Marco.org

I’m : a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.

I keep getting stuck in what appears to be a routing loop from the Verizon EVDO service in San Francisco, preventing me from connecting to certain hosts (including, importantly, Tumblr):

traceroute to tumblr.com (74.54.212.168)
 1  64.sub-66-174-217.myvzw.com (66.174.217.64)
 2  127.sub-66-174-217.myvzw.com (66.174.217.127)
 3  138.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.138)  
 4  233.sub-66-174-217.myvzw.com (66.174.217.233)
 5  194.sub-66-174-217.myvzw.com (66.174.217.194)
 6  98.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.98)
 7  161.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.161)
 8  170.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.170)
 9  161.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.161)
10  170.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.170)
11  161.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.161)
12  170.sub-66-174-31.myvzw.com (66.174.31.170)
[...]

It’ll keep bouncing back between those last two hops (.161, .170) indefinitely. It has happened every day this week, and always with those same two repeating hosts.

It’s only solved by disconnecting and reconnecting, which occasionally gets me to route connections differently:

traceroute to tumblr.com (74.54.212.168)
 1  64.sub-66-174-217.myvzw.com (66.174.217.64)
 2  127.sub-66-174-216.myvzw.com (66.174.216.127)
 3  138.sub-66-174-30.myvzw.com (66.174.30.138)
 4  235.sub-66-174-216.myvzw.com (66.174.216.235)
 5  194.sub-66-174-216.myvzw.com (66.174.216.194)
 6  98.sub-66-174-30.myvzw.com (66.174.30.98)
 7  253.sub-69-83-160.myvzw.com (69.83.160.253)
 8  ge-6-17.car2.SanJose1.Level3.net (4.79.42.185)
[...]

But how, exactly, am I supposed to report this problem to someone who matters? They’re tucked away so far from Verizon’s phone banks that my call would keep getting bounced between clueless CSRs and never getting through to anyone useful.

Like a routing loop.

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