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New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

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AspergerGamer
Hooked
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

I have had my internet installed this morning.

The main reason I switched to Plusnet was to use this line for gaming. At the moment, I have two lines, Virgin and Plusnet. No one else uses the Plusnet line, as they can use Virgin.

Even though it's early days, I have noticed packet loss at the Plusnet hop towards some EA servers I play on (FIFA 20). The game is unplayable at the moment. I play FIFA on Xbox One.

I have done the usual troubleshooting stuff, restarting all the modems/routers I have.

Before going into detail I will start with the network I have setup:

A) I am using my own DSL router (TP Link VR600) to get the PPPoE connection done

B) then, this is how my network looks like - TP Link VR600 ---> Edgerouter X (DHCP) ---> Netgear XR500 (DHCP). I do a lot of testing and I need the Edgerouter for TCP dumps. I use the XR500 for setting up a specific location for the servers I want to use. Everything is wired, including my PC and console.

As mentioned above I did all the troubleshooting required and made changes as following: rebooted VR600 and all the routers, changed DNS server to OPEN DNS, changed the wall socket to filter and still the same results when testing. I have the modems/console in DMZ on each others NAT/Port forwarding settings. NAT is open. Even though port forwarding is not required as I don't run any server on my side.

For testing I used PingPlotter, MTR and UOTrace. PingPlotter and MTR came up with packet loss at the same location when doing the traceroute. I use UOTrace to simulate continuous ping (the same way packets would travel while playing).

I will attach only the PingPlotter graph and the UOTrace outcome. There is nothing wrong with my equipment (routers and wires, as I iPerf tested everything yesterday and I did not get any packet loss on UDP).

Bottom line, there is packet loss on ICMP on one of the Plusnet hops, which will influence all the packets going through that location to the server I play on, and I do not even want to imagine how that would look like on UDP packets.

Please see attached the documents, and I would really appreciate if someone would look into this or point me in the right direction to get someone to look into it. These documents are for a french server, but I am getting the same issues on different locations too, as the routing is through the same hops.

Regards

11 REPLIES 11
Champnet
Aspiring Hero
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Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Fix

I've tried your examples without problems or errors but I've a fixed IP address which i believe takes a different route across the Plusnet infrastructure, hope someone can confirm or deny this.

Maybe worth investing a fiver.... 

AspergerGamer
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Thank you for replying! I am guessing you have done some traceroutes, right?

I was on the phone with Tech Support Saturday and I was advised to press the reset button on the router to get a different IP. It worked to get a different route to the server, but still the same issue on the first Hop with Sheffield in the name. Do you mind if you share the IP addresses on the Plusnet network you get routed through?

I wouldn't mind paying extra, but the guy on the phone said he cannot guarantee the problem will get fixed by having a static IP.

I tried the Plusnet Hub for testing sake, and the same issues occurred.

Champnet
Aspiring Hero
Posts: 2,587
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Registered: ‎25-07-2007

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Here you are :

 

Picture0002.jpg

AspergerGamer
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Thank you for doing this. Clearly, this is a routing issue. Will give them a call and see what can they do about this! It may be because of you having a static ip.

Terranova667
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Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Doing a trace with a dynamic IP doesn't show anything bad highest ping to a hop was 52ms at hop 17, the rest were well within norms. 

Tracing route to ec2-15-236-74-169.eu-west-3.compute.amazonaws.com [15.236.74.169]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms  1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 6 ms 7 ms  5 ms 172.16.18.35
3 * 12 ms  13 ms 133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
4 13 ms  13 ms  15 ms 132.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.132]
5 15 ms  14 ms  13 ms 195.99.125.140
6 14 ms  14 ms  17 ms peer7-et-4-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.16.122]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 13 ms  15 ms  13 ms 52.94.34.149
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 20 ms  20 ms  20 ms 176.32.106.186
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 52 ms   64 ms   36 ms 52.46.94.108
18 26 ms   43 ms   24 ms 52.46.94.109
19 20 ms  20 ms    20 ms 52.46.93.143
20 19 ms  19 ms    20 ms 52.46.93.38
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 19 ms  20 ms    20 ms ec2-15-236-74-169.eu-west-3.compute.amazonaws.com [15.236.74.169]

Trace complete.

