Learning about the internet

Mon Nov 3 21:15:15 UTC 2014

Hi,

I was just reading about transatlantic cabling in some hopes that I
would be able to find an answer as to why the latency between here in
greece and Los Angeles is roughly ~250ms. This seems to be a really
common thing, although I'd like to understand why and the articles on
transatlantic cabling as near as I can tell indicate that I am getting
screwed if anything (not enough information?)

(from Los Angeles to my house)
Konsole output

Konsole output
gw~ #mtr --report-wide xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.access.hol.gr
Start: Mon Nov  3 13:04:02 2014
HOST: gw                                    Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg
 Best  Wrst StDev
 1.|-- 208.79.92.65                          10.0%    10    1.5   3.6
  1.2  15.5   4.6
 2.|-- s7.lax.arpnetworks.com                 0.0%    10    0.8  10.9
  0.8  54.2  20.7
 3.|-- vlan953.car2.LosAngeles1.Level3.net   30.0%    10   10.5  10.3
 10.1  10.8   0.0
 4.|-- ae-27-27.edge6.LosAngeles1.Level3.net 30.0%    10   21.8  16.2
  8.6  47.6  14.7
 5.|-- ae-4-90.edge1.LosAngeles6.Level3.net  80.0%    10    9.0   8.9
  8.7   9.0   0.0
 6.|-- be3036.ccr21.lax04.atlas.cogentco.com 10.0%    10    1.7   2.1
  1.4   4.3   0.7
 7.|-- be2076.mpd22.lax01.atlas.cogentco.com 10.0%    10    1.6   1.9
  1.6   3.2   0.0
 8.|-- be2068.ccr22.iah01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10   37.7  37.7
 37.3  39.0   0.3
 9.|-- be2173.ccr42.atl01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10   51.6  52.4
 51.5  57.5   1.7
10.|-- be2171.mpd22.dca01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10   62.6  62.7
 62.4  63.3   0.0
11.|-- be2112.ccr41.iad02.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  155.5 155.8
155.5 156.1   0.0
12.|-- be2268.ccr42.par01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  152.6 152.7
152.5 153.5   0.0
13.|-- be2278.ccr42.fra03.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  155.3 155.4
155.1 155.5   0.0
14.|-- be2229.ccr22.muc01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  161.2 161.1
160.9 161.3   0.0
15.|-- be2223.ccr21.vie01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  164.9 165.1
164.9 165.2   0.0
16.|-- be2046.ccr21.sof02.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  189.5 189.4
189.3 189.9   0.0
17.|-- be2118.rcr11.ath01.atlas.cogentco.com  0.0%    10  197.5 197.6
197.4 197.7   0.0
18.|-- 149.11.120.38                          0.0%    10  202.7 202.2
200.3 204.2   1.4
19.|-- 62.38.97.113                          80.0%    10  208.5 209.8
208.5 211.1   1.7
20.|-- gigaeth04-13.krs00.ar.hol.gr          60.0%    10  211.3 213.0
211.2 218.2   3.4
21.|-- ???                                   100.0    10    0.0   0.0
  0.0   0.0   0.0
22.|-- xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.access.hol.gr         40.0%    10  231.3 231.4
231.2 231.7   0.0
gw~ #

And to be more clear: I am hoping to learn about the complex trials that
these packets are going through and how time is being lost if the
latency across the transatlantic cable is really capable of less the
60ms of latency? Sure over capacity (3.2Tbits/s wow jeez) is one answer,
but what are some other possibilities for loss of time?

Also it seems with my VPN (OpenVPN) tunnel I get the most reliable
connection (fewest drops) with:

Konsole output
mssfix 576
fragment 576

Although this could be a false positive as it only *seems* to help with
reliability since I changed it. Even then but less often than before I
still experience drops but I want to believe that's possibly due to my
ISP at that point.. but assuming my ISP was absolutely perfect and never
a problem what else there to consider?

Any and all insight is appreciated.

-Paige