5g Home Internet in Ontario suddenly routed through Vancouver BC

[Catz1]

I've had the service for about 6 months and no issues until yesterday. Even though I am in Ontario my location now shows as Vancouver BC. And it isn't just giving me a Vancouver IP but actually routing the internet traffic there as I now get 150ms ping to local servers instead of the usual 20ms.

This has become a massive issue as online gaming has become almost impossible since Toronto servers went from 19ms to 150ms. I have tried resetting the modem multiple times but it doesn't change anything.

There is only one tower in this area so I don't have an option of moving the modem around to try and get another tower, plus this shouldn't be happening anyway having my internet traffic sent thousands of miles west quadrupling my latency.

***Edited Labels***

[MysteryMan53]

I’m having the same issue in Ontario. Suddenly I have a solid 150 ping when playing games, quite an unfortunate problem.

[MDK-2024]

@MysteryMan53 -- some game-servers are close to San Francisco or Los Angeles or Las Vegas.

Some are in the Eastern USA.

So, if your game-server in the Eastern USA is "down", the fall-back is to connect to your game-server in Western USA.

Or, if one of the "cross-border" Internet connections (Vancouver -> Seattle, Winnipeg -> Chicago, or Windsor-> Detroit) are "down", your packets may be temporarily be routed through Vancouver.  On a Windows computer, there is a "trace-route" command ("tracert.exe") that will show the path of your packets, at each "hop" over the Internet.

Note that your "5g" connection is between your WiFi-using mobile device and your cable-modem. Beyond that, there is either coaxial-cable or fiber-optic cable to carry your packets, across the continent, to the game-server.

[Catz1]

This isn't just a gaming thing, that was only an example. The entirety of the 5g Home internet (at least for me in Ontario) is now routing ALL internet traffic through Vancouver BC. Any website or speed test that exists will all give 150ms ping to any local server and say that I live in Vancouver BC now. Previously I would get 20ms to anything local and it would show my correct location and Province which no longer happens as of yesterday.

Running a trace-route to any website the lowest ping is 72ms. Rogers has changed something that is causing the internet to not be handled locally.

[MDK-2024]

@Catz1 -- the Windows "traceroute" command ("tracert.exe") should show you the path to servers, to see where your packets are routed.  Please post the output:

1.   tracert -4 www.sfu.ca       (Burnaby, BC)

2.   tracert -4 www.ucalgary.ca   (Calgary, AB)

3.   tracert -4 www.brandonu.ca (Brandon, MB)

All these sites are hosted inside Canada -- not crossing into the USA.

Also, try the Shaw Speedtest.  You can select the servers in Vancouver, Calgary, or Winnipeg, to get a comparison of speeds.

Have you tried a different computer, to see if that makes a difference?

[Catz1]

tracert -4 www.brandonu.ca

Tracing route to www.brandonu.ca [142.13.155.66]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms <1 ms <1 ms www.webgui.nokiawifi.com [192.168.1.1]
2 80 ms 77 ms 82 ms 10.195.141.2
3 98 ms 82 ms 75 ms 10.196.64.194
4 265 ms 82 ms 78 ms 10.118.63.109
5 95 ms 93 ms 72 ms 10.118.48.25
6 79 ms 85 ms 76 ms 2080-cgw01.va2.rmgt.net.rogers.com [209.148.234.
141]
7 220 ms 77 ms 82 ms unallocated-static.rogers.com [72.139.136.166]
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 108 ms * 326 ms rc3no-be11-1.cg.shawcable.net [66.163.72.69]
10 114 ms 150 ms 109 ms rc2nr-be110-1.wp.shawcable.net [66.163.76.58]
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 476 ms 107 ms 120 ms h72-2-14-178.bigpipeinc.com [72.2.14.178]
13 129 ms 113 ms 111 ms um-rtr-2-et44-uwpg-rtr-1-bellmts.merlin.mb.ca [2
16.73.66.210]
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 382 ms 108 ms 108 ms 142.13.155.66

Trace complete.

