dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
1791

MauryM
@bell.ca

MauryM

Anon

Ping times of Rogers vs. Bell lines?

I'll be moving shortly into the Ajax/Pickering area, and as part of the move I'd like to switch ISPs. I alternate between 25 GB a month and 75 GB a month depending on how many iTV movies we download. So I'd prefer to move to someone with higher caps like Acanac, or even Fibe if it's available in the area (no idea).

The alternate providers offer both ADSL and cable, and that's why I'm here. We have Bell at work on 5 Mbps ADSL and we often clog it. I brought in Rogers to fix that, but in fact this dramatically increased our ping times to a vital service, so much so that it essentially stopped working. While on a call to another company in the US, he opined that cable is generally worse for latency than ADSL.

So, is this true? I'm a gamer, so low latency is important to me. I always believed this was due more to upstream effects, but having tried this in the office I'm no longer sure.
avp77
join:2010-07-10

avp77

Member

Though I've heard it said that cable usually has a higher ping than DSL, it hasn't been the case for me. I recently switched from DSL to cable, and in both cases I can get 10ms to a local server, unless there's some kind of problem.

MauryM
@bell.ca

MauryM

Anon

Ok cool. Actually, how local is local in this case?
avp77
join:2010-07-10

avp77

Member

Well, I usually go by the local servers on speedtest.net. So, in this case, I'm located in Etobicoke, and I'm pinging servers in downtown Toronto.

Ott_Cable
@teksavvy.com

Ott_Cable to MauryM

Anon

to MauryM
For most of the IISP customers out there, "local" means Toronto as their traffic terminates at 115 Front Street even when the office address of their ISP or the location of the customer is a few hours away from Toronto. So "local" traffic involves another trip back to where the customer happens to be if they are outside of Toronto.

Latency Local = make no sense unless your ISP have their traffic terminated in your local area.

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom to MauryM

Premium Member

to MauryM
Routing is going to change from one ISP to another.

For example, I have both Acanac DSL and Teksavvy Cable running in my place. They ping the same to Toronto servers. To New York, Chicago and Virginia Teksavvy pings in the nigh thirties. Acanac can only do 50ms + to any of those locations. Or at least that's how it was the last time I checked, Teksavvy has gone through periods of worse pings to some cities themselves, and maybe the Acanac slowness was only temporary.

In fact, I think I'll run some more tests tonight

MauryM
@bell.ca

MauryM

Anon

Well from all of these reports, it seems that there is likely no pattern. Teddy's pings are the inverse of mine, which is interesting!

From here at work on Bell, we get ~30 ms to Toronto, 50 to VA, and - my fav - ~25 to Chicago (yeah, I can't figure that one either). But the only one that mattered was the route to Utah, which is about 85 ms.

I didn't try any "local pings" when we had the Rogers here, but the same Utah connection was about 115 ms. When I try the same Toronto servers from Rogers at home, it's 10 to 12 ms. But that might be time of day.

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom

Premium Member

Pings this evening are consistent between Acanac DSL and Teksavvy Cable, sub 40 to Virginia.

MauryM
@bell.ca

MauryM

Anon

Ok, thanks Teddy. That's what I'm getting from home too, and add 10 ms for daytime from work.

Testing Bell at work vs. Rogers at work gets me 25 ms to the server we're trying to get to in Utah - Rogers is consistently longer. Testing on Rogers from home gets me 20 ms, so it's definitely a Rogers problem.
JMCD23
join:2010-12-06
London, ON

JMCD23 to MauryM

Member

to MauryM
Here in London it's odd. Rogers pings ~30ms to Chicago and about ~30ms to NYC. Bell pings sub 20ms to Chicago and closer to 40ms to NYC. I also ping better to Europe because of this on Rogers than Bell. I imagine this is due to Bell having better routing out of London westward where as Rogers goes to Toronto first.

Teddy Boom
k kudos Received
Premium Member
join:2007-01-29
Toronto, ON

Teddy Boom to MauryM

Premium Member

to MauryM
Tracking ping times on various networks is something that should get more attention. Lots of customers care more about ping times than any other aspect of their service. At the same time, it changes so often, and so many variables can skew results, that I don't have any great ideas about how to do it.
Teddy Boom

Teddy Boom to MauryM

Premium Member

to MauryM
I'm pinging 55-60 to New York on Acanac DSL tonight. I'd normally ping 35-40 via Teksavvy cable. Maybe my first comment was accurate except that Acanac gets good routing to Virginia?!!? Kind of strange really, but there you have it
InvalidError
join:2008-02-03

InvalidError to MauryM

Member

to MauryM
said by MauryM :

From here at work on Bell, we get ~30 ms to Toronto, 50 to VA, and - my fav - ~25 to Chicago (yeah, I can't figure that one either).

That is simple: Bell does not have local peering in Quebec and Ontario, they interconnect in Boston, NY and Chicago so you will get best pings beyond Bell's network in Boston, NY and Chicago.

For people with TSI or any Front-Street ISP, they will get best pings to Toronto. For Beaver-Hall/Rene-Levesque ISPs, they will get best pings to Montreal.

Where you get best pings to other networks from depends on where the ISP interconnects with other networks.

MauryM
@bell.ca

MauryM

Anon

That is very useful information Invalid. Can you comment to the situation on Rogers?

I don't recall the Toronto pings on Rogers, but the pings to NY and Chitown seemed similar to Bell. It was only Utah that seemed *really* different.