Sketchy latency?

[#1]

Could someone take a look at my line and check if there's noise or something similar? I have ping left open sometimes and I'll frequently get replies back that are quite delayed. I'm wondering if there's something up with my line? In my old place, I was always getting 100% consistent ping replies (around 10ms or so).

[#2]

Hi there.

Line tests aren't finding any obvious causes of the high latency you're experiencing, are your devices connecting over WiFi or using a wired connection?

[#3]

It's wired, could it be possible that the ethernet cable is damaged? It's worth mentioning that it happens sporadically as well. It's a long cable (7.5m) as well if that means anything.

[#4]

The problem seems to be a lot worse in the evenings; I know it doesn't sound like much, but the only reason I went with Plusnet was for the rock solid latency for online games, and the games I play are very susceptible to these sorts of lag spikes. It sort of looks like my area has too many people packed in, perhaps? I know a few people on Virgin who have awful latency issues, presumably because of this.

I've been alright with Plusnet since 2013, so this is really the first time I've had a proper problem with things.

[#5]

Hi there, the length of the cable shouldn't be an issue but I'd try another one if you can get your hands on a spare. - Adam 

[#6]

I had problems with latency variation especially around prime times (basically from 1545 when kids got home until 2200 when most people went to bed) and it turned out to be a hardware problem at the exchange - it couldn't handle the level of contention at busy periods. They had to upgrade and it took ages.

And that was *after* I'd spent months arguing with plusnet then engineers and then BT Openreach.

I recommend using ThinkBroadband's Broadband Quality Monitoring service (though you need a fixed ISP - Plusnet can organise this for you) to build a body of evidence.

You get graphs like this: -

Where each point is 100 seconds sample of latency and it shows, min, max, average and also dropped packets.

You can see on my recent one above I currently have an issue with bad packet loss and regular complete disconnects...

Good luck with your issue...

[#7]

Yeah, a new cable doesn't do anything, as I thought.

I'm planning on moving back to my old place as soon as I can, as this has been an issue since moving in, but it's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, so I'm not really expecting it to be a high priority. 

[#8]

I've discussed this with our suppliers quality assurance team and they're checks aren't showing any congestion on their network at the exchange.

Could you run a traceroute for us to the gaming server you're having issues with and/or pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com?

[#9]

Sorry for delay.

Did several traceroutes to pingbox1;

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4    18 ms     9 ms    12 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5     9 ms     9 ms     8 ms  195.99.125.144
  6     9 ms     9 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    81 ms    58 ms    43 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms    10 ms     9 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        8 ms  133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
  4    10 ms     9 ms    10 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5     8 ms    27 ms     8 ms  195.99.125.144
  6     9 ms     9 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    12 ms    11 ms    11 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        8 ms    10 ms  133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
  4     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5    55 ms    54 ms    15 ms  195.99.125.144
  6    10 ms     9 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    11 ms    11 ms    11 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms    10 ms     9 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        8 ms     8 ms  133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
  4     9 ms    10 ms     9 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5    31 ms     9 ms     8 ms  195.99.125.144
  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    62 ms    36 ms    55 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4    15 ms     9 ms    11 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5     9 ms     8 ms     8 ms  195.99.125.144
  6     9 ms    10 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    12 ms    11 ms    11 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9    10 ms     9 ms    10 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        8 ms  133.hiper04.sheff.dial.plus.net.uk [195.166.143.133]
  4     9 ms     9 ms    10 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5     9 ms     8 ms     9 ms  195.99.125.144
  6    11 ms    10 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    11 ms    10 ms    15 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms    10 ms     9 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\oryx>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  192.168.1.1
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     9 ms     9 ms     9 ms  be3-3102.pcn-ir02.plus.net [195.166.143.132]
  5     9 ms     8 ms     8 ms  195.99.125.144
  6    23 ms     9 ms    10 ms  peer8-et-3-1-6.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109.159.252.174]
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8    11 ms    15 ms    11 ms  po4-31.core-rs2.thdo.ncuk.net [80.249.97.85]
  9     9 ms    10 ms    11 ms  pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.164]

I keep a couple of cmd windows open with pings to cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and google (216.58.206.142), and I get spikes at the same time when both addresses reply. Sometimes as high as 200ms delays.

 

I can't really ping anything game related, because it's peer-to-peer (fighting games for the most part)

[#10]

Hi @OryxCallotis,

Thank you for doing the traceroutes and for popping the results in here. It does appear that there is a network level issue.

I've tested your line from this side, however the test isn't picking up the cause of this. For reference, today's test result is as follows:

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	BBEUXXXXXXX

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	79.9 Mbps
Upstream Speed	20.0 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	429.8
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
Profile Name	0.128M-80M Downstream, Retransmission Low - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2018-08-03T12:45:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps
Up Time	768.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	899.8 Sec
Retrains	0.0	1.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2018-08-16T11:17:58Z	2018-08-16T11:32:58Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	1
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

So that we may investigate further, please can you report the issue here and let us know when you've completed it.

[#11]

Thanks, done so. There is a little noise on the line that you can hear through a phone; not that much but it's quite clearly there.

[#12]

Hi @OryxCallotis,

Thanks for raising the fault. I've checked through all the results and I cannot see anything obvious that's causing the problem.

Initially I was going to suggest looking at port forwarding to see if this helped to resolve any problems, but the slight noise you mentioned on the phone line is a cause of concern as this might be causing noise spikes that are in turn causing the intermittent lag issues so I think this is probably the best route to go down. 

Could you try doing a noisy line test for me by dialling 17070 from the handset. It will read back the telephone number assigned and then one of the options it will be 'noisy line test'. It would be ideal if you could perform this as your current set up is and rerun the test direct from the test socket (behind the faceplate). It won't log the test anywhere, so you'll have to listen to hear if there is any noise that can be heard on the line. See if there's a difference and let us know, if that's okay?

[#13]

It is actually "Quiet line test"

[#14]

I've tried both the normal socket and the test socket, with two different phones, and in all cases there's a constant low hiss / buzzing sound. I'm not really sure how 'quiet' a quiet line test should be, but it's quite clear to listen to for me.

[#15]

@OryxCallotis,

Normally the quiet line test should be silent in the background making any noise more apparent because there's no background/conversational noise to distort or mask it. 

I retested the line and it's come back clear again, but looking at earlier in the year, just after your move, this was happening then and an engineer visit resolved some external issue so it's probably best to go down this route again. It will go straight to appointment booking so if you want reply to this ticket with the appointment dates and let us know when you've updated it we can book it for you. I've also included the engineer charging statement there too which has to be agreed to because the line tests are all coming back clear.