Different OS's Different Pings

[davej99]

I have an old XP machine and a newish Vista machine both with no CPU load connected to the same GB switch and onward through the same ADSL router to IDNET. John Owen's PingGraph is running on each machine, each pinging idnet.com. The XP machine is baselining at 20ms and the Vista machine at 42ms. I cannot understand why there should be a difference. Any ideas?

[Rik]

Cabled connections, Dave?

[Glenn]

If you can ping from your routers gui rather than either PC, what does that give?

[Steve]

Vista has that 'autotuning' and multimedia service which plays havoc at times. I recall Zap had fun and games with Vista.

[Rik]

Some people call it fun, others call it masochism. 

[davej99]

Four replies in eight minutes. Thanks everyone. Great ideas. you have saved me lots of pointless tinkering
Further info:
Wired connections.
Same result from command line ping; 20ms XP, 42ms Vista.
Same result direct through router, eliminating switch.
Used to get 42ms on DG834v3 in Vista.
From router GUI, 42ms using each machine!!!
That narrows it down a bit.
Is XP lying?

[Rik]

I'd be more suspicious of Vista playing around to make things 'better', Dave. Try booting into safe mode and then testing.

[davej99]

Thanks, Rik, but remember I get 42ms using the router login from both machines so that might eliminate Vista. But your suggestion prompted me to reboot and I went into Mint by accident, so I will see what results we get there, when I work out how to do it.

[Rik]

After that, we take the machines apart and swap NICs.

[davej99]

Well, Rik, the idea you planted has born fruit. XP is either clever or telling porkies. Using Linux I get a ping baseline of around 42ms versus versus 20ms in XP on the same machine. That moves us on but I am not sure what it means. But its fun and beats Christmas TV, or perishing in the bathroom. (Upstairs C/H is frozen. Who was the idiot that forgot to set upstairs to 24h? )

Need to rename thread Different OS's Different Pings

[Rik]

Consider it done, Dave. Can you try traceroutes in all three OS, and see if that gives us any clues?

[davej99]

Consider it done, Dave. Can you try traceroutes in all three OS, and see if that gives us any clues?

Excellent idea. Rik. Bit unsure of best Linux command. Again XP does half the ping on same route! Results:

Dell Studio 17 Vista
>tracert 212.69.36.10
Tracing route to www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    43 ms    43 ms    43 ms  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net [212.69.63.51]
  3    44 ms    42 ms    45 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]

  4    44 ms    43 ms    44 ms  redbus-gw2-fa1-1-1003.idnet.net [212.69.63.1]
  5    44 ms    43 ms    44 ms  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net [212.69.63.225]
  6    44 ms    42 ms    44 ms  www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]

Dell Inspiron 5150 XP
>tracert 212.69.36.10
Tracing route to www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net [212.69.63.51]
  3    21 ms    22 ms    21 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]

  4    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  redbus-gw2-fa1-1-1003.idnet.net [212.69.63.1]
  5    21 ms    21 ms    21 ms  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net [212.69.63.225]
  6    21 ms    21 ms    22 ms  www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]

Dell Inspiron 5150 LinuxMint
>traceroute 212.69.36.10
traceroute to 212.69.36.10 (212.69.36.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  0.374 ms  0.313 ms  0.331 ms
2  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net (212.69.63.51)  42.739 ms  44.068 ms  46.701 ms
3  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net (212.69.63.243)  47.641 ms  50.033 ms  51.686 ms
4  redbus-gw2-fa1-1-1003.idnet.net (212.69.63.1)  56.087 ms  57.278 ms  58.236 ms
5  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net (212.69.63.225)  59.632 ms  61.798 ms  63.965 ms
6  * * *

>tcptraceroute 212.69.36.10
traceroute to 212.69.36.10 (212.69.36.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1  192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1)  0.314 ms  0.366 ms *
2  * * *
3  * * *
4  * * *
5  * * *
6  * www.idnet.net (212.69.36.10)  42.746 ms  43.830 ms

[Rik]

Weird. It would appear that XP is mis-reporting, Dave. The only thing I can think to try is checking for a driver update for the NIC in all three OS. If support were open, I'd suggest getting them to ping your router and see what timings they get, but that's not going to be possible for the next 9 days.

[davej99]

All drivers are up to date but I will have a look at the XP version and maybe try some others. I will not bother Tech Support till well after they are back. It's just a curiosity, but I will ask them. Better not tell our gamers they will all want XP. Thx for your help. Dave (Hope I did not give gazza a bum steer on tracert.)

[Rik]

You didn't, Dave, I just went more elaborate.

The best test now would be for you to make your router pingable and have support ping it. That will provide an absolute figure to the router, which should be the definitive answer. The answer from the router at your end suggests that it's an XP issue, I just can't think what.

[Glenn]

What does Trout give you via the XP laptop?

[Rik]

Hop  IP Address       Host Name                              Sent   Recv      RTT   Av RTT  Min RTT  Max RTT   % Loss

1    192.168.1.254    [Unknown]                                 1      1    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms   0.000%
2    212.69.63.51     telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net               1      1    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms    15 ms   0.000%
3    212.69.63.243    telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net          1      1    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms   0.000%
4    212.69.63.1      redbus-gw2-fa1-1-1003.idnet.net           1      1    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms   0.000%
5    212.69.63.225    redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net            1      1    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms   0.000%
6    212.69.36.10     www.idnet.net                             1      1    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms    31 ms   0.000%

Compared to XP desktop:

tracert www.idnet.net

Tracing route to www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.1.254
  2    14 ms    15 ms    11 ms  telehouse-gw2-lo1.idnet.net [212.69.63.51]
  3    14 ms    13 ms    13 ms  telehouse-gw3-g0-1-400.idnet.net [212.69.63.243]

  4    14 ms    14 ms    15 ms  redbus-gw2-fa1-1-1003.idnet.net [212.69.63.1]
  5    13 ms    15 ms    15 ms  redbus-gw1-fa2-0-300.idnet.net [212.69.63.225]
  6    14 ms    14 ms    13 ms  www.idnet.net [212.69.36.10]

Trace complete.

It seems to suggest an XP bug, doesn't it.

[davej99]

It seems to suggest an XP bug, doesn't it.[/tt]

Oh, no, no, no. In late breaking news Microsoft has just announced the relaunch of XP as the ideal gaming platform.

[Rik]

[Steve]

 

I've just tried my XP VM install on the Mac , the ping times to www.idnet.net are the same for both OSs

[Rik]

Bugger.

[davej99]

I've just tried my XP VM install on the Mac , the ping times to www.idnet.net are the same for both OSs

In further news just in, Microsoft is to launch a lawsuit against Apple to silence its attempts to undermine XP as an ideal gaming platform

[Rik]

 

[Steve]

Probably not a real test mine though as I'm unsure in the VM whether there would be any differences.

[Rik]

If it wasn't for Dave pinging from the router GUI, I'd still be thinking drivers, but the former seems to rule out the latter.