Who is networklayer.com and why are they dropping my packets?

Trying to play on TX server, backup with Wash D.C.

WinMRT shows me going to ATT Houston and then to Dallas it looks like, then to networklayer.com for a few hops. Second hop into this domain I'm getting 80 - 100 percent packet loss.


|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| WinMTR statistics |
| Host - % | Sent | Recv | Best | Avrg | Wrst | Last |
|------------------------------------------------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| 192.168.1.1 - 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|adsl-69-153-207-254.dsl.hstntx.swbell.net - 0 | 10 | 10 | 48 | 53 | 61 | 50 |
| 12.83.86.1 - 0 | 10 | 10 | 47 | 54 | 60 | 58 |
| gar10.hs1tx.ip.att.net - 0 | 10 | 10 | 47 | 55 | 65 | 47 |
| 12.116.56.174 - 0 | 10 | 10 | 46 | 51 | 58 | 50 |
| ae3.bbr01.eq01.dal03.networklayer.com - 0 | 10 | 10 | 54 | 62 | 91 | 60 |
| No response from host - 100 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ae0.cbs01.tl01.atl01.networklayer.com - 17 | 6 | 5 | 72 | 83 | 87 | 72 |
| ae0.cbs01.eq01.wdc02.networklayer.com - 25 | 4 | 3 | 88 | 96 | 105 | 88 |
| e9.11.6132.ip4.static.sl-reverse.com - 0 | 10 | 10 | 88 | 96 | 105 | 96 |
| 83.76.37a9.ip4.static.sl-reverse.com - 0 | 10 | 10 | 98 | 101 | 108 | 100 |
| 16.01.2fa9.ip4.static.sl-reverse.com - 0 | 10 | 10 | 98 | 101 | 110 | 98 |
|________________________________________________|______|______|______|______|______|______|
WinMTR v0.92 GPL V2 by Appnor MSP - Fully Managed Hosting & Cloud Provider

I called the ISP tech support and reported this, he said there was some noise and loss between my home and the ISP (I'm not seeing it) and has scheduled a tech *eyeroll. I tried to ask what that has to do with an unresponsive host seven drops down the line. I tried this test with multiple sites (Facebook, Google, Pathofexile.com), same story, dropped 7 hops in.

Apparently if you want to report a potential backbone issue to an ISP you have to WORK at the ISP, because first-line tech support is helpless.

Anyway, anybody know this networklayer.com, or notice the same drops?

This is a problem with your ISP. Wait for their tech support or simple get new internet provider.

PS: networklayer.com are related to the PoE servers - hosting or ISP. But it does not matter if you have packet drops to the different sites, like google, facebook, etc..

"

U:\Users\BlackSun>tracert pathofexile.com
...
15 187 ms 187 ms 188 ms po1.fcr05.sr06.dal01.networklayer.com [66.228.118.221]
16 186 ms 187 ms 187 ms mail2.pathofexile.com [173.192.44.20]

Networklayer is part of the "SoftLayer Network" These are one of the Network Providers used by GGG to host their game servers.

As far as your MTR is concerned, ideally, to get a realistic view of the path, you'll need to run the trace for around 10 minutes. However, in the short trace you provided the 'packet loss' you're seeing is just ICMP rate limiting In essence, some busy routers are configured to deprioritise ICMP packets - one of the of protocols used by MTR/ping/traceroute etc., - and in some cases to drop them entirely.

As far as the 'noise' is concerned, I would imagine the engineer you spoke to is referring to the difference between the highest and lowest latency seen at each hop. For example, in the second hop - adsl-69-153-207-254.dsl.hstntx.swbell.net the lowest latency is 10ms and the highest is 61ms. If you read the link posted above you'll probably get a better understanding of what this means.

If you're experiencing problems whilst playing the game, run the MTR for around 10 minutes whilst playing. You can post the result here.

"

bSun0000 wrote:

This is a problem with your ISP. Wait for their tech support or simple get new internet provider.

PS: networklayer.com are related to the PoE servers - hosting or ISP. But it does not matter if you have packet drops to the different sites, like google, facebook, etc..

"

U:\Users\BlackSun>tracert pathofexile.com
...
15 187 ms 187 ms 188 ms po1.fcr05.sr06.dal01.networklayer.com [66.228.118.221]
16 186 ms 187 ms 187 ms mail2.pathofexile.com [173.192.44.20]

Thanks for the help! Yeah my internet in general is very spotty. If I lived closer to the CO/hub I'm sure I would have at least a marginally better experience, but I don't and my poor ADSL is like The Little Engine That Could. However I called the ISP advanced support about it and they ended up rebuilding the "redback" (??). I asked him to repeat it a few times but he acted like he didn't want to tell me the term.

It seems a little better now. Thanks for your time!

"

Kellog wrote:

Networklayer is part of the "SoftLayer Network" These are one of the Network Providers used by GGG to host their game servers.

As far as your MTR is concerned, ideally, to get a realistic view of the path, you'll need to run the trace for around 10 minutes. However, in the short trace you provided the 'packet loss' you're seeing is just ICMP rate limiting In essence, some busy routers are configured to deprioritise ICMP packets - one of the of protocols used by MTR/ping/traceroute etc., - and in some cases to drop them entirely.

As far as the 'noise' is concerned, I would imagine the engineer you spoke to is referring to the difference between the highest and lowest latency seen at each hop. For example, in the second hop - adsl-69-153-207-254.dsl.hstntx.swbell.net the lowest latency is 10ms and the highest is 61ms. If you read the link posted above you'll probably get a better understanding of what this means.

If you're experiencing problems whilst playing the game, run the MTR for around 10 minutes whilst playing. You can post the result here.

Thank you! That's a great resource, I'll definitely be looking at it! I think it may be a little better the tier two support tech says it looks as okay is it can after he rebuilt the redback (see my above reply to bSun0000) but I'll just have to wait for 5G or move.

If problems reoccur tonight, I'll take your suggestion and post the 10-min MTR results. Thank you, Kellog.