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My Ping and I

jbligh87
Rising Star
Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

My Ping and I

We recently had an engineer out to our box to fix a seperate issue which is now fixed, every day two week since then and my ping has been wildly spiking. I used to average a steady 23-24ms, now it spikes up above ~200ms every couple of seconds, especially when Youtube, Twitch, Netflix is streaming on the same or different devices on the same network. This means none of the games (League of legends and more recently Apex legends) some of which I have played for years on the same connection now won't work.

 

So, for two weeks I have been calling the support line and getting different answer or being fobbed off on a daily basis from different people after explaining the situation multiple times. (To my understanding this has been escalated internally as there is evidence several of the team have not been following process/recording issues or blatantly lying to me) 

 

As a result of  these conversations I have tested everything possible from my side, new ethernet cable, new router, different devices hardwired and using wireless, all the basics (checking sockets, resetting router etc etc) then after speaking to support, I have ping trace tested and Wireshark tested to identify the issue. Sometimes I'm told from your side that you can see an issue on the line, other times I'm told you cant. Sometimes I'm told "there's nothing more we can do" other times I'm told "not sure why they told you that, we can try X, Y and Z".

 

As you can imagine I am somewhat frustrated with the support I am getting and in my frustration I have been scouring the internet to find my own answer as your support line feels like I'm talking to a bipolar mad hatter that never calls me back after saying they will on two different occasions (still waiting).

 

I found the answer, I found the cure! I found the exact issue someone else had, almost word for word (with better customer service) on these very forums! The answer to the problem was to put the customer on a different VLAN due to congestion on their box even though the tests run from your side were showing no congestion issues. All this, on your very own forums!

 

https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Latency-Issues/td-p/1546723/page/4

 

So, I have given this information to the support team who, for some reason, seem reluctant to make the changes, even though I'm told it is a minor task. Two days later I'm pushing for someone to have a look into this (see call back reference above)

 

In all honesty I have given up hope on calling the mad hatter, I'm not sure I can listen to those obnoxious songs on your phone queue any more and I don't want to lose my patience with someone just doing their job and happens to speak to me at the end of my tether.

 

Please can you help me, the answer to the problem is right there I just can't get anyone to help me. The question number on my account is :

#187775025

 

Thanks in advance, Joe

456 REPLIES 456
LaurenB
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
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Registered: ‎07-12-2017

Re: My Ping and I

Hi @jbligh87, thanks for getting in touch on our forums.

 

I am really sorry for the lack of progression you have experienced with your fault so far, this isn't the level of service we aim to provide our customers.

 

Thank you for confirming what troubleshooting has already been completed. Could you please advise if the issue only occurs during peak times?

 

I have contacted our Quality Assurance Team who have had a look into your VLAN, however no issues have been flagged and it's currently running well below threshold.

 

In order to try and narrow down where the issue lies, I've added a Static IP to your account as this will route you through our network in a different way.

 

Can you please reboot your router and let us know it's still the same? If so, the next step will be to discuss this with our QA Team again.

 

Failing that, we may need to get a Broadband engineer arranged and request a lift and shift which could be a possible cause also.

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Lauren Barry
 Plusnet Help Team
jbligh87
Rising Star
Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hi Lauren,

 

Thanks for your response! I have reset the router and can confirm I am still having wild ping spikes while any streaming service is active. I can also confirm the ping issues are present at any time if the day, not just at peak hours. At this point I have tried practically every hour of the day with the same result.

 

As the forum post stated that I linked, for the tests they ran, there didn't seem to be any issues or signs of congestion for them either so I'm not sure you would see any issues on mine if it is the same problem.

 

Please let me know what the next steps are or if there is anything else you need me to try from my side. Thanks again for your response!

 

Thanks, Joe

Gandalf
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: My Ping and I

Hey Joe.

Sorry that the static IP didn't help, I've removed that from your account now. It was just an attempt to try to troubleshoot and diagnose where the issue may lie. 

I've e-mailed our QA team to see if we can move you to a different S-VLAN even though their diagnostics aren't showing anything wrong with it, it'll help diagnose where the problem lies and will prove or disprove this theory.

