Packet Loss at night

[#1]

Dear Support,

we are experiencing issues at night with packet losses.

This keeps happening for a few weeks now. I can't nail the exact times down as I didn't log this issue properly.

Please refer to https://share.pingplotter.com/JT5kYctXajf for all the necessary logs for pingplotter.

This should be suffice, yet I can provide further logs if requested.

One thing to note is that I had my connection rerouted a few times in the past, (very) roughly around 6am. This generally solved the latency, or rather packet loss issue.

Thank you in advance.

Please let me know the steps you are taking to look into and solve the issue for good.

EDIT: I can confirm a smooth line without packet losses at 23:58 after the reroute.

I will leave this open as the main recurring problem (presumably) still exists until I see an improvement over a certain amount of time or you tell me otherwise.

Tank you

[#2]

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

Are you able to provide us with more logs?

[#3]

I'll assume that you can access the log file from the link for pingplotter as you didn't mention otherwise.

I will collect more logs tonight and provide them here, given that there are any problems related to one of your nodes.

Yesterday I saw some indication of bandwidth saturation, followed by a few packet losses for a short period of time.

This only happened twice and for only a few minutes, unfortunately, I had a software crash and can't provide proper logs for that one. It happened at around 19:48,  20:05 and 20:40. These are estimates but follow the same pattern in pingplotter: The first hop looks clean, the 4th hop (first one I can measure properly from here outside my premises) and the last hop (target destination) show the same pattern of packet loss and latency spikes, although the latency spikes were not too severe and only lasted a very short time in all three occasions.

I will continue to log this, although I would appreciate it if PlusNet can start logging it for themselves at some point, which is something I would take for granted and PlusNet probably already does.

[#4]

Log data 5/6 March 2018 https://share.pingplotter.com/LfQukUJNn8d

It was not as bad as usual but there were still instances of packet loss at night.

Note that on the screenshot I chose a timeframe of 6 hours for a better overview, I recommend analyzing the data with a smaller timeframe.

Also, note that the pings are sent every 2.5 seconds so some packet loss will not be recorded.

If I would send pings more frequently it would alter the results as I would virtually be DOSing my own hop as the next step down would be 1 second intervals.

[#5]

Is there an underlying performance problem which is causing you to monitor 'pings'?

Looking at the graphs you've supplied the average end to end response time looks fairly normal.  Yes there are a few exceptions with longer delays, but nothing exceptional.  At hops 2 and 7 the routers have probably been set to not respond to pings.  If a router is busy passing traffic then pings can legitimately be discarded in favour of routing traffic.

It may help us to help you if you can describe any of the symptoms you perceive during normal usage.

[#6]

Our tests aren't finding the cause of the packet loss, but I can see your speed is lower than expected.

This could possibly be related, so I'd recommend running through the steps here and raise a fault to us here.

[#7]

This is NOT about the speed, it's NOT about the ping itself. There is no significant bandwidth saturation based on the logs I collected.

If it would be speed related you would see it in the graph/log.

The reason I experience a "high ping" is solely due to a packet loss originating somewhere between hop 2 and 4.

The speed is reasonable at stable 3MB/second for quite some time.

Please, I ask every non-support user to leave the thread clean for support only.

I understand you are trying to help and I'm grateful, but I chose this approach with pingplotter as it shows EXACTLY where the problem is in the very most cases.

If you would have checked the entire log files you could see that it is NOT coming from the first hop (which is my router)

This is not guesswork here, it IS either the bridge right outside on the street or the node on hope 3 or 4.

It is hard to tell as the bridge refuses to respond to the ping requests (probably due to the config) so it's invalid in the results but it might not be the problem.

This is for PlusNet to figure out.

But here are the symptoms during normal usage during the day as requested: NONE

At night, I experience a "high ping"  which is not a real high ping due to bandwidth saturation, but simple and plainly an artificial high ping due to packet loss.

And the router traffic priority, also known as quality of service (QoS) has nothing to do with it either.

To keep you happy, the router should (if anything) have a harder time during the day when all devices are up and connected than at night when only 2 or 3 devices are online.

Now can we please let the tech team professionals sort out my logs and their own, as I'm not willing to start guesswork on my local hop when clear evidence points outside my house. Thank you all for your cooperation.

I will continue to post logs here.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Post released from Spam Filter.

[#8]

@MauriceC

I'm well aware that the node can deny ping requests due to several reasons, which I do not include in the end result. These are to be ignored!

The underlaying performance problem is: packet loss!

I'm not talking about delays. I'm not talking about high ping due to bandwidth saturation (although I noticed it here and there slightly but it's kept to a minimum and rare)

Yes, router can prioritize traffic, called QoS (quality of service), but as PlusNet states gaming is on high prio. And this is where the problem generally lies.

The problem clearly is on one (or several) of PlusNet's nodes.

Don't take this the wrong way but I won't start explaining the logs here.

I indeed expect PlusNet's tech support to step in, analyze the logs, compare it with their own and figure out on their end why the nodes seem unstable at night time. Or how ever they want to do it, I'm not trying to tell them how to do their job.

I simply provide the logs.

On a side node, the problem disappears as soon as I get rerouted. As I mentioned in my first post by the way.

Do not search for the problem at hope 1, please. Keep the thread clean for my logs and the official support. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

I will continue to post logs here.

EDIT: My apologies for the double post, I thought I messed up and didn't realize my previous one was being blocked for review.

Last night was fine, no packet loss detected in the logs so I won't share them as they are clean with no evidence.

[#9]

Log data 7/8 March 2018 https://share.pingplotter.com/B5D3R2vnbP6

Overall ok up until 22:25 where it started to become unstable with packet drops.

I lost connection at 22:44 (possible node reboot?)

After the connection loss and reconnect it worked smoothly again. No rerouting detected on my end.

[#10]

Log data 9/10 March 2018: https://share.pingplotter.com/ZiknAFH7L3b

Not complete yet, but you can already see the drops happening for a long period of time.

It's still affecting my connection at the time of writing. 

[#11]

Log data 9/10 March 2018 https://share.pingplotter.com/HQBCJxMntih

 A lot of packet loss got logged for a very long period of time.

At some point, it originated at hop 9, outside PlusNet's reach, and I experienced a disconnect at hop 0 which is also irrelevant for PlusNet.

Other than that I logged a packet loss originating from PlusNet's server for almost 4 hours, not including some possible bandwidth saturation afterwards.

Please note that I don't expect technical miracles and know that bandwidth saturation can happen at busy times, but having a faulty node for whatever reason for several hours without rerouting the customers is rather rough.

This is what we are aiming for at the end of the day. A stable line, while occasional hiccups for up to a few minutes would be ignored.

[#12]

@happylittletree, what router do you have? Are you able to set up a Think Broadband quality monitor?

[#13]

I have a Netgear Nighthawk X4S D7800

I don't know if I can set it up; what benefits would I have from using it?

It seems redundant, but I'm happy to learn new stuff.

[#14]

It's being bad again! https://share.pingplotter.com/8SKogSrJbL9

Perhaps the support can look into it other than just saying sorry you are having problems and leaving it at that!

I'm feeling very left alone here and ignored by PlusNet at the moment.

It is a very frustrating experience.

We are going to move soon, and perhaps it is good.

A good support is of utmost importance, almost as important as a good product/service. Right now I'm more than unhappy with the support I'm getting here!