First, I'd just like to say "Thank You!" for continuing to offer a freeware version of PingPlotter. This is a great program!

I'm managing a store at CafePress.com and have grown quite frustrated with having to click each link or button 3 or more times in order to get a page to load. As you'll see in my pic below, the destination address is unreachable, which, if I read the help files correctly, means their server(s) deny ICMP echo requests. But Hops 9 and 10 look awfully suspicious to me. Am I right, or is it too hard to tell without having the final destination info?

Hops 9 and 10 do show packet loss, but that packet loss isn't directly reflected in downstream hops.

More of a problem is what you see at hop 3 - which is adding latency at downstream hops, and possibly packet loss too.

It looks like hop 3 is probably your cable modem (I'm guessing here). Without seeing more data, it's hard to say for sure, but it looks like your ISP is one of the leading suspects in this problem.

The final destination can be helpful in determining the problem, but isn't absolutely necessary. It depends a lot on what problems you're experiencing, though, and whether or not those problems are with just that one target or if it's all targets.

- Pete

That's interesting. My internet access is a little different. I don't actually have a modem. DSL is included in my rent, and I plug my router/firewall (which must be Hop 1) straight into the wall. I believe the way it works is that between myself (and my apartment community neighbors) and a Verizon DSL line is a company serving as a middleman that is splitting the bandwidth between us. So the middle man would be Hop 2, and Verizon is Hop 3(?). My router's Default Gateway is the same as Hop 2. I hope that helps or makes sense.

And if that is where my problem lies, shouldn't I have this problem with every site I visit? This issue only happens with CafePress.

If you're only seeing this problem on this one target, then it's pretty important that you can trace to that target. You have packet loss and latency variations at earlier hops (as discussed), but 2% loss isn't going to cause chronic timeout problems. You might try using PingPlotter Standard (an evaluation version is available so you can test it without having to buy a license) and use the TCP packet type to try and get a picture of the response times of the final target (see here for some notes on doing that: http://www.nessoft.com/kb/51).

Hop 3 is probably inside the provider - although 7ms of latency for a DSL line is very uncommon (that's why I assumed cable). Most DSL connections have 35ms of latency or more to get to the provider. Hop 1 and hop 2 are probably pretty close to you - within the same building or complex, but I'm speculating again here.

In any case, any problem that only shows up to a single target strongly implicates that target or that target's immediate internet connection as a problem point. PingPlotter can't tell you much about that problem if it's not getting a response back in that point. Normally, problems are close to home (e.g., your DSL / Cable connection), but if everyplace else is working fine, then you have to rule that out as the source of the problem you're seeing, and look further downstream.

- Pete