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Reading TBB Ping Graphs

shure
Grafter
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Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Sorry for the complete nooby question but how does one read these TBB graphs? 
Looking at the attached image I would have thought that my gaming and Skype would be all over the place, as I appear to be getting huge latency spikes.  Oddly enough, my gaming/Skype have actually improved recently (a brief period last night with dropped connection notwithstanding), with only very occasional lag.  So how do I read the graph?  Does it show issues, which has not been my general experience, or does it show a stable connection?  If so, how?
21 REPLIES 21
Gus
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Its the one time less is better, the higher the graphs the harder you are using your connection.  A couple of things you do not want to see.
Too much of is the Red loss coming from the top, I've had the router cable too the phone socket getting damaged and causing that in the past.  When online gaming and you get packet loss you will see others skipping about.
The green part shouldn't change or change by much unless you reboot/reconnect your router and get a different gateway, but the PN fault that has been around for the last 3 weeks has been doing that e.g. of the attached, the spike from 10.30pm too 11pm was a fault with the PN hardware.
It can also be used to check if you connection is being used when you know it shouldn't be, e.g. the wife or kids say they aren't on youtube etc but they really are, ok with unlimited that is not an issue, but if PN revert back it might be a future issue once again if a monthly bandwidth cap is an issue.
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
shure
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Hi Gus,
thanks for your reply.  I get the bit about less being better and that packet loss will cause jerky gaming, but looking at my graph I'm getting pings constantly in the 100s, which should mean to my mind that I would notice excessive lag in gaming (I play Black Ops mostly), but lately I haven't really (apart from the odd glitch here and there). 
Looking at this topic the poster had a graph seemingly much better than mine but was using it to prove that his connection was horrible and gaming (and Skype) unworkable.  Why is his graph, seemingly more stable to my layman's eyes, proof of a poor connection while mine, which to me looks like someone's gone crazy with the colour palette,  is given by a stable line?
Confused Huh
Gus
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

The yellow spikes will be you actively online, usually that high from watching video streams online/using skype as they use most if not all of your connections speed or if gaming and the console/game is updating in background again that will use a lot of the speed you have.  Easy enough to test it, do a nights BlackOps but don't use skype or watch any youtube/iplayer etc and see the result.
One thing to mention gaming and online browsing/skype/youtube don't mix unless you have a good connection with spare bandwidth/speed to handle the load.  Doing those while in a online game will badly affect your game pings
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
AndyH
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

It's also worth testing to make sure you have no viruses/trojans and no one is using your wifi network without your permission - so have no programs running and do not use the net for a 1hr period and your graph should show no spikes. If it does, then you will have to investigate further.
shure
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

well, my son does stream a fair bit but thankfully it doesn't appear to impact on playing online.  I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill - just trying to understand the graphs as I thought with the spikes being so pronounced I should have seen a noticeable effect with usability for both Skype and gaming, but I don't, even with plain old ADSL Wink  Not complaining at all!
spraxyt
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Probably Plusnet's traffic prioritisation is helping ensure the real priority traffic, gaming and VoIP, is given precedence ahead of less important things like external pings (which is what the TBB tests come in as), and even streaming. Kelly quite rightly often asks about the perceived performance rather than what the monitor shows.
As others have mentioned unexplained packet loss shown by the monitor *is* of concern.
David
shure
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

latest snapshot.  Yesterday I was getting a reasonable amount pf packet loss but tbh only really noticed it for a brief 10-15 minute period around 7:30 or so.  This morning between 7-8 it was just light surfing, while from 8:30-11:30 Xbox live (no other streaming etc).  Weird that almost exactly half of the latter period (8:30 to 11:30) shows very high pings, while the second half not so much, while I did nothing different for the entire period.  Any ideas why such a marked difference with no change is usage?
AndyH
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

I would think the packet loss is due to exchange capacity - as we figured out before, you're on the old 20CN network so I would link this with capacity.
As for the high pings - have a look at your usage stats with PN. I would imagine you're putting through a fair amount of data.
Gus
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

8.30-10am something or some one was actively online doing streaming or sharing, if you watched videos via xbox or it updated a game then that would be why.  If not then time to look at your network and see who or what is the cause.
First if not enabled, change your wifis security to WPA2 and change the password, see if you have a leeching neighbour.
Sons pc/console, turn them off and see if he has anything that was active online, the graph will tell you if he was if it drops
FTTP 500 regrade from Tues 28th November
Kelly
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Quote from: shure
latest snapshot.  Yesterday I was getting a reasonable amount pf packet loss but tbh only really noticed it for a brief 10-15 minute period around 7:30 or so.  This morning between 7-8 it was just light surfing, while from 8:30-11:30 Xbox live (no other streaming etc).  Weird that almost exactly half of the latter period (8:30 to 11:30) shows very high pings, while the second half not so much, while I did nothing different for the entire period.  Any ideas why such a marked difference with no change is usage?

Does your graph usually have all that yellow and blue?
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
shure
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

thanks for the replies, guys.
I'm pretty sure it's not a leeching neighbour.  Although I only have WEP (my son has a DS, which doesn't do WPA, unfortunately) I live in the middle of nowhere and my neighbours have their own BB.  Aside from anything else, usage corresponds exactly with when I have been online.  Yesterday everybody was home and using the BB accordingly (facebook, Youtube etc), but today after 8am it was just me here and I made sure everything else was off so that I could run an experiment as per your suggestions yesterday.  Only the Xbox was on and it wasn't updating, just playing BLOPS II.  Strange that playing the same game would show such markedly different usage stats, and with such a definite cutoff around 10am, too.
My router didn't drop connection, either.  I'm still on the same gateway (ptn-ag01).  
Fair enough on packet loss.  Touch wood it hasn't had much of an impact yet.  Still don't understand why gaming usage would fluctuate so wildly
AndyH
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Which router are you using?
It's worth seeing what is attached to it when you think everything is turned off. Looks like something is transferring a lot of data from that graph.
shure
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Registered: ‎21-01-2013

Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

@Kelly:
yep, someone's going wild with the colour palette.  Here's one I made when connected to the test socket a few days back:
AndyH
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Re: Reading TBB Ping Graphs

Just be clear as well (seeing as you don't have a static IP), is this graph definitely your current IP (check from the router admin page and http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/monitors.html)?