AspergerGamer
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

@Terranova667 

Thank you for your input.

Did you get packet loss different than 0%/100% on Hop 3 133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]?

This seems to be the case as you do not get a current ping time. That's the issues I have. Packet loss at the 3rd hop, always. I have reset my router twice more, just to be on the safe side, and it's not routing me without packet loss.

Terranova667
Pro
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Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Ran it 3 times more, first one had 17ms at hop three, The rest had no ping time at hop 3.

Tracing route to ec2-15-236-74-169.eu-west-3.compute.amazonaws.com [15.236.74.169]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms     1 ms      1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 6 ms     5 ms       5 ms 172.16.18.35
3 17 ms   12 ms    12 ms 133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
4 13 ms   14 ms    13 ms 132.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.132]
5 13 ms   13 ms    13 ms 195.99.125.140
6 17 ms   13 ms    14 ms peer7-et-4-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.16.122]

 

1 1 ms    1 ms     1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 5 ms    5 ms     5 ms 172.16.18.35
3 *          11 ms    * 133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
4 13 ms  14 ms   13 ms 132.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.132]
5 13 ms  13 ms   13 ms 195.99.125.140
6 13 ms  13 ms   13 ms peer7-et-4-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.16.122]

 

1 1 ms      1 ms        1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 5 ms      5 ms        5 ms 172.16.18.35
3 *            13 ms     12 ms 133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
4 13 ms   14 ms      13 ms 132.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.132]
5 13 ms    13 ms     14 ms 195.99.125.140
6 14 ms    14 ms     13 ms peer7-et-4-0-1.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [194.72.16.122]

 

 

AspergerGamer
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

@Terranova667 thank you for your help. This helped me make a decision. I paid the fiver for static IP and the PL is gone. I got the similar odd 50ms on a couple of hops now, as you mentioned.

@Champnet Thanks for your trace and help! Changed to static and I have no packet loss on plusnet hops, as I get routed differently.

Let's hope this fixes the gaming issues I have been having!

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

Thanks for your post @AspergerGamer 

I'm sorry to see you've had latency issues while playing games on the dynamic IP you had. I've firstly refunded £5 in advance of the charge you'll see on your next bill because it shouldn't be necessary to pay for a static IP to play games without lag.

I've also flagged this to the relevant team to investigate and get to the bottom of internally.

Let us know if there's anything else you'd need help with.

From 31st October 2022, I no longer have a regular presence here as I’ve moved on to a new role.
Anoush Mortazavi
Plusnet
AspergerGamer
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Registered: ‎03-07-2020

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

@Gandalf Thank you for the refund! I received a confirmation email last evening. It is really comforting to see an ISP, finally, taking some action when it comes to gaming.

Well, I am interested if this matter gets anywhere, internally, as both colleagues of yours, I was on the phone with, said that there is nothing else that can be done if this packet loss thing stays after the activation of static IP. So far, I had no packet loss whatsoever. Even FIFA feels more responsive to the point it's playable. It doesn't feel that good like some spells I had on some days with Sky before, but it is consistently playable though, compared to Sky.

Gandalf
Community Gaffer
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Registered: ‎21-04-2017

Re: New line - packet loss at Plusnet Hop

No problem at all @AspergerGamer I'm somewhat of a gamer myself/I used to be, although I am getting back into world of warcraft now. 😁 Because a static IP fixes the issue and that takes another route onto different equipment, I raised this to a colleague from a back-end team so this can be investigated further behind the scenes. 

If you have latency issues while on the static IP although fingers crossed you don't, it's likely to be an issue with the broadband connection (something we can look at arranging an engineer to investigate) and/or the gaming servers. 

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