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Packet loss / latency spikes

Pedro
Grafter
Posts: 30
Registered: ‎16-05-2013

Packet loss / latency spikes

Hi there
We're having problems packet loss and ping spikes when there's more than one device using the connection making gaming and teamspeak unusable.
People on teamspeak sound like a really bad mobile phone connection, crackling and breaking up on this end while everyone else on the server is fine. First person shooters not even worth trying, with people warping all over the place every now and then and just the general issues you get while gaming with packet loss. This happens if one of us is on facebook or watching iplayer or similar.
This seems to be a recurring issue, we had the same sometime back, seems there's something not quite right with traffic priorities or somesuch? This did not happen until recently, we've had a good run with no problems since the last time this happened.
I've tried everything I could think of at this end, different filters, wired/wireless, firmware upgrade/downgrade, resync at night to get a lower sync speed, you name it. All to no avail. The connection is only usable if there's only one device on.
So could this be looked at at your end now please? Many thanks in advance.
Oh, and all the disconnects you will no doubt see if you look at the connection graph thingy, were user initiated. That was me fiddling with the router trying to sort this out.
Also, while I'm here  Tongue what's with the 146.x ip addresses that itv player thinks are american? Whenever we're dealt one of those we have to go gateway hopping for a different address to be able to use itv.

Link Information

Uptime: 1 day, 4:10:19
DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5
Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 967 / 6,031
Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/GB]: 342.57 / 7.92
Output Power (Up/Down) [dBm]: 12.8 / 0.0
Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [dB]: 28.6 / 50.5
SN Margin (Up/Down) [dB]: 5.7 / 6.2
System Vendor ID (Local/Remote): TMMB / ----
Chipset Vendor ID (Local/Remote): BDCM / IFTN
Loss of Framing (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Signal (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Power (Local/Remote): 0 / 0
Loss of Link (Remote): -
Error Seconds (Local/Remote): 2,029 / 0
FEC Errors (Up/Down): 0 / 0
CRC Errors (Up/Down): 458 / 3,375
HEC Errors (Up/Down): 271 / 9,368
Regards,
Pedro
28 REPLIES 28
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Hi Pedro,
This probably needs to be picked up by the DCT people, however they will not be back until tomorrow morning.
Looking at your figures, they look very hot!  You are on ADSL2+ uncapped; at 50dB attenuation, 6Mbps is exceptionally good.  In short there is not much wrong with the figures you have posted.
There might though be issues elsewhere, can you please do a BT wholesale speed test and do the further diagnostics.  Need to see what BT says your line profile is - it should be around 5.3Mbps, then check your "current speed" on the PN portal.  It should be the same.  If you need any help to do these things, look at the "speed problem" forum item at the top of this forum.
I fear that ultimately it is going to be concluded that your household is trying to do too much 'heavy' stuff concurrently.  Have you looked to see what fibre will offer you?

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

toolateforaname
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎22-04-2014

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

I'm suffering the same problems.
Over the last week or so it has been terrible.
Looking at pingplotter output, I'm seeing significant and continual packet loss going through to level3 and beyond.
It is getting to the point that even browsing the web is bad and online games are just unplayable
toolateforaname
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎22-04-2014

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

I'm suffering the same problems.
Over the last week or so it has been terrible.
Looking at pingplotter output, I'm seeing significant and continual packet loss going through to level3 and beyond.
It is getting to the point that even browsing the web is bad and online games are just unplayable
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Quote from: Pedro
Also, while I'm here  Tongue what's with the 146.x ip addresses that itv player thinks are american? Whenever we're dealt one of those we have to go gateway hopping for a different address to be able to use itv.

That is a 'known' issue - there is a pool of IP addresses which have been acquired by PN - I understand that there are some issues in sorting out the registration ownership records.  I guess that providers who use IP reverse look up to determine location are consequently going to get things wrong!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Pedro
Grafter
Posts: 30
Registered: ‎16-05-2013

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Hey Townman, thanks for the reply
Yep, you are right on the money there. I had run the BTW further diagnostics already, and it says 5.32. The PN profile is set at 5.3, so it all seems proper on that front.
Quote
I fear that ultimately it is going to be concluded that your household is trying to do too much 'heavy' stuff concurrently.  Have you looked to see what fibre will offer you?