All of my devices get the same issue, there isn't anything on my end I can do. Resetting the modem gives me a Vancouver BC IP address every time (both IP4 and IP6). This is 5g Internet so I have no access to the external IP which is set at the cell tower by Rogers.

I tried the Shaw website and it auto detects a BC server and I get 71ms ping. BC shows as 1km away and I don't see any option for Ontario to pick from even if I type it in. I've tried different IP look up websites and all of them show that as my location. I've also tried different speed test websites and they all check out in terms of the latency being sent out to BC and back.

I get around 130ms to anything local like Toronto because of the round trip out west before it connects locally. I'm only 2 hours from Toronto and normally gets 19ms.

I should also mention that other than high latency the internet is running the same as always. I get 0 packet loss and same speeds as before. I'm not using a VPN either to alter anything on my end.

[MDK-2024]

@Catz1 -- what external IP-address is reported by: https://whatismyipaddress.com  ???

From the trace:

ROGERS: 79 ms 85 ms 76 ms 2080-cgw01.va2.rmgt.net.rogers.com [209.148.234.141]

ROGERS: 220 ms 77 ms 82 ms unallocated-static.rogers.com [72.139.136.166]

SHAW (Calgary): 108 ms * 326 ms rc3no-be11-1.cg.shawcable.net [66.163.72.69]

SHAW (Winnipeg): 114 ms 150 ms 109 ms rc2nr-be110-1.wp.shawcable.net [66.163.76.58]

SHAW BIGPIPE: 476 ms 107 ms 120 ms h72-2-14-178.bigpipeinc.com [72.2.14.178]

MERLIN (Manitoba) 129 ms 113 ms 111 ms um-rtr-2-et44-uwpg-rtr-1-bellmts.merlin.mb.ca [216.73.66.210]

on the way to Brandon University. I do not see "Vancouver" anywhere ?

Obviously, the Rogers take-over of Shaw has not yet changed the FQDNs for the formerly-Shaw routers, or for Shaw's "BigPipe" back-bone network.

[Catz1 · Accepted solution]

I would like to give an update on things after getting my issue fixed (for now). I talked with someone that had the same issue on the 5g Home Internet and he explained how it works and my tests seem to line up.

The cell tower tags 5g Home Internet differently from cell phones and routes the traffic different because of it. There are seemingly only 3 exit points across Canada for this specific kind of internet which is Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Obviously if you are on the east coast and get stuck with a Vancouver IP you are going to get ultra high latency to local servers because it is making 2 trips out west there and back. Funny enough you will actually get lower ping to the far west than right next door.

Where things get even stranger is Rogers is only handing out east coast IPs in the morning and west coast IPs in the afternoon for the 5g Home Internet. I confirmed this by noticing before noon it would show Toronto as my geo location. This still didn't solve things and what I had to do is contact support and have them reset my device to the network in the morning which then assigned me a Montreal IP and I now am back to low 20s ping.

I can't really say why this started happening out of nowhere, apparently some people have had this issue for awhile. It's possible Rogers had not made this change in my region until just now. I still escalated my issue with Rogers in hopes someone sees it and can notice the massive headache they caused for some people on the service that absolutely needs to be addressed.

[MDK-2024]

@Catz1 wrote: There are seemingly only 3 exit points across Canada for this specific kind of internet: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Not exactly "points", and there are more than 3 cross-border links.

Shaw has a segment from Vancouver to Seattle.

Also, Shaw has a segment in Vancouver that connects to Microsoft's network:

$ tracert -4 www.uchicago.edu.

7 12 ms rc2wh-tge0-4-0-13.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.105]
8 11 ms ae62-0.ier02.yvr30.ntwk.msn.net [104.44.47.35]

Also, Shaw has a cross-border segment from Calgary to Illinois:

$ tracert -4 www.loyola.edu

7 30 ms rc3so-be6-1.cg.shawcable.net [66.163.78.37]
8 57 ms rc4ec-be13.il.shawcable.net [66.163.65.18]

Remember, ARPAnet was designed to survive a nuclear bomb, by having multiple routes, for "redundancy".

