There is currently a problem with the Internet. Some time ago I wrote of the change from IPv4 to IPv6, which is a change in the standard way of assigning Internet addresses to devices. We were running out of addresses. New hardware capable of handling larger addresses has to be added and has been being added for the last couple of years.

Now another growth pain is starting to impact users as the Internet grows more complicated. We are seeing slow Internet and sites we cannot connect to because the routers that direct traffic from place to place run out of memory. The older routers can typically hold 512,000 addresses. Sounds like plenty. But, that is what they thought about addresses too.

The problems are hitting in the USA and Canada as older routers max’d out. The problem right now is that Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)routing tables have grown too large for some top-level Internet routers to handle. The result is that these routers can no longer properly handle Internet traffic. The result is they get confused and fail to rout anything, forget some routes and stop forwarding traffic destined for those routes, or just ignores that traffic. Whatever they do, your connection slows to a crawl as the system tries to find a way to route you packet to the destination or fails altogether.

You can figure out if you are running into this problem by doing trace route testing. See my Troubleshooting your Connection. If you are hitting the problem you will see your packets fail to get past some router.

The problem has to be fixed by the Internet Service Providers, mostly the backbone providers. About all you can do is suffer and complain to your ISP. The Trace Route information will help them get THEIR complaints to the right people.

If you want more information, search on 512k Internet.