Crazy ping spikes - help setting up ThinkBroadband Monitor on Plusnet hub please

[#1]

Hi there,

I've been having intermittent quality issues over the last year. Logged multiple support tickets and had engineers out three times - this last of which was this morning. To cut a long story short, speed test tend to look fine - roughly 20Mb/s. But I get crazy latency / packet loss intermittently when streaming Netflix or gaming. For example this evening while trying to play pubg my ping was ranging from 80 up through the high hundreds, and at times getting into the 7,000s. 

Reading up on this forum it seems the Think Broadband monitor would be a good thing to run and get some diagnostic data back. But I read it isn't easily compatible, and I have to change settings (DMZ?) to get it working, plus there is a security risk in doing this.

Can anyone tell me how to do this, or more likely point me to another post as I'm sure it must have been covered already - I just can't find it.

Many thanks in advance for any help,

James

PS I've also attached a trace route - I'm no expert but doesn't this seem to be showing an issue on the 6th hop?

[#2]

Assuming that you have a Plusnet Hub Zero you need to be aware that these suffer from buffer bloat. If you are trying to upload anything significant whilst streaming you will have these sorts of problems.

[#3]

This post gives the option of items to use in the DMZ, as the PN router doesn't respond to pings. I used a NowTV box until I changed to a router that would accept pins.

[#4]

Hi there,

I've never streamed, and don't really UL so its unlikley to be the issue

[#5]

Thank you @Marksfish 

So I need to create a DMZ somehow - I have no idea how to do this - is it in the router advanced settings?

Then I need to 'put' a device in the DMZ that will respond to ping requests? I don't have a firestick or Now TV. Would Chromecast work? Or an xbox? Presumably not something that can get hacked?

Many thanks - sorry for being a bit slow on this

James

[#6]

It's a long time since I used my PN router, but I found this on the web:

I tried several items in the zone until I found one that gave a response. Webcam, AppleTV, Sky box. I finally went out and bought a NowTV box (and sold the voucher for the services that came with it), so it obny cost me a fiver. Maybe and Amazon Echo would work?

[#7]

@Marksfish  - thank you - very helpful

I'll give it a try