I'll let you know when I receive a reply back, I'm hoping for tomorrow but it may be next week.

In the meantime it may be worth setting up a ThinkBroadband Quality Monitor Here to try to diagnose this further. If you're using the Hub One I believe it will reject ICMP/ping requests so you'd need to put a device into the DMZ to ping, though whatever device you use I'd recommend nothing which may be susceptible to attack as the DMZ will leave it exposed to the web.

If you're unsure how to do this I'm sure one of the community members may be able to assist (I'm not 100% confident myself as I've never done that before).

Hope this helps.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jbligh87
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Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hi Anoush,

 

Thanks for your response, hopefully they can come back to you sooner rather than later Sad

 

I have tried to go to the ThinkBroadband Quality Monitor as you suggested but the page fails to load. I have tried stopping all streaming services in hopes the page will load but sadly not. See screenshot attached.

 

Thanks, Joe

Gandalf
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Re: My Ping and I

Hi Joe,

Not sure why the ThinkBroadband site isn't loading, but I was actually referring to when you setup the broadband quality monitor. I think the webpage timing out is a different problem entirely.

I've tried loading it in Firefox, Chrome, Edge and IE and it's just spinning for me too. Having said that, it looks like this may be down to my link. Can you try this: https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality that includes the www.

Hopefully I'll get a reply soon to the e-mail I've sent over. If I don’t receive a reply within a few days or the request is rejected, I think the next step is for us to report a broadband fault and arrange an engineer to check out the broadband side of things on the Openreach network.

We'll request a lift and shift to move you to a different port at the cabinet. In my experience it's not uncommon for a particular port to cause odd issues such as these where latency is just affected.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jbligh87
Rising Star
Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hello,

My ping continued to fluctuate over the weekend. Couldn't even use it at all points.

Hopefully you hear something today and the port lift and shift can be actioned as you suggested, haven't had useable internet for 3 weeks now Sad

Could you chase please?

Thanks, joe
Gandalf
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Re: My Ping and I

Hi Joe,

I received a reply back from our suppliers Quality Assurance team a couple of hours ago advising that you were moved on to a different S-VLAN on 12/02/2019. I can't see any evidence that we've requested this so it looks like it may have been on the back of something they've done proactively.

As you've said the issues had started since the last engineer visit on the 27/02/2019 and you're still having issues following the move, I'm not sure that another move will achieve anything. I think the next step would be to arrange a broadband engineer to visit to investigate this further. If you can reply to ticket 187775025 with your availability I'll book the appointment in for you.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jbligh87
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Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hi Ankush,

Whatever the engineer did at the box on/around 27th is when I noticed the issue. So they must have changed something when trying to fix the other issue (network dropping -fixed).

Issue A (network drops) was resolved by moving to a different port on 27th.
Issue B (ping spikes) was a problem with the new port we were moved to?

I assume the above is what has happened, maybe there are different issues on the different ports we were given, I'm in no way an expert but seems that way.

I can book more time off for them to visit again, but can they try moving the port as well?

Thanks, Joe
Gandalf
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Re: My Ping and I

Hi Joe,

Based on what you've said I suspect the problem does lie with the port at the cabinet as opposed to the S-VLAN infrastructure. Unfortunately that would mean another visit, let me know via the support ticket once you know when you'll be free.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jbligh87
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Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hi Ankush,

Updated ticket as requested, let me know which is preferred and I can make sure I'm available.

Thanks, Joe
jbligh87
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Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Sorry Anoush, phone auto corrected your name Sad
Gandalf
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Re: My Ping and I

No worries Joe, that happens a lot. Word likes to change it to ambush as the preferred spelling!

I've booked the engineer appointment for tomorrow morning 12/03/2019 between 8am and 1pm, leaving notes for the engineer to perform a lift and shift at the cabinet to move you to a different port. I'll check back following the visit, but feel free to let me know how it goes.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
jbligh87
Rising Star
Posts: 166
Thanks: 25
Registered: ‎07-03-2019

Re: My Ping and I

Hi Anoush,

Great, thanks for your help, fingers crossed it should be sorted.

Thanks, Joe
Gandalf
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Re: My Ping and I

No problem Joe, fingers crossed!

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet