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Getting weird spikes of packet loss

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ShavenTortoise

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At random intervals (often every minute or less) I will get packet loss. This is most noticeable and irritating when I am gaming. It doesn't matter what game they all do the same thing, ping stays the same but I will lose connection or just stand there. (There's almost a rubber band effect where on my screen I keep moving but then my connection catches up and I ping back to where I lost connection)

If I ping google in the CMD it usually goes like so:

ping -t www.gogle.com
reply from google with 10ms etc (multiple times)
Request timed out (When this happens I lose connection in my games)
then it goes back to replies from google

packet loss will range between 1 and 5% on a constant basis.

I've contacted my ISP and they said my line is fine. So does this mean it's on my end?
Secondly I was online in a game when this problem occurred, over night my connection dropped and then it reconnected and having this packet issue.

I've tried so many things but nothing works.
  • E.g changing MTU values
  • connecting directly to the modem (still gets the packet loss)
  • tracert to see which hops are bad (I didn't really understand what I saw tbh but nothing looked amiss)
  • power cycling the router and modem
  • connecting to the test socket
  • changing / sorting out the cables

(I'm on TalkTalk Fibre broadboad by the way, my upload and download are fine)

Please help!! :(
 
Does everything connected to the router have the same issue? What router are you using?
 
I am using a Huawei HG533 (The router talk talk supplies for it's fibre broadband customers) additionally I have an Echo Life HG612 modem. Thanks for your quick reply
Edit: Yes every device connected has the same issue at the same time. Wired or wireless, doesn't matter.
 
There have been a lot of issues with the BT network that talktalk and most other isp's use for fibre and it has effected a lot of people who use talktalk/sky/plusnet and so on so i wounder if this is part of the problem.

I would also get back in contact with talktalk and get them to do more tests because talktalk like to mess people around and it's one of the reasons i moved my phone and net to a different isp.

Just because they say there is no fault does not mean there isn't one

Is your phoneline also with talktalk and do they have a option to do a quiet line test like BT and plusnet have? I know talktalk have there own LLU equipment when it comes to adsl and phone so i am not sure if they have this type of test you can do.
 
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Yeah I've heard a lot of people moving away from TalkTalk (I was actually on the phone to an EE representative just now, considering switching service).
Yes my phoneline is also with them, I'll ask them right away. This problem really is becoming a pain.
Thanks for the help so far, hope this issue gets resolved eventually!

Edit: Just contacted TalkTalk here's their reply...

"May Ann: I found out that there was a line test previously ran by one of our representative.
May Ann: Both test shows that there's no line fault. At this point, there's no further line test that we can run."
 
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Where I live, We have 2 ISP's, depending on your location iin the cities/rural areas , and In My experience, BOTH providers LOVE to blame the end user, It is NEVER theyre fault IME. What I have done in the past is be persistant, and let them KNOW that im not some Fedora wearing Yuppie who needs to be walked through command prompt, I have noticed that they speak to customers, (where I live) like we just hit the power button for the first time on a PC in our lives. The issue for me atleast, is that I am kind of stuck with taking theyre shit, or going W/O internet...
 
The ISP could be correct. Tracert hops will tell you this. I don't recall the exact number of hops, but I believe only the first 4-5 hops are within the ISP. If you are losing it before then it is on the ISP, if the 10th hop is failing, that can be just about anyone's fault but the ISP.
 
Haha oh yes. I have been extremely persistent, several calls a day, they moved my appointment with the engineer from the 27th to the 16th. I'll call them tomorrow and ask for it be sooner again. I know it's in their training to assume people have no computing knowledge but come on, treat us better than monkeys.
 
sneekypeet said:
The ISP could be correct. Tracert hops will tell you this. I don't recall the exact number of hops, but I believe only the first 4-5 hops are within the ISP. If you are losing it before then it is on the ISP, if the 10th hop is failing, that can be just about anyone's fault but the ISP.
Click to expand...

Just did a Tracert again, got weird results. Previously I was getting around 10hops now it's only showing 4? Below are the results.

C:\Users\Stuart>tracert www.google.com

Tracing route to www.google.com [62.24.155.158]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 6 ms 3 ms 192.168.1.1
2 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms host-92-19-148-1.as13285.net
3 40 ms 10 ms 10 ms p130.nas15.man.opaltelecom.net [62.24.155.130]
4 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms p158.nas15.man.opaltelecom.net [62.24.155.158]

Trace complete.
 
