Packet loss when Streaming on Tv

[#1]

Apologies for the essay-
For over a month I've been experiencing packet loss whilst gaming on my pc whilst my partner streams anything on the TV (this happens on both wired and wireless connections).

I have seen other various reports of this issue and tried to discuss this issue with the support team, who have given me "we can't guarentee you won't lost packets" and "theres no fault on the line". I spoke to someone on the faults team who's advise was "reduce the streaming quality, you're using alot of bandwidth". I pay for 76mb (and I generally get quite close), speed isn't the issue, his defense on saying I was using alot is "you've uploaded 104mb at hour x and downloaded 4600mb at the same hr" (which equates to 76mb/MIN).

I have run TraceRT to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (suggestion from similar issues on forums) returns a variety of results. I ran the cmd 4 times to show the varying results I've been receiving below are the results:

C:UsersSole>tracert pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com

Tracing route to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 10 ms 10 ms 9 ms 128.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.128]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 195.99.125.136
6 9 ms 8 ms 9 ms peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
9 95 ms 85 ms 68 ms pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:UsersSole>tracert pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com

Tracing route to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 136 ms 161 ms 130 ms 128.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.128]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms 195.99.125.136
6 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
9 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:UsersSole>tracert pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com

Tracing route to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * 9 ms 9 ms 129.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.129]
4 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms 128.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.128]
5 10 ms 11 ms 16 ms 195.99.125.136
6 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 9 ms 10 ms 10 ms po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
9 10 ms 10 ms 10 ms pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:UsersSole>tracert pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com

Tracing route to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms PNHUB1 [192.168.1.254]
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * 127 ms 68 ms 129.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.129]
4 10 ms 11 ms 10 ms 128.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.128]
5 9 ms 9 ms 10 ms 195.99.125.136
6 10 ms 9 ms 9 ms peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 11 ms 9 ms 10 ms po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
9 69 ms 99 ms 124 ms pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

When my connection was set up, I was provided a second router due to the first bring faulty, a replacement socket and the engineer also attended the cabinet due to line issues.

[#2]

@connaljohn  Welcome to the forum.

For the record it's probable that the Plusnet agent was talking in Bytes, not bits. There's a factor of eight between them so your average download/upload transfer speed was 10.4Mbps plus overheads.

Maybe you need to buy a router that has QoS capability so that your gaming can be given priority over your partner's streaming, which will probably have sufficient buffering capability not to notice.

[#3]

Hi @connaljohn,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing these issues. I've taken a look at the account and upon testing the line, everything appears to be running as expected from our end of things. Unfortunately, when there's multiple devices in use and there's a high amount of upload vs download, this can affect the bandwidth available and you may sometimes notice the issues that you're reporting. Out of interest, is this only a problem when the TV is streaming, or does it also happen when other devices are streaming at the same time whilst you're gaming?

[#4]

I've not tested other devices as we do not stream on them at all, there's generally only 2 devices that'll be actively using the network at any one time (pc and TV). Unfortunately this issue isn't an "occasionally" it's every time without fail and instantly. The my TraceRT results were taken when the TV is streaming alone and no games active as if theres some weird prioritisation for streaming.

[#5]

Hi @connaljohn,

Please could you try running a trace route whilst the TV is off.