So, I’m attempting to actually get caught up on some work today, after literally sleeping all day yesterday (see a few paragraphs down) and I’m noticing that my internet is just insanely slow. Laggy. Slow. Choppy. Stunted. Intermittent. All of the above. So, here’s what I see after doing some tests:

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools>tracert 64.192.86.1

Tracing route to 64-192-86-1.wcg.net [64.192.86.1]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 5 ms 5 ms 6 ms 10.229.64.1
3 6 ms 7 ms 6 ms 66-214-102-13.static.reno.nv.charter.com [66.214.102.13]
4 210 ms 204 ms 209 ms 66-214-102-34.static.reno.nv.charter.com [66.214.102.34]
5 210 ms 212 ms 213 ms so-9-1.car1.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [4.78.240.33]
6 359 ms 210 ms 210 ms ae-4-4.ebr1.Seattle1.Level3.net [4.69.133.150]
7 213 ms 231 ms 210 ms ae-0-11.bar2.SanFrancisco1.Level3.net [4.69.140.146]
8 212 ms 215 ms 214 ms ae-6-6.ebr2.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.140.154]
9 218 ms 216 ms 214 ms ae-92-92.csw4.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.69.134.222]
10 212 ms * 211 ms ae-44-99.car4.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.198]
11 213 ms 214 ms 215 ms te-4-4-70.sntcca1wch010.wcg.Level3.net [4.68.110.26]
12 219 ms 217 ms 210 ms GigE-15-0.sntcca1wcx1.wcg.Level3.net [64.200.249.141]
13 223 ms 219 ms 221 ms pos-9-0-oc48.anhmca1wcx3.wcg.level3.net [64.200.249.121]
14 227 ms 229 ms 229 ms lsvgnv2wcx1-pos6-0-oc48.wcg.net [64.200.210.254]
15 246 ms 244 ms 246 ms 64-192-86-1.wcg.net [64.192.86.1]

Trace complete.

C:\Program Files\Windows Resource Kits\Tools

Yeah, that’s killer. 3 hops down, and it spikes up to 200+ milliseconds. If it were me or a roommate, I’d probably see lag on the first hop or two (at the top). And here’s my speedtest:

That’s pretty brutal too, considering I should be seeing 16,000 kb/s and 2000 kb/s respectively. And ping of 434 - WTF?

I guess it’s not so bad - I’m not even paying for internet anymore. I canceled my internet service 2 weeks ago, and the lady told me it would probably still be active for a while. I guess I don’t have much room to complain.

So Friday was a load of fun. I was out of the office all day. We went to Rawe Peak to finally put up the radio equipment to complete the backhaul from Reno to Yerington. It took 2 hours from the pavement, but we made it up the hill. Unfortunately we got to the top and noticed a foul odor, and a line of leakage following us about a hundred yards or so. Then we noticed the red liquid gushing from the transmission. We said screw it, and went to work.

Got our massive 24-foot pole mounted, and all of the radio equipment installed. Ate. And finished programming some things. A few hangups, but overall, we were successful. Still gotta head back up to mount one more 3-foot antenna and troubleshoot a router that wasn’t booting. Not bad though.

Around 8PM we packed up and crossed our fingers in hopes of a successful trip down. Truck starts. Sweet. Put it in Drive. Push the gas. No goes. Transmission fluid is… empty.

Luckily Austin Moseley came to our rescue with his B.A. Toyota Tacoma and 15 quarts of transmission fluid (Yeah… 15 quarts for that ginormous Ford). I hate to say it, but American cars kinda suck, ey? He was on his was to the lake and was already in Silver Springs. Lucky for us, the guy riding with him already knew how to get up to us - lots of dirt roads and trees makes for a confusing passage even for myself. He makes it up to us around 10:30, if memory serves me right. We strap the trailer to his truck, have him pull us around, and we coast downhill, following him, relying solely on gravity. We hit several hills and flats, forcing them to drop the trailer and pull us a few hundred more yards to get momentum. Finally we hit the bottom and it’s all flat.

They go ahead and drop the trailer at the bottom of the hill, and we wait… and wait… and wait. After about 45 minutes, we hop out and just start pushing. After about a mile of stop and go, we finally reach enough of an incline that we’re… “Hauling Ass” down the mountain. We go flying by them just a few hundred yards from the pavement and make it just about to the school. Game over. Kevin and I hop in with Austin, while Bob decides to wait for a tow in a few hours (it’s 3AM by this point). Austin drops me at my car (which I had previously left parked at the Smith’s in Dayton)… and I we all head for Sleepy Town.

All in all, a good trip. We had fun despite the truck problems. Shit happens, you learn to adapt, or you die. That’s how I see it. No sense in getting upset, worrying, or complaining…

Good news is that Bob’s truck is fine. He ended up doing some research on his phone while he was waiting for a tow. He put 6 quarts in and was able to drive it back to Yerington. Something overheated/expanded on the way up due to lack of airflow and decided to start gushing transmission fluid.

Well, internet looks better now. Back to work…

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Life, l337n3$$. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.