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Just conducted one to yahoo, got more hops. Looks like there's no issue? P.s If I go to pingtest.net and run their test, most of the time it shows I have a grade A connection. However if by somechance it's run during the spikes in which I experiance packet loss I get a grade F. http://www.pingtest.net/result/105876841.png

C:\Users\Stuart>tracert www.yahoo.com

Tracing route to ds-any-fp3-real.wa1.b.yahoo.com [46.228.47.115]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 4 ms 3 ms 4 ms 192.168.1.1
2 9 ms 10 ms 9 ms host-92-19-148-1.as13285.net
3 11 ms 10 ms 12 ms host-78-151-238-217.as13285.net

4 11 ms 12 ms 36 ms host-78-151-238-216.as13285.net

5 14 ms 12 ms 11 ms host-78-144-1-46.as13285.net
6 12 ms 12 ms 11 ms host-78-144-11-19.as13285.net
7 13 ms 11 ms 16 ms ge-1-1-0.pat1.the.yahoo.com
8 22 ms 21 ms 23 ms ae-4-pat2.iry.yahoo.com
9 22 ms 21 ms 21 ms ae-3.msr1.ir2.yahoo.com [
10 21 ms 22 ms 21 ms et-18-9.bas1-2-prd.ir2.yahoo.com
2]
11 22 ms 22 ms 21 ms ir1.fp.vip.ir2.yahoo.com [46.228.47.115]

Trace complete.
 
Signal ports can go bad, Bridge taps/open/short faults can occur on utp(dsl cabling), even bad phone chord/jacks/wiring/splitter in home can be faulty, sometimes the burried cable and modem itself. Ive also seen some pcs be faulty.
 
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ShavenTortoise said:
Yeah I've heard a lot of people moving away from TalkTalk (I was actually on the phone to an EE representative just now, considering switching service).
Yes my phoneline is also with them, I'll ask them right away. This problem really is becoming a pain.
Thanks for the help so far, hope this issue gets resolved eventually!

Edit: Just contacted TalkTalk here's their reply...

"May Ann: I found out that there was a line test previously ran by one of our representative.
May Ann: Both test shows that there's no line fault. At this point, there's no further line test that we can run."
Click to expand...

Do you hear any noise when you try to use the phone? The reason i ask is this can realy effect the broardband side of things so it might be worth checking.

The quiet line test i was on about can be done from home but it depends who the service is with, As i am with plusnet so i have to ring 17070 if i want to test for noise on the phoneline.
 
animal007uk said:
Do you hear any noise when you try to use the phone? The reason i ask is this can realy effect the broardband side of things so it might be worth checking.

The quiet line test i was on about can be done from home but it depends who the service is with, As i am with plusnet so i have to ring 17070 if i want to test for noise on the phoneline.
Click to expand...

My phone seems to be operating fine (no noise on the line)
hmm okay I'll look into that, thanks :)
 
ShavenTortoise said:
Okay so it looks like the 2nd hop is giving me the packet loss, what does this mean?
Click to expand...

If your using a router that would be the 1st one and the second would be the modem which is normally marked with a * ( no ping ). So i believe the issue is coming from the modem it looks like.

You could check the splitters in the house too as these are before the modem.


Have you tried connecting another computer to it see if the problem persists ?.

Any chance you uploading a pic after a few minutes?.
 
Can you get them to replace the modem? It's the next thing to do really, if all devices connected to it has the same problem.

ShavenTortoise said:
Okay so it looks like the 2nd hop is giving me the packet loss, what does this mean?
Click to expand...

Are you connected directly to the modem? If no, it's the modem. It goes:

PC -> Router -> Modem -> ISP Stuff (routers, switches, modems etc) -> World. The ISP stuff can be several hops long. If you are connected to the modem, it's something outside your house.

AsRock said:
Have you tried connecting another computer to it see if the problem persists ?.
Click to expand...

Ayep he has. Everything connected to the modem is affected.
 
Frick said:
Can you get them to replace the modem? It's the next thing to do really, if all devices connected to it has the same problem.



Are you connected directly to the modem? If no, it's the modem. It goes:

PC -> Router -> Modem -> ISP Stuff (routers, switches, modems etc) -> World. The ISP stuff can be several hops long. If you are connected to the modem, it's something outside your house.



Ayep he has. Everything connected to the modem is affected.
Click to expand...

I'm currently connected to the Router via a wired connection. The thing is when I do plug an Ethernet cable directly into my modem and connect it to my PC the problem still persists. (Does this mean the issue is outside then?)
Thanks (:
 
ShavenTortoise said:
I'm currently connected to the Router via a wired connection. The thing is when I do plug an Ethernet cable directly into my modem and connect it to my PC the problem still persists. (Does this mean the issue is outside then?)
Thanks :)
Click to expand...

It means the problem likely is the modem.
 
Frick said:
It means the problem likely is the modem.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll take this as good news because we have gotten somewhere! - I'll try and get my hands on a neighbours modem or something to test it out. I'll fill everyone in once it's resolved, thanks for everyone's participation so far :)
 
Hi all, just a quick update. The new router arrived which doesn't require a modem, the packet loss issue still persists... this rules out the issue being the router or modem or ISP. Does this mean there's something wrong with the wiring? (I remember someone mentioning split ends somewhere can cause packet loss)
Engineer still scheduled for Tuesday.
 
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