Compare to driving from Toronto to Disneyland -- lots of roads will get you there, and not all roads go through Nevada.  🙂

[MDK-2024]

@Catz1 wrote: I confirmed this by noticing before noon it would show Toronto as my geo-location.

The output from your "traceroute" includes:

tracert -4 www.brandonu.ca

1 <1 ms www.webgui.nokiawifi.com [192.168.1.1]
2 82 ms 10.195.141.2
3 75 ms 10.196.64.194
4 78 ms 10.118.63.109
5 72 ms 10.118.48.25
6 76 ms 2080-cgw01.va2.rmgt.net.rogers.com [209.148.234.141]

Note that any IP-address starting with "192.168" is on a "private" network, not the "public" Internet.

This means that any geo-locator has no way of physically located any IP-address on that network.

Almost every customer-owned "network router" hands-out "192.168.xxx.yyy" IP-addresses, no matter where in the world the router is located.

Also, note that any IP-address starting with "10." also is on a "private" network, not the "public" Internet. 

Again, no geo-locator can determine the physical location of a device assigned such an IP-address.

So, what methodology are you using to determine that your device has a "Vancouver" IP-address?

Note that some gaming-servers are located in the "USA west" (California & Nevada), and some gaming-servers are located in the "USA east".  It is possible that in the morning (in your time-zone) that you are connecting to the "USA east" game-server, and in your afternoon, the company that runs their gaming-servers is "load-balancing" you, by connecting your device to their "USA west" gaming-server.  This switching is done without changing your device's IP-address. 

Repeat that "traceroute" several times per day, and I think that you will NOT see any changes in these IP-addresses:

2 80 ms 77 ms 82 ms    10.195.141.2
3 98 ms 82 ms 75 ms    10.196.64.194
4 265 ms 82 ms 78 ms  10.118.63.109
5 95 ms 93 ms 72 ms    10.118.48.25

because all of them are on a Rogers "private network".

P.S. I think that "2 80 ms 77 ms 82 ms" is very slow for a router just two "hops" away from your device.

To compare, here's a trace from Vancouver through BC.NET on to sfu.ca (Burnaby)"

 4   8 ms   8 ms   8 ms   24.244.62.1 
 5   9 ms   8 ms   9 ms   24.244.61.109
 6 13 ms 12 ms 11 ms  rc1bb-be20.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.75.245]
 7 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms  rc2wh-tge0-4-0-13.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.105]
 8  10 ms 10 ms              rd3bb-tge0-3-0-14.vc.shawcable.net [66.163.69.42]
 9  10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 64.251.87.210
10 12 ms 10 ms 30 ms cr2-100g-bb3920ae2.vncv1.bc.net.bc.net [207.23.253.117]

Namely, almost always less than 14 milliseconds -- not in the 70's.

Of course, routers can be configured to give "traceroute" (overhead) packets much lower priority than "user" (high priority) packets.  Same "prioritization" for PING packets, which also are "overhead".

.

[Catz1]

Long post but I will try to be very thorough.

I tried every single IP lookup service that I could find.

iplocation

whatismyipaddress

dnschecker

ipleak

Plus a few more I don't remember

Out of about 10 different websites I'd say 7 showed Vancouver and 3 showed Toronto for every IP while this was happening. I also tried multiple speed test websites including the one from Shaw and they all automatically detected my location as 1 mile from Vancouver (resetting the modem would give a different IP address and a couple showed me as 47 miles from Vancouver but still in the area). I did around 15 resets of the modem and checked every new IP address it gave me and they were all from that area according to about 10 different IP lookup websites. This has never happened in the 6 months I've had the service they would always say something very local to me.

Every single speed test on any website I tried gave the exact same results (speedtest.net, google, Shaw, random ones). 70 to the west and 130-150 to things close by. Gaming servers that I've used for years showed the same results. Battlefield 5 is one game I tested which unlike the others has fixed locations for its servers and allows you to manually select them. The ping I was getting to east vs west lined up with what every speed test in the world was telling me.

