Why is terminal access to my Linode so slow?

Slow ssh typing is almost always a connection problem. And given this is Linode, it's highly likely the issue is on your end.

Your ping shows some packets returning late, which means during that particular timeframe, your ssh session surely would have lagged.

Try to run a ping to your Linode, while also running a ping elsewhere in the world, to see if the slow ping is happening just to linode, or everywhere.

Ping is almost worse than useless unless you're trying to reach a host on the same layer 2 network. Likewise with traceroute. Use mtr:

https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/ … s-with-mtr">https://www.linode.com/docs/networking/diagnostics/diagnosing-network-issues-with-mtr

I ran the mtr command from my laptop to my server and then from the server to my laptop and got the following results:

Here is output of mtr from my laptop to my server:

    Start: 2017-07-12T12:46:56-0700
    HOST: Roberts-MacBook-Pro.local                 Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
      1.|-- 192.168.0.1                                0.0%    10    1.1  70.3   1.0 371.7 126.0
      2.|-- 142.254.236.169                            0.0%    10    8.7 249.3   8.4 1029\. 397.6
      3.|-- agg61.lsaicaev01h.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10    9.0 354.1   9.0 1031\. 458.5
      4.|-- agg11.lsaicaev01r.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10   10.0 390.8   9.6 1171\. 496.1
      5.|-- agg26.lsancarc01r.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10   15.2 360.4  12.1 1090\. 455.1
      6.|-- bu-ether26.lsancarc0yw-bcr00.tbone.rr.com  0.0%    10   11.4 401.9  10.6 1444\. 538.0
      7.|-- 0.ae1.pr1.lax00.tbone.rr.com               0.0%    10   10.0 369.1   9.9 1364\. 501.6
      8.|-- 10ge5-6.core1.lax2.he.net                  0.0%    10   10.8 339.6  10.6 1286\. 463.4
      9.|-- 100ge8-2.core1.pao1.he.net                 0.0%    10   36.0 314.7  18.5 1206\. 421.2
     10.|-- 10ge8-8.core3.fmt2.he.net                  0.0%    10   29.8 337.5  18.3 1124\. 450.8
     11.|-- ???                                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
     12.|-- 173.230.159.1                              0.0%    10   22.0 347.4  21.4 1268\. 493.5
     13.|-- li221-117.members.linode.com               0.0%    10   22.1 316.8  21.8 1187\. 458.1

Here is mtr from the server to my laptop:

    Start: Wed Jul 12 20:04:45 2017
    HOST: web01                                               Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
      1.|-- 23.92.24.3                                           0.0%    10    1.0   0.7   0.6   1.0   0.0
      2.|-- 173.230.159.16                                       0.0%    10    0.8   0.8   0.7   0.9   0.0
      3.|-- sjo-b21-link.telia.net                               0.0%    10    1.3   1.5   1.3   2.5   0.0
      4.|-- palo-b22-link.telia.net                              0.0%    10    1.7   1.7   1.6   2.3   0.0
      5.|-- las-b22-link.telia.net                               0.0%    10   11.4  11.4  11.3  11.6   0.0
      6.|-- chartercommunications-ic-325646-las-b22.c.telia.net  0.0%    10   12.5  17.4  12.2  57.3  14.1
      7.|-- unk-426d057a.adelphiacom.net                         0.0%    10   14.9  15.6  12.6  18.9   2.1
      8.|-- agg2.lsancarc01r.socal.rr.com                        0.0%    10   13.1  15.2  12.5  18.9   2.3
      9.|-- agg1.lsaicaev01r.socal.rr.com                        0.0%    10   15.6  16.2  15.0  17.8   0.9
     10.|-- agg1.lsaicaev01h.socal.rr.com                        0.0%    10   15.0  15.0  14.8  15.1   0.0
     11.|-- agg1.lsaicaev03m.socal.rr.com                        0.0%    10   14.0  14.2  13.9  15.4   0.3
     12.|-- cpe-104-172-228-26.socal.res.rr.com                  0.0%    10   22.0  21.5  21.1  22.7   0.3

The issue appears to be with the route from my laptop to my linode but I don't know what actions I can take to remediate or resolve this problem.

(In the future, use the 'Code' button on the post reply form to put the results in a code block; I asked a staff member to edit your post to do that for you.)

The outbound report suggests that it could be one of a few things. The first, most annoying possibility, is that your Mac is triggering scanning frequently (usually due to poor signal, common in apartment complexes where there's a lot of interference with other residents' wifi, but there's also times where OS X will do it unnecessarily). The second possibility is some other problem with your wifi or home router. The third possibility is a problem with your ISP's network, possibly congestion related.

One thing you can do is run mtr without the –report and --report-wide flags, and switch to the graph with latency display (press 'd' twice, on recent mtr you can add '--displaymode 2' to the command line), and then look at the graph when the lag hits. Grabbing a screenshot (Cmd+Shift+4, then click and drag over the mtr, or follow that up with space and then click the terminal window) and posting a link to it here (upload it to imgur or something) will let us see exactly what it's like when it happens, and we can probably figure out which one it is easier from that.

dwfreed, sorry about my not using the 'Code' button. I'll remember that in the future.

Here are two screen shots:

http://imgur.com/a/hMxTQ

Thank you for your help! I'm learning from you.

Yeah, that looks like the second one. Try connecting to your router over a wired connection, to determine if it's something to do with wifi, or the device itself.

Amazing! I connected my laptop directly to my router using a 10BASE-T cable and here's what the mtr output looks like now:

Start: 2017-07-12T16:03:52-0700
HOST: Roberts-MacBook-Pro.local                 Loss%   Snt   Last   Avg  Best  Wrst StDev
  1.|-- 192.168.0.1                                0.0%    10    0.5   0.5   0.4   0.5   0.1
  2.|-- 142.254.236.169                            0.0%    10    7.9   8.2   7.9   8.9   0.3
  3.|-- agg61.lsaicaev01h.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10    9.0   8.8   8.0  10.1   0.6
  4.|-- agg11.lsaicaev01r.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10    8.4  12.7   8.4  17.5   2.8
  5.|-- agg26.lsancarc01r.socal.rr.com             0.0%    10   13.5  15.1  11.2  17.4   2.0
  6.|-- bu-ether26.lsancarc0yw-bcr00.tbone.rr.com  0.0%    10   12.5  15.2  11.3  20.3   3.0
  7.|-- 0.ae1.pr1.lax00.tbone.rr.com               0.0%    10   10.1  10.7   9.3  18.1   2.6
  8.|-- 10ge5-6.core1.lax2.he.net                  0.0%    10   18.5  12.8   9.5  18.5   3.6
  9.|-- 100ge8-2.core1.pao1.he.net                20.0%    10   17.9  20.0  17.7  25.6   2.7
 10.|-- 10ge8-8.core3.fmt2.he.net                  0.0%    10   18.7  19.6  17.8  24.8   2.2
 11.|-- ???                                       100.0    10    0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0
 12.|-- 173.230.159.1                              0.0%    10   27.3  22.0  20.5  27.3   1.9
 13.|-- li221-117.members.linode.com               0.0%    10   21.6  21.8  21.4  22.2   0.3

@dwfreed:

Yeah, that looks like the second one. Try connecting to your router over a wired connection, to determine if it's something to do with wifi, or the device itself.

Could you tell me precisely what it was about the second image that led you to believe that it was my wifi or device?

Thank you very much. If you were here, I'd buy you a beer. :-)

This is currently happening to me, and it coincided with a change in port. I blamed it on that at first but it turns out it's a combination of that and an issue on my IP re-assign.