Hi ChrisP,

Thanks for writing into the forum!

It sounds like you're having some frustrating experiences with your internet connection and PingPlotter is perfect for tracking these down to see where the issue is!

It's hard to tell just from your screenshot exactly where the issue may be since the focus is set to 5 seconds but I think you're on the right path. One way to deal with a device that's reporting a bunch of packet loss is to trace directly to that device.

So for instance you could trace to the IP addresses of hop #1 and hop #2 and they may respond better. Here is an article that goes into more detail about why they may be responding poorly. When you trace directly to that hop's IP address the TTL does not = 0 when the packet reaches the device so it generally prioritizes it differently and responds.

However, some devices are programed to pass along to the next-hop but otherwise ignore ICMP packets all together and that's when you'll see 100% packet loss. Your router should respond and if it doesn't you could possibly adjust the config to respond to ICMP packets (Google the model of your router and "ICMP" and see what the manual says about it).

If you want more feedback I'd be happy to take a look at your data but I'd suggest gathering a good chunk (24 hours) with an intermittent issue like the one you describe. I'd suggest tracing to these destinations:

1. Trace to the site or service you are having issues with (Netflix, Fortnite server, Zoom.com, etc.).*
2. Trace to a reference address such as 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as a control to compare to
3. You can also trace to your ISP (generally hop #2 or #3). A "WHOIS" google search on the IP address usually provides results about who the IP address is registered to.
4. To your router (Usually the first hop in the route - 192.168.0.1 or something similar).
5. Trace to your NIC (Network Interface Card). In Windows, run Command Line as administrator and type ipconfig and look for the IPv4 address - this is your NIC IP.
6. Finally, trace to your loopback address (127.0.0.1). This lets you verify that any issues you are seeing are not related to the hardware or IP stack on the machine you're using.

*To find your game server or specific site IP address you can open the command line (in Windows WIN+R -> type "CMD") or terminal (on Mac cmd+SPACE -> type "terminal" -> Enter) and type "netstat -n" this will give you a list of all of the connections that your machine is connected to. You will see headings for Protocol, Local Address, Foreign Address, and State. Look through the list and see if you can find a program name that seems like it might be your game and grab the Foreign Address and that is likely your game server IP address. If you can't find it you can do a screen grab while connected to the server and then disconnect and do another netstat -n and compare the two as whatever one is missing is likely the one you want to trace to.

Once you have gathered some good data you can share your results with us by changing your Focus field to reflect at least 24 hours, clicking File -> Share -> Create Share Page, and paste the URL of your share page in an email to support@pingman.com.

- PingPlotter Sharing

Let me know if this leaves you with any questions!

Thanks,

-Poe