FLAG fixed SEAMEWE Still Broken
It seems like the Internet is almost coming back to normal around here in the Middle East. Quick recap, 3 major cables FLAG, SEAMEWE3 and SEAMEWE4 were cut last month (December) causing major disruptions.
One of the obvious effects of such cuts is the high latency you might get in applications such as gaming and VoIP due to rerouting of traffic through other cables that aren’t geographically suitable (Middle East > Asia > US > Europe instead of Middle East > Europe).
I’ve been running some traceroutes to servers that my ISP (Batelco) routes through FLAG and one of the SEAMEWE. The FLAG link seems to be up and runing since it goes straight to Europe and US (but it has always been laggy even when it was fully operational), however for some other servers the routing is going through Asia and US.
Here are the results (It starts at the part just before it leaves my ISPs network):
FLAG Europe (www.leaseweb.com):
6 23 ms 50 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.62
7 25 ms 27 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.41
8 247 ms 248 ms 248 ms 80.77.1.217
9 246 ms 245 ms 272 ms ge-1-0-1.0.cjr02.ldn001.flagtel.com [62.216.129.46]
10 248 ms 252 ms 255 ms so-5-1-0.0.cjr02.ldn004.flagtel.com [62.216.129.150]
11 259 ms 259 ms 259 ms ten4-0.lon.leaseweb.net [195.66.225.56]
12 261 ms 259 ms 274 ms amx.nkf.leaseweb.net [85.17.100.210]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 260 ms 260 ms 271 ms gi4-2.r2.sbp.leaseweb.net [83.149.127.14]
15 259 ms 252 ms 253 ms www.leaseweb.com [83.149.80.111]
FLAG US (us.voxalot.com):
6 36 ms 26 ms 23 ms 172.17.2.70
7 59 ms 33 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.53
8 260 ms 232 ms 231 ms 62.216.146.97
9 234 ms 242 ms 234 ms so-0-3-2.0.pjr01.nyc005.flagtel.com [62.216.128.50]
10 232 ms 233 ms 263 ms ge-2-0-0.0.cjr02.nyc005.flagtel.com [85.95.25.109]
11 235 ms 245 ms 290 ms nyiix.Peer1.net [198.32.160.65]
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 278 ms 239 ms 237 ms 10ge.ten1-1.wdc-sp2-cor-1.peer1.net [216.187.116.253]
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 238 ms 239 ms 279 ms premium.voxalot.com [64.34.173.199]
Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications Europe (eu.logon.worldofwarcraft.com):
6 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.66
7 64 ms 30 ms 25 ms 172.17.2.53
8 45 ms 45 ms 44 ms if-3-3.bb1.JSD-Jeddah.as6453.net [195.219.153.41]
9 144 ms 144 ms 143 ms if-14-0.core1.S9R-Singapore.as6453.net [216.6.57.49]
10 334 ms 334 ms 347 ms if-4-0-0-996.mcore5.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.33.17]
11 344 ms 356 ms 344 ms if-11-0-0-938.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.85.5]
12 343 ms 342 ms 343 ms Vlan42.icore1.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [216.6.84.114]
13 340 ms 330 ms 337 ms las-bb1-pos2-3-3.telia.net [213.248.94.49]
14 421 ms 421 ms 422 ms ash-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.157]
15 484 ms 487 ms 487 ms prs-bb1-link.telia.net [80.91.252.37]
16 475 ms 475 ms 477 ms prs-b4-link.telia.net [80.91.251.45]
17 486 ms 487 ms 484 ms prs-nant-ks51-link.telia.net [80.91.249.66]
Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications US (layeredtech.com):
6 43 ms 25 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.58
7 23 ms 24 ms 24 ms 172.17.2.45
8 30 ms 31 ms 31 ms if-1-4.core1.RSD-Riyad.as6453.net [66.198.126.69]
9 141 ms 140 ms 140 ms if-13-1-1.core1.S9R-Singapore.as6453.net [116.0.78.34]
10 351 ms 332 ms 330 ms if-4-0-0-996.mcore5.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.33.17]
11 341 ms 339 ms 340 ms if-11-0-0-938.mcore3.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [209.58.85.5]
12 326 ms 325 ms 326 ms if-0-0-0-810.mcore4.LAA-LosAngeles.as6453.net [216.6.84.98]
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 359 ms 358 ms 358 ms cr2-pos-0-3-2-0.dallas.savvis.net [204.70.194.54]
15 407 ms 372 ms 373 ms hr1-tengig-12-0-0.dallasda1.savvis.net [204.70.203.58]
16 360 ms 358 ms 359 ms 216.39.79.98
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 372 ms 372 ms 372 ms savvis.www.layeredtech.com [72.232.23.197]
From the results above you can see that Teleglobe/VSNL International/TATA Communications are routing traffic through Singapore and Los Angeles, US to access sites in both Europe and the US. It isn’t so bad if the server is located in the US, but more hops are encountered on its way to Europe. According to a newspaper in Qatar the SEAMEWE cables should be up and running sometime on January 5th.
Crossing my fingers in the meantime, you never know when these cables get cut!