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#2826 - 04/04/16 12:36 AM Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night
Tyler Offline


Registered: 04/04/16
Posts: 4
I have been having this issue for a month and have done everything possible on my end to remedy and troubleshoot it but I am still coming up short.

Basically every night around 7:45pm, right when the sun goes down (literally every time), I start getting 100% packet loss a few times every couple of minutes. It subsides right around 7:30am in the morning every single time. I have tracked it consistently for about a week with PingPlotter but I am stuck now.

My setup is as simplistic as it gets. I have the coax running into an Aris SB6190 modem, then I have the cat5e cable running directly to my desktop.

I have switched out everything from the coax from the wall, to the modem, to the power supply, to the cat5e cable, from the source PC. I have tried installing a line conditioner for the modem to make sure it was receiving the correct amount of voltage as per a solution here (http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Basic-Inter...do/td-p/1349123). Please take a look at the images and tell me if it time to start going after Comcast yet. They have had a technician out but they were unable to find the source.

Any help will be appreciated.



Attachments
packet_loss3.PNG (711 downloads)



Edited by Tyler (04/04/16 12:50 AM)

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#2827 - 04/04/16 07:58 PM Re: Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night [Re: Tyler]
Phillip Offline
Pingman Staff


Registered: 12/30/15
Posts: 49
Loc: Boise, Idaho
Hey Tyler,

Sorry to hear you are having these strange issues.

It is really hard to pinpoint exactly what is happening based on the one screenshot. I would like to be able to see the full graph for the trace (only the final destination is being shown).

I can tell you that it looks like the packet loss (at least for this focus time) is originating at hop #1 - and continuing all the way to the final destination. This is an indication that the issue *may* be somewhere between your computer and hop #1 (including the modem). Check out this document for more information:

http://www.pingplotter.com/commonnetworkproblems/

Specifically look at the section entitled, "Bad wiring/hardware".

There are a few troubleshooting steps you can perform to try and narrow this down even further;

It sounds as if you have already performed the first step - which is to rule out cables (power and coax) by replacing them.

It sounds like you are hard wired in, which is good.

The next logical step is the modem. You should ensure the modem is using the latest firmware. If you have an extra modem, you can try replