It's Not Always Your Fault

There are many different entities participating in your online experience. So, when something doesn't turn-out just right, it's not always your fault.

It's not always evident just "Who Owns the Problem".

From AOL or NetCom on down to the smallest local access provider, they all experience "Technical Difficulties".

In considering an ideal accessing of a single webpage, there's potentially 12 different owners of "The Problem". Let's take an ideal scenario:

Here it goes - Let's load a page!

  1. You type in an address (or click on a link)
  2. Your keyboard or mouse (as an input device)
  3. The software (your browser)
  4. To the computer
  5. Through the modem (just the first few steps through a long journey)
  6. Then through your phone line to
  7. Your local access provider's modem
  8. Through the access provider's network
  9. To your provider's access to the Internet's BackBone
  10. One BackBone provider hand-off to another (say MCI switched over to Sprint)
  11. The Server (or computer containing the website that you're trying to load)
  12. The code of the page your trying to load.

And that's an ideal situation. You've got a whole world of people pointing the finger at a dozen possible other culprits.
I'm going to step over the edge here with some information that's sure to get Steve's "Techno-Babble" buzzer were I to mention it on the show. There is a utility called traceroute which is pretty interesting to use (We use it to narrow down the culprit when we know that "we're not the problem").
If you're running Windows 95, you can use this too. While you're online, go to the Dos prompt and get back to "c:\" your root directory and type in "tracert www.internettalk.com" and you'll be able to see the long route your webpage request will actually take.

Let's try the FedEx homepage located at www.fedex.com. Keep in mind we're starting this out in Memphis.
C:\>tracert www.fedex.com

  • 195 ms 206.137.190.13 (LunaWeb - Memphis)
  • 177 ms Cisco7000.webbernet.net [206.137.184.1] (Webbernet - Detroit)
  • 254 ms Loopback0.GW1.DET1.Alter.Net [137.39.2.108] (UUNet - Detroit)
  • 211 ms 121.Hssi6-0.CR1.CHI1.Alter.Net [137.39.58.57] (UUNet - Chicago)
  • 243 ms 106.Hssi4-0.CR1.SJC1.Alter.Net [137.39.72.157] (UUNet - San Jose)
  • 237 ms 311.atm1-0.San-Jose9.CA.alter.net [137.39.13.114 (UUNet - San Jose)
  • 243 ms fddi0-0.enss221.t3.ans.net [198.32.136.96] (ANS - Pipe??)
  • 244 ms h11.t8-0.San-Francisco.t3.ans.net [140.223.9.21] (ANS - SanFrancisco)
  • 254 ms h13.t16-0.Los-Angeles.t3.ans.net [140.223.9.14] (ANS - Los Angeles)
  • 295 ms h14.t112-0.Albuquerque.t3.ans.net [140.223.17.10 (ANS - Albuquerque)
  • 302 ms h14.t64-0.Houston.t3.ans.net [140.223.65.9] (ANS - Houston)
  • 272 ms h13.t104-0.Atlanta.t3.ans.net [140.223.73.10] (ANS - Atlanta)
  • 293 ms f0-0.cnss108.Atlanta.t3.ans.net [140.222.104.196 (ANS-Atlanta)
  • 289 ms enss440.t3.ans.net [192.103.73.94] (ANS- Pipe??)
  • 300 ms e1.r5.fedex.net [198.83.161.100] (Fedex - Memphis)
  • 293 ms www0.fedex.com [199.81.92.10] (Fedex - Memphis)

A few thousand miles to say the least. . . woosh!
Similarly if you tried the same traceroute with another provider, you might go from:

  • Memphis (your house)
  • Atlanta
  • Atlanta
  • Washington DC
  • Virginia
  • Washington DC
  • Greensboro NC
  • Atlanta
  • Atlanta
  • Memphis (FedEx)
  • Memphis (FedEx)

(now you see why Steve would've buzzed me). The Bottom Line here is that when something goes wrong, don't always take the heat yourself. There's alot of other players in this whole Internet thing.

Thanks for tunin' in !
Dave

InternetTalk