I've been a PingPlotter user since 2003, but I have not needed it often, which is a good thing. Just recently, I bought a Netger WNR3500 router. Things seem sluggish, although tests through http://www.speedtest.net do not indicate any problems, most of the time.

There are lots of configuration options in the Netgear that I don't understand, such as SPI and Open NAT Filtering. Therefore, I cannot tell what is going on. Take a look at the capture below. The only way I could get rid of the red was to turn off SPI, which Netgear says should not be done. Even then, the various hops show high packet loss, which doesn't show up in the total at the bottom.

It's possible that the WNR3500 is doing what it is supposed to do, but if it is, PingPlotter is not of much use. Please suggest what I need to do before I decide to try another brand of router.

Hi, Pat.

I don't have any great solution for you here.

If you have to turn of stateful packet inspection (SPI) on your router to make PingPlotter work, then that may have to be a compromise that you have to make in your router configuration. Maybe Netgear has some advice for you on ways you can leave SPI *on* and still have PingPlotter work. You may also want to check for the latest firmware update for your router, since that's one thing we often find helps - when the manufacturer finds a problem. Unfortunately, we don't have a WNR3500 inhouse to troubleshoot for you.

As for the packet loss numbers not totaling in the graph: It looks like packet loss stopped at 10:03.45 - maybe that's when you turned of SPI? The upper graph is showing 380 samples, and which includes the period where you were losing packets and also the period where the packet loss stopped (in the lower graph), so it's summarizing both time periods.