topic Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping in Broadband & Landline

High packet loss and spikes in ping

highpacketloss — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 21:16:20 GMT

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Below is a charateristic ping test of my EE connection.

A few notes:

After switching from EE's default modem to some weird TP-LINK one I found at work, both ping and packet loss improved greatly to its current not-so-great status
This is a consistent issue no matter which server I ping (every continent has this problem)

Any help on how to fix this infuriating problem would be greatly appreciated!

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

James_B — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 09:49:30 GMT

Hi @highpacketloss,

Welcome to the EE Community. 🙂

Our Technical Support Team will be happy to look into this if you get in touch.

Thanks

James

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

highpacketloss — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:32:08 GMT

Hi James!

Thank you for your reply. The technical support team have not been helpful (in fact, downright useless), neither has the engineer sent on site. I was looking for the community for support.

Cheers,

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 20:47:09 GMT

@highpacketloss to be fair you have not given much to go on, and assumed people would know what your odd ping plotter was, how it was set up, and what your random servers were you were trying to measure, or what your weird TP-Link router was.

If you want to put some detail into your problems people may be able to help.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

highpacketloss — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:45:11 GMT

1. The plotter was to cloudflare's 1.1.1.1, in fact it doesn't matter which server I ping on any continent. I'm afraid that detail won't be helpful.

2. The ping and packet loss was on average, 56% and 78% with EE's default router, I hope I was doing EE a favour by not letting that one go in public.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 21:54:40 GMT

@highpacketloss

1. you might not thinks so, but pinging DNS servers is a pretty dumb way to test anthing, their priority is to do DNS stuff, not respond to your or anyone elses pings.

2. see 1 above, not EE you would be doing a favour! You can't have come on here to report on pinging DSN servers?

So back to your issue, what is it really?

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

highpacketloss — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:19:36 GMT

Look, I don't know a better way to show the problems I'm having with my internet. I'm just a guy who really needs his internet to work better so I can work from home once in a while to spend time with my family.

Right now the symptoms are: 1 minute in a 10 minute zoom call drops out. About 2 minutes in a League of Legends game is timed out, Youtube can buffer at a maximum of 360p.

Could you suggest a better way to diagnose my problems? It's been quite sad and infuriating to not have usable internet.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:34:13 GMT

OK, now we may be getting somewhere. A few basics will help.

1. What broadband service and speeds do you have?

2. What speed and services are available in your area? Enter your phone number in the BTW DSL checker, post the results excluding personal info such as the phone number - https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

3. If not on Full Fibre, how is your phone line, any noise when you dial 17070 option 2?

A simple phone is the best diagnostic tool you can have on a broadband line delivered over your phone line.

4. Any changes in the router lights when you notice problems?

5. When you notice issues, is anyone else using the internet, or is it just you?

That should at least get a start to some meaningful information.

If @XRaySpeX is around he has a more detailed set of questions that will help further.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

highpacketloss — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:41:30 GMT

1. 16Mb/s contract but averaging around 500kb/s on fast.com/google/ookla

2. 16Mb/s was the fastest one available

3. I'll get a phone tomorrow, what should I try to listen for?

4. Internet light goes out from time to time

5. Just me (we went through process of elimination)

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:45:08 GMT

OK, so seems likley your line is faulty, but detail will help, so again:

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:49:03 GMT

@Mustrum : No, you've pretty well covered them. I'll just add ...

@highpacketloss : Welcome to EE's Home Broadband Forum.

It would seem your issue is with drop-outs rather than pings to servers that are busy doing their own thing.

Is it the BB as a whole dropping or just the WiFi connections? Do Ethernet connected devices stay working? What colours are the light sequence when it happens?

If you would like help with your BB speed or connection issues, please would you carry out the following steps for starters, which will enable us to diagnose the problem and advise you further. Do not restart your router to do these tests:

1. Post your full router stats:

For a BrightBox: login and go to Advanced Settings > System > DSL Status. Also post 'System Uptime' from top of System Log page.
For a SmartHub: login and go to Advanced Settings > Technical Log > Information. Obscure your names & any numbers in the BB Username & also the SSIDs.
For other routers: login to it according to the label on it as the admin user & navigate looking for its router/connection statistics.

Full router stats are key to any speed & connection issues.

2. Try a wired speedtest, using an Ethernet cable supplied with the router, here http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html . Click on the "Results Page" button at the bottom of the graph you first see and then copy to here just the "Link to this result:" link that you see below the next main graph.

3. (We still need to see this): What does BT Wholesale Broadband Availability Checker estimate for your phone number? Post just the whole table and the line above it, blanking out your phone number. If it doesn't recognise your phone number or you don't have one, use the Address Checker.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

pip11 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:52:14 GMT

The best way to atempt to show your problem is to use ping plotter (free edition) available HERE.

It will show where the problem is occuring.

The screenshot below shows 0% packet loss. When reading the plot always start from the destination and work backwards. All the screenshot shows is 2 routers busy doing their job and treating ICMP (ping) requests as low priority and not responding in the required time. The packets were still sent to the destination.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 22:56:09 GMT

That ping test you post is useless. It doesn't show where the delays are occurring & whether it's to be expected to have delays at such servers.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

pip11 — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 23:10:35 GMT

It shows no delay because there isn't any, I'm on a VM connection so the RTT is the norm. It would show packet loss if there was any which the OP is saying is the problem and it would be able to be traced back all through the route.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

Mustrum — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 23:24:18 GMT

@pip11 so not really a lot of help when the OP's issue is a line problem reducing speed from 18Mbps to 500kbps - ping plots don't help so much that way.

Re: High packet loss and spikes in ping

XRaySpeX — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 23:27:24 GMT

Yes, I'd rather be looking at the characteristics of the line, Ping plotting is a blind alley.