High packet loss and other DNS issues

[#1]

So after four days of silence I finally got a response from Plusnet. Their reply was basically that they are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it so there is no need to contact them again. Not a single apology or promise of when it will be fixed, just basically told me to shut up and wait it out. So very disappointed.

[#2]

Responses like that usually indicate frustration from support staff. If they're not being briefed on the problem, they can't help you.

[#3]

Hi everybody,

Just put the graph up from sunday  for every one to see.

post 919.See if anybody can beat that let's start a competition the winner get's a year's free internet with plusnet.hahaha.

[#4]

Yea I got the same as you... no help whatsoever. My problems started just under 2 weeks ago I noticed on my online game I would get random Latency spikes of around 1000-3000ms, these happened without any pattern. I contacted PN about the issue and they said they knew about the issue and his colleague beside him (who apparently was a "gamer") said to port forward to help reduce the issues. I already had done this and it fixed nothing. For the past two days the latency spikes have now developed a pattern where I will get an 8 second spike (where the game freezes then rubberbands to catch up) and this happens exactly every 5 minutes... when my clock on my pc ends in a 4 or a 9 i.e. 15:34/15:39 the last 8 seconds is when it spikes. I have tried different ethernet cables and switched channels, I have rebooted numerous times, contacts plusnet support, done ping tests and speedtests, switched servers in-game none of which fixes the issue... I am convinced that it is a problem with PlusNet. Their servers/routers must carry out some sort of filtering process or something every 5 minutes. I have had my task manager up and also my AfterBurner to see if my GPU is getting strained by background apps etc but I formatted my PC and installed windows 10 in the middle of the problems (since I couldn't use the PC anyway). Anyone else have this symptom where it is a pattern? First time living in Mainland England, and boy was plusnet a bad choice.... Never Again.

[#5]

Every 5 mins, just like this blinker2244!

Packet loss spikes

[#6]

On my Twitter account this evening.

thinkbroadband.com ‏@thinkbroadband 3h3 hours ago

Are you a @Plusnet customer with problems on their new network? We want to hear from you to help us gather data so we can talk about problem.

[#7]

I also get the same problem. When PN kinda "mislead" me to switch from ADSL to their fibre (VDSL2), they were advertised to get an 17-23M download speed, I actually got around 10M as a download, i.e. i am paying the price of a fibre to get an ADSL service. Found this immediately in the cooling off period and spend hours to get their customer service. They told me that this line cannot be switch back to ADSL and there will be a huge charge for taking of the line from VDSL. As there's not too much choice I have to accept this.

The high latency / packet loss starts from around 12 Sep 2016 in my area (west end Aberdeen). This result in a totally unacceptable gaming experience, but all speed tests shows fine and youtube seems ok as there are buffers. 

I end up with using mobile 3G network for gaming at the moment and still waiting an answer from PN to all other people who have the same problem like me.

Actually most of my colleagues have bad experiences with PN and I am telling all my friends who is looking for a new ISP to stay away from my choice.

[#8]

What kind of software can I use to monitor this? I just want to rule out if it's wireless problems before I try to get this sorted. It's getting frustrating barely being able to even watch Youtube now though.

[#9]

@blinker2244 that 5 minute observation is quite interesting, I've just been looking at something and seen the same type of issue. Do you notice if the 5 minute issue is just affecting gaming or do you see it affect anything else? If what I'm seeing is the same thing then I suspect streaming and file downloads probably wouldn't see the same type of problem.

Also do you know if the problem is isolated to certain times of the day? I've been looking at things this evening and as I'm typing the issue is still there but not as bad as it was an hour ago.

[#10]

I left pingplotter running for about 6 hrs this evening whilst i watch tv/played Candy crush on my phone as i couldnt bear the lag.

I have a 6 hrs plot which shows the packet loss stopping at about 23:43 and also a typical 10 minute plot which shows lots of packet loss but also a latency spike every 2.5 minutes.

6hr plot

10 min plot

10 min plot

[#11]

@dave tonight and also last night the spikes started to calm down around the midnight mark. Maybe it's to do with high volumes of traffic that the servers are filtering out? Picture a set of traffic lights and the lights change exactly every 5 mins? I streamed yesterday and there was no spikes however they stopped in game by this time. I noticed a couple of drop outs while on an internet call that were consistent as well. All in all It only seems to be affecting my gaming, my Netflix etc seem to run fine during the period of spikes (obviously they download data ahead of being played giving a bit of wiggle room, where live gaming needs a constant stream of data so u might not notice it.) Because there is a small minority of people using the service for live streaming it is obviously not a big topic however there are people out there (luckily not me) where live streaming pays their bills...

[#12]

I'm curious, have plusnet offered static IPs to anyone who is experiencing this issue? And has it improved/fixed the problem?

[#13]

@gogadgetgo  what they offered me was a link to their troubleshooting page and said if that doesn't help, report a fault...

[#14]

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@gogadgetgo wrote:

I'm curious, have plusnet offered static IPs to anyone who is experiencing this issue? And has it improved/fixed the problem?

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Yes I was on day one of being on new network Packet Loss this went away but got high Ping and Jitter and the putting on static IP as stopped all that.

Prior to new network was 31/32 Mb down at first went up to 36 Mb now back to 31/32 Mb.

[#15]

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@gogadgetgo wrote:

I'm curious, have plusnet offered static IPs to anyone who is experiencing this issue? And has it improved/fixed the problem?

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I phoned up yesterday and the guy I spoke to was very helpful.

He knew exactly what the problem was after I described it and the first thing he did was to confirm I was on the new network.

He then put me on hold so he could "try something". I asked him what that was and he said he disconnected me at their end to give me a new session. It did nothing.

He then put me on hold to "try something a bit more drastic". While he was gone my router disconnected and once I reconnected it was obvious he had given me a static IP. I asked him if that's what he'd done and he was surprised that I'd noticed 

My boy was on his Xbox for most of the evening and aside from the usual moaning at his friends or the actual games I heard not a single "Dad, it's doing it again" which has been his mantra for the past 5 days!

So, it seems to be a success although my TBB monitor is still showing almost constant latency spikes in the evening and a few small blips of packet throughout.

One interesting thing to note was the guy at PN did say that the free switch to static IP was only temporary until the new network is stabilised and would be removed when all is sorted.