sparta@SAIC.COM (Sparta guest account) (12/19/89)
Columbus, The Internet has been prone to forming repeated routing loops for the last few days. Below is an interesting traceroute run from narnia.saic.com (192.5.8.2) to cj3.centcom.com (131.240.95.31), at 10:00 EST on 19 Dec: 1 MCLEAN-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.111) 180 ms 120 ms 120 ms 2 MCLEAN-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.111) 180 ms 100 ms 120 ms 3 MOFFETT-FLD-MB.DDN.MIL (26.20.0.16) 1180 ms 2220 ms 1540 ms 4 CAMBRIDGE-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.5) 1340 ms 1360 ms * 5 MCLEAN-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.111) 2400 ms 1380 ms 1820 ms 6 * MOFFETT-FLD-MB.DDN.MIL (26.20.0.16) 2060 ms 2860 ms 7 CAMBRIDGE-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.5) 2100 ms 3360 ms 3720 ms 8 MCLEAN-MB.DDN.MIL (10.3.0.111) 4240 ms 3520 ms * 9 131.240.95.31 (131.240.95.31) 2160 ms ! 1560 ms ! 2280 ms ! There seems to be quite a bit of route thrashing; we have frequently seen evidence that the routes are changing during a traceroute run (witness the miraculous discovery of cfm.centcom.com, above!). This is not an isolated occurrence. We've been seeing quite a few loops, especiaslly in traffic to the West coast. I guess that includes the West coast of South Florida :-). - Bob
Mills@UDEL.EDU (12/20/89)
Bob, This problem has been going on for several months, as reported some time ago in my Internet Monthly report. At the time, it appeared the WIDEBAND (aka FATNET) gateways appeared the most involved and even involved traffic fluttering between ARPANET and MILNET between the same two sites. However, things may be changing so fast that the apparent traceroute loops aren't really that, just rickety routes flopping all over the place. Try a record-route option, assuming you don't have far to go. Dave