I've had Xplornet, Chatham Internet Access, Bell Turbo Hub and seen plenty of high ping on Wireless over the years but this was very different from the usual stuff. I would also give Rogers their flowers as this Nokia FastMile gives the absolute best pings I've ever seen on a WISP before. Always below 50 ping to anywhere on the east coast US or Canada outside of this hopefully isolated issue.

Any device hooked up to that modem showed 70 to the west and 130+ to local stuff which has never happened and should never happen. And I know some people don't trust speed tests but I personally have never run a speed test and got results that were any different than what I was actually going through.

Support wasn't any help as they gave the same generic troubleshooting that I'm already familiar with. Twitter support told me cell towers give IPs that don't always match your geolocation. I understand this but what they don't do is alter the connection in any way. Very frustrating having such a bizarrely unique problem that no one at Rogers would help with.

I also had tech support tell me that high latency means the tower is congested. Again I've had a few different WISP's and have experienced this many times. This wasn't consistent with any kind of congestion because the pings were exactly the same at any hour of the day. Congestion would also cause high ping in general, high to something close and even higher to something far, I was experiencing the exact opposite. It could be 3am and it would still be the same.

The only help I got was from a person I believe in Quebec who had the exact same issue. He told me during mornings he gets an east coast IP and afternoons he gets a west coast IP. I don't know the person and I'm not saying he has some intimate knowledge of Rogers internal network but he described the same thing I have going on and his solution is all that worked.

I had tech support reset my device's connection to the network twice. First time in the afternoon and every IP lookup website still showed me as Vancouver and the 130ping to anything local remained. I then had a tech reset my connection to the network in the morning and every IP lookup website showed the IP as Montreal and the high ping was gone. All speedtest websites also now auto-detect a Montreal server as my closest location.

Could be a coincidence on the timing but it worked out just like this person on Reddit said it would so it is interesting none the less. I understand the IP lookup websites use geolocational data that doesn't actually come from Rogers and can be outdated but the pings lined up with the experience someone would have if they lived on the east coast and used a west coast VPN.

I will also mention that prior to these issues I've run hundreds of speed tests and they would always auto-detect my location as Kitchener or something close to it. Now the only things I ever get are Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal and those 3 have never showed up before in the time I've had the service. It really feels like Rogers has changed something on their end.

[MDK-2024]

@Catz1 wrote:

I tried every single IP lookup service that I could find.

• iplocation
• whatismyipaddress
• dnschecker
• ipleak
• whatismyip
• whatismypublicip
• meipaddress

Can you please post the IP-address that each site returns, both in the "morning" and in the "afternoon" ?

Also, when using the Shaw Speedtest site, what "public" IP-address is displayed?

[Datalink]

I would really discourage that idea.  Posting your WAN IP address in a pubic forum is not a good idea in terms of your own online security.  If you're looking for a DDos attack, that's the way to do it.  If you wanted to discuss this with @MDK-2024, then do so via private message and keep your IP details out of the Rogers forum which is a public forum. 

There are two issues to deal with, the IPv4 WAN address which will point to the modem, and the temporary IPv6 address which will point to the desktop or laptop that you're using to run the test.  In either case, you don't want those addresses posted to a public forum. 

[MDK-2024]

@Datalink wrote Posting your WAN IP address in a pubic forum

Pubic?  Ick!

If you are worried, and you think that the Rogers infrastructure has no DDOS protection, then just post the first three octets, e.g., "192.168.1.xxx".  That's enough to use some "IP-tool" to geo-locate the subnet, whether it is "Vancouver" or "Toronto".  

In Windows, configure your network to NOT use IPv6. Then, share the partial IP-address.

Finally, note that the original author is claiming to have IP-addresses that frequently change. So, any DDOS hacker would have to "keep-up" with their often-changing IP-address.