Well I hope that's not going to happen, because that conclusion would be just wrong. The problem isn't lack of bandwidth, it never has been. Just loading facebook even on a mobile phone triggers the problem on my desktop, with ping suddenly skyrocketing and teamspeaking going all dalek voice time on me. Surely that's not that heavy Smiley
There's only 2 of us here. I'm often on youtube and the missus streaming iplayer or itv at the same time with no trouble. It's just latency sensitive applications that seem to suffer, to the point of becoming unusable.
Thanks for the explanation on the 146. addresses thing, I wasn't aware but figured it might be something like that. Just not good enough is it, not everyone is going to know how deal with that problem.
@toolateforaname
Yes, last week has been atrocious, but has been going a bit longer than a week for me. Tonight especially bad here...
Regards,
Pedro
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Quote from: toolateforaname
I'm suffering the same problems.
Over the last week or so it has been terrible.
Looking at pingplotter output, I'm seeing significant and continual packet loss going through to level3 and beyond.
It is getting to the point that even browsing the web is bad and online games are just unplayable

You're misreading the pingplotter results.  If you look at the last server, which is the WOT server, you are see 0% packet loss and what looks to be a pretty good latency.  The spikes/packet loss further up is just hte level3 servers not responding to your requests because they are doing other things.
It's not a very big sample with only 10 tests though, so you might wan to run it for longer.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
toolateforaname
Grafter
Posts: 42
Registered: ‎22-04-2014

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Thanks for the reply Kelly.
What would you suggest I use to assess things?   I know that I'm getting lots of lag, disconnects and drop outs not just gaming but also general web browsing.   I've run lots of pingplotter tests to different sites and am finding very erratic results.
I'm on FTTC and I can't see how I get any meaningful stats from the router/modem.
thanks
edit: Bishop Monkton exchange - everything was great until the last couple of weeks when problems started and seem to be getting worse.
Kelly
Hero
Posts: 5,497
Thanks: 380
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

If you are seeing general performance issues, get a fault raised at http://faults.plus.net and we'll investigate from there.  Feel free to start a thread for it though and keep us informed.
Kelly Dorset
Ex-Broadband Service Manager
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

@DCT,
Can you please offer input to the OP's problems?
Kelly's response seems to respond only to the thread's "passenger".
Cheers,
Kevin

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Hi Pedro,
I've taken a look over your line and can't see anything obvious that might be causing this. Do you have a TBB Graph? If not could you set one up for us please? http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,106312.0.html
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,923
Thanks: 9,542
Fixes: 159
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Note that will require a static IP or updating each time you establish a new PPP session.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Pedro
Grafter
Posts: 30
Registered: ‎16-05-2013

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Hi Chris,
Quote
I've taken a look over your line and can't see anything obvious that might be causing this. Do you have a TBB Graph? If not could you set one up for us please? http://community.plus.net...x.php/topic,106312.0.html

I don't have a static IP as I'm sure you're aware, but I grudgingly created an account on TBB anyway and created a monitor. What would you like me to do with it?
In the mean time, I've attached a snapshot of last night's monitor, please let me know how this helps you diagnose the problem and how we are going to proceed from here.
As a further update, I've effectively eliminated the router as the culprit, as I dug out and installed an old router and the problem persisted. The PN TG582n is back on now.
Also, just to reiterate, this is a fairly recent problem, albeit a recurring one. We've had a problem free service for the best part of a year, but as it is, it's just downright frustrating.
@Townman
Thanks for your continued input on this thread. Much appreciated.
Regards,
Pedro
Pettitto
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 6,346
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎26-11-2011

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

There's some Packet Loss that I can see at around 8pm - we're going to need a bit more data from before we can look at the bigger picture though.
If you can grab the Live Graph and post a link to it here, I'll do my best to keep an eye on it over the weekend. I'm not here now until next Thursday but one of the team will pick this back up for you.
Pedro
Grafter
Posts: 30
Registered: ‎16-05-2013

Re: Packet loss / latency spikes

Hi Chris and thanks for the reply.
I've rebooted the router and created a fresh graph just for you:
My Broadband Ping
And as per the thread you mentioned:
<a title="Broadband Ping" href="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/b23a9d6dab87266514950f878a0fe361.html"><img alt="My Broadband Ping - Pedro" src="http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share-large/b23a9d6dab87266514950f878a0fe361.png" /></a>

When we first joined plusnet, someone with a very similar problem and story, i.e. joined from BE and was having issues with gaming, much like what we had then and again now, had a thread going that I was keeping my eye on.
I searched for it and would like to point it out to you, in particular reply #51: https://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,113280.msg979497.html#msg979497 as I feel it may be of help.
It's funny how this issue started right after we were offered a deal to stay with plusnet, and now we're tied in for another 12 months. Just because we're paying less doesn't mean the service is going to be pants from now on..., right? We're starting to regret having accepted said deal and not just moved on. Ironically we were going to move for a cheaper deal, and not because of service standards...
It also worries me that you seem to need evidence of a fault from the customer, and rely on a third party tool to provide it, surely if we're having problems and report a problem then there is something wrong and the ball is now in your court sorta thing? I dunno.
I've pretty much done everything I can to troubleshoot and am pretty confident that the problem is not at this end.
Regards,
A disgruntled customer slowly moving towards seriously miffed.