When you’re connecting to the internet in the middle of the pacific, 2,400 miles away from a major internet exchange, I often obsess over my internet speed. While there is no way around the laws of physics (the limitation of the speed of light traveling across a vast ocean body to the mainland US), there are a few ways to optimize the internet experience.
The first is using a public DNS resolver that has local presence like 1.1.1.1. And the other is using Cloudflare Warp, a VPN service that optimizes your traffic (again with local presence). I say local presence because cloud providers normally do not commit investment dollars to build internet infrastructure in Hawaii. Therefore, the Hawaii internet experience is a bit slow. Fortunately, Cloudflare expanded its presence to the Hawaiian islands in January 2020, which opens its expanding product portfolio of cloud edge services like 1.1.1.1. and Cloudflare Warp to Hawaii.
In my test below, I evaluate response times between Spectrum and Cloudflare Warp, and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 and Google’s 8.8.8.8 public DNS resolvers.
Spectrum (aka Oceanic Cable, Hawaii Road Runner)
Traceroute 8.8.8.8
1 192.168.4.1 (192.168.4.1) 12.237 ms 6.256 ms 9.464 ms 2 142.254.191.109 (142.254.191.109) 87.183 ms 25.059 ms 24.838 ms 3 agg60.hnllhiqe01h.hawaii.rr.com (24.25.230.9) 64.606 ms 54.026 ms 49.913 ms 4 72.129.46.22 (72.129.46.22) 27.335 ms 33.162 ms 37.762 ms 5 agg1.hnllhiik01r.hawaii.rr.com (72.129.45.43) 34.487 ms 23.036 ms 22.017 ms 6 agg1.hnllhiel02r.hawaii.rr.com (72.129.47.231) 23.725 ms 24.702 ms 27.141 ms 7 ae-9.edge1.honolulu1.level3.net (4.68.72.5) 36.506 ms 25.201 ms 25.908 ms 8 ae-2-7.edge1.sanjose3.level3.net (4.69.209.169) 79.419 ms 95.470 ms 79.165 ms 9 72.14.223.91 (72.14.223.91) 82.096 ms 82.160 ms 86.285 ms 10 108.170.242.241 (108.170.242.241) 82.664 ms 108.170.242.81 (108.170.242.81) 78.151 ms 81.888 ms 11 72.14.239.43 (72.14.239.43) 87.217 ms 72.14.235.1 (72.14.235.1) 77.827 ms 142.250.238.165 (142.250.238.165) 79.994 ms 12 dns.google (8.8.8.8) 88.615 ms 93.422 ms 88.555 ms
Up until recently, Spectrum carried Hawaii’s Google traffic on its own backbone through its point of presence (POP) in California. As of December 2020, however, Spectrum’s Google traffic is now aggregated in Honolulu then passed to Level3 for its journey to California. So it seems Spectrum has diversified is traffic routes and no longer uses its own tbone.rr.com backbone for all of its Hawaii internet traffic.
Ping 8.8.8.8
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics --- 30 packets transmitted, 30 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 84.737/98.113/174.275/15.746 ms
Over multiple 30 packet sample tests, I average around ~98.1 ms to 8.8.8.8.
Traceroute 1.1.1.1
traceroute to 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets 1 192.168.4.1 (192.168.4.1) 15.445 ms 12.847 ms 9.986 ms 2 142.254.191.109 (142.254.191.109) 22.535 ms 20.022 ms 23.564 ms 3 agg60.hnllhiqe01h.hawaii.rr.com (24.25.230.9) 36.126 ms 273.376 ms 39.858 ms 4 72.129.46.22 (72.129.46.22) 22.305 ms 32.425 ms 27.982 ms 5 agg1.hnllhiel01r.hawaii.rr.com (72.129.47.229) 18.936 ms 21.613 ms 34.456 ms 6 72.129.47.109 (72.129.47.109) 19.863 ms 20.880 ms 20.041 ms 7 one.one.one.one (1.1.1.1) 19.952 ms 25.565 ms 26.141 ms
Cloudflare’s Hawaii internet traffic is aggregated in Honolulu at a local IX called DRFortress.
Ping 1.1.1.1
--- 1.1.1.1 ping statistics --- 30 packets transmitted, 30 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 16.320/22.367/29.043/3.347 ms
Over multiple 30 packet sample tests, I average around ~22.3 ms to 1.1.1.1.
Using Cloudflare Warp
Traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets 1 172.16.0.1 (172.16.0.1) 38.127 ms 44.710 ms 37.841 ms 2 8.20.125.1 (8.20.125.1) 32.165 ms 51.585 ms 50.062 ms 3 ae52.edge1.honolulu1.level3.net (4.79.8.21) 58.519 ms 52.873 ms 60.827 ms 4 ae-2-7.edge1.sanjose3.level3.net (4.69.209.169) 79.377 ms 112.303 ms 98.395 ms 5 72.14.223.91 (72.14.223.91) 81.828 ms 97.791 ms 99.276 ms 6 108.170.242.241 (108.170.242.241) 78.082 ms 103.767 ms 108.170.242.225 (108.170.242.225) 82.838 ms 7 142.250.238.167 (142.250.238.167) 111.343 ms 108.170.237.105 (108.170.237.105) 73.744 ms 142.250.238.167 (142.250.238.167) 79.228 ms 8 dns.google (8.8.8.8) 72.699 ms 76.089 ms 93.262 ms
Cloudflare’s Hawaii internet traffic is aggregated in Honolulu at a local IX called DRFortress.
Ping 8.8.8.8
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics --- 30 packets transmitted, 30 packets received, 0.0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 70.047/82.408/137.076/11.584 ms
Over multiple 30 packet sample tests, I average around ~82 ms to 8.8.8.8.
Results
Cloudflare is the clear winner if you want a faster internet experience in Hawaii.
In the public DNS resolver test, I found that ping round trip time was reduced by 75.746 ms when using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 over Google’s 8.8.8.8. This is a result of Cloudflare’s local presence in Hawaii.
In the Cloudflare Warp test, I found that the ping round trip time was reduced by 15.705 ms and standard deviation was reduced by 4.162 ms. This reduction is remarkable given both Spectrum and Cloudflare Warp uses common internet paths of DRFortress and ae-2-7.edge1.sanjose3.level3.net.
I configured my internet router, a eero wifi system, using 1.1.1.1’s public dns addresses:
1.1.1.2 1.0.0.2 2606:4700:4700::1112 2606:4700:4700::1002
So far so good. As for my client devices, I’m currently testing Cloudflare Warp on my main MacOS and iOS devices. Using Cloudflare Warp via Spectrum works well. However, when connecting through cellular on my iPhone, I noticed that Warp connects to LAX, which means T-Mobile probably does not peer at DRFortress.
In conclusion, I think Cloudflare’s Warp and 1.1.1.1 services are worth a try for Hawaii residents. There is no way around the 2,400 mile distance from major internet exchanges. Luckily, Cloudflare is awesome enough to bring the cloud closer to Hawaii.