I was doing a traceroute to 208.67.222.222 (resolver1.opendns.com) to see if I can figure out the reason for the initial startup delay and observed the following curious thing (this is on a DSL line from Romtelecom marketed under the “ClickNet” brand here in Romania):

  1    13 ms    13 ms    13 ms  ... computer's public ip ...
  2    14 ms    13 ms    13 ms  10...
  3    55 ms    54 ms    54 ms  10...
  4    54 ms    53 ms    54 ms  10...
  5    53 ms    53 ms    53 ms  10...
  6    53 ms    51 ms    51 ms  Frankfurt.de.ALTER.NET [139.4.25.21]
  ...

I’m not a networking guy (although I do have some basic knowledge), so there probably is some very good technical reason for this network structure. I just found it curious how public traffic can be routed trough private address spaces and that this is visible from the outside. Live and learn.