broadcast" the routing-information to reach their servers, and the responsibility for all the other routers on the Internet to accept and use SONY's routing-information. 

There is nothing that Shaw can do to "manually" configure their routers.  So, it is incorrect to blame Shaw for the current routing-tables. All you can try is to contact SONY.

[talthos]

None of this explains why my connection is getting routed all the way to Winnipeg and Chicago (through Shaw's nodes, no less).

Do I need to provide my current Shaw IP for the rest of this troubleshooting?

[mdk]

@talthos -- None of this explains why my connection is getting routed all the way to Winnipeg and Chicago (through Shaw's nodes, no less).

Routing tables assign "costs" for each route, and may use the "load" on each hop. Compare to truckers going uphill on a highway using the "granny-lane", leaving the other lane(s) open for faster traffic.

In your case, the "cost" (to Shaw) of routing through Vancouver to Seattle, on the way to Las Vegas, is higher than the "cost" (almost none) of routing through Shaw's Canada-based network as far as possible, i.e., into Illinois.

Most of the routers leading to Las Vegas are NOT under Shaw's management. SONY needs to publish "better" routing-tables to reach their site. When they do, Shaw's routers will automatically use those routing-tables.