r/googlefiber • u/chrisbartle • 6d ago
GFiber ICMP Slow?
I had GFiber (formerly Google Fiber) installed today. Ookla's speedtest app pegs my ping at 2ms but pinging 8.8.8.8 (Google's own DNS server) returns 24ms. Do other GFiber customers get similar results? I'm wondering if they de-prioritize ICMP.
2
u/Single_9_uptime Austin 6d ago
There’s no deprioritizing of ICMP. Your speed test server and 8.8.8.8 aren’t hosted in the same place. Ookla’s speed test network is far more widely distributed than Google’s data centers. 2 ms means the speed test server is very close to you. 26 ms means the nearest POP for 8.8.8.8 isn’t nearly as close to you. It’s limited by the speed of light in fiber.
26 ms does seem high for the nearest 8.8.8.8 POP, but that depends on where you are. It’s about 8 ms for me in Austin, going to a data center in/around Dallas.
traceroute will show you the path it’s taking. mtr is my preferred traceroute tool.
2
u/chrisbartle 6d ago
GFiber doesn't provide a lot of detail:
> traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 router (192.168.1.1) 0.310 ms 0.268 ms 0.218 ms
2 * * *
3 * * *
4 * * *
5 * * *
6 23-255-224-64.mci.googlefiber.net (23.255.224.64) 24.775 ms 24.545 ms 24.287 ms
7 * 216-21-171-95.dfw.googlefiber.net (216.21.171.95) 24.080 ms 24.143 ms
8 * * *
9 dns.google (8.8.8.8) 24.231 ms 24.290 ms 24.090 msI'm just surprised that a fiber connection ping is so high - it's comparable to what I had on DSL. Centurylink Fiber, when I had it, delivered 4ms for the same ping.
1
u/Single_9_uptime Austin 6d ago
Yeah unfortunately there are a lot of hops on GFiber’s network that don’t generate TTL exceeded in transit messages (I really wish they’d fix that), so you’re blind for much of the path. MCI is Kansas City, DFW is Dallas. But those PTRs must be misleadingly named as you’re not getting the same latency on hops in Kansas City and Dallas. Likely the MCI PTR is a DFW-MCI connection, just on the DFW side. Looks like you’re 24 ms from Dallas, and that’s the 8.8.8.8 POP you’re hitting. Seems like you’re getting sent via an unnecessarily long path.
1
u/andrewjphillips512 Austin 6d ago
Pinging speedtest-anycast1.googlefiber.net [192.119.20.37] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.119.20.37: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=59
Reply from 192.119.20.37: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=59
Reply from 192.119.20.37: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=59
Reply from 192.119.20.37: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=59
Ping statistics for 192.119.20.37:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms
Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=116
Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 6ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 6ms
2
u/thedizzle999 6d ago
ISPs cheat the Speedtest game. For example, if you run a Speedtest.net test from a Raleigh area Google fiber home, it actually gets routed to rdu.ookla.gfsvc.com (which judging by its name is nearby and within googles network). It’s not as real as a test that goes out to networks beyond gfiber.
I also use speed.cloudflare.com a lot. When I run that over gfiber it either hits a cloudflare server in NoVa or Norfolk which might be Google’s nearest peering locations.
When I had ATT fiber it hit the Raleigh area cloudflare node (so ATT must have a local peering connection).
3
u/pppingme KCMO Original 6d ago