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High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hi there,
I used to be on a PlusNet Pro account but I recently switched to a normal unlimited account because I (me and my housemates in a student accomodation)
maxed out the 60GB allowance pretty quickly. Ever since we switched the quality of the internet has gone done significantly. It is almost impossible to play
games during the day (specifically Heroes of Newerth) as there is a very high packet loss. It is also impossible to use Skype most of the time. I can hear
the other person but they only get noises and the occasional word. This seems to be random as sometimes during the day it's ok and sometimes it is not.
I am using the TG 585v8 router. If you have any hints as to how to solve the problem I would appreciate it.
Regards,
Matei
12 REPLIES 12
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hi matei, the traffic management on Unlimited is different to that on Extra (especially with the Pro add-on) - could that be causing the difference?
http://www.plus.net/support/broadband/products/archive/plusnet_unlimited_archive.shtml#downloadSpeed...
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hi Matt,
Thank you for your response. Well I assumed it had something to do with that change since it happened
after we changed. However according to that chart, gamin should always be 2Mb/s. Which should be
more than enough for a fluid performance. Also, the speed of gaming does not vary throughout the day
therefore it should not matter when and the performance should be ok. I am definitely not an expert on
that topic so this is just a "gut feeling".
Regards,
Matei
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hi Matt,
Right now I have an unnacceptable ping for instance. There is noone else
using the internet at this moment so I can rule out the fact that someone
is overloading the line or anything.
Regards,
Matei
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hmm, seems very odd given that Heroes of Newerth is in the defined games list (http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,444.0.html)
Any chance you could do a quick wireshark capture so we can confirm it's correctly assigned? Details on how to do that at http://community.plus.net/library/faults/using-wireshark-for-data-capture/ (apologies if you're already aware).
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Thank you for your quick response.
I have run Wireshark and it seems that it is correctly assigned.
I have attached a screenshot that I recorded. Just to make sure I
did it right. I started capturing with Wireshark. Then I logged into
the game and joined a random server. I did not start playing though.
Regards,
Matei
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hmm, you're right and it's definitely correctly assigned. Are any other games not working, and does this one work sometimes but not others?
Skype I believe can be tricky, we've done what we can to classify it but I believe it uses p2p technology to some degree which can lead to issues with classification so some skype traffic can end up as 'other' rather than VoIP hence the issues you've seen there. That'll be affected mostly by other traffic on the network, so you could override it if your router has any form of QoS, otherwise I'm afraid it's a matter of needing your own network to be less busy 😕
Hope that helps explain a bit, if you have any more info we'll do what we can.
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

I have not tried it with other games as I don't play other games online.
I just noticed something strange. Doing a repeated pingtest (www.pingtest.com)
I obtained a fairly good result. I was the only one using the internet at the moment
and nothing was running in the background. No packet loss and a ping of about
~40ms to the nearest server. I then started the game and it was unplayble.
I then repeated the pingtest several times while I was connected to the game and I
suddenly had packet losses of about 70% and ping shot up to about ~300ms.
Do you have any idea how that can be?
Regards,
Matei
Edit: After closing the game the packet loss and the high ping dissappeared. Are there
any setting with the router that I might have to change maybe?
Edit: Doing the pingtest while the game is running smoothly yields a good results with no packet loss.
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hmm, not seeing any drops in connection so I'm not sure what's going on. Might be worth trying a different router if you have one available? Also is this on a wired or wireless connection (between PC and router I mean)?
I can see you've raised a fault which is definitely the best thing to do otherwise. Hopefully we can get it sorted from there.
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

I do not have a different router available unfortunately. The problem persists wether I use a wired
or a wireless connection.
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Just signed up for the Plusnet Fibre Broadband. I hope that will fix the problem.
matei
Newbie
Posts: 8
Registered: ‎23-01-2012

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

I just came across another observation. Even though I am switching to fibre broadband this might be helpfull for future problems.
The stability of the internet decreases significantly when logged into a server in the game. As soon as you connect, the packet loss
and ping increase drastically. If I disconnect everything goes back to normal. Could this indicate a problem with the router or router
settings? I would find it strange that being connected to a server would somehow affect the stability of the line.
What do you think?
Regards,
Matei
orbrey
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 10,540
Registered: ‎18-07-2007

Re: High packet loss and latency during the day while playing Heroes of Newerth

Hmmm... the only thing I can think of there is that the server is using non-standard ports or similar, basically meaning that the packets aren't being picked up properly as gaming traffic. Did you get any server traffic in the wireshark capture by any chance, and does this show it's classified correctly?
Only other thing I could think of offhand is MTU size, but that usually only makes a difference on much bigger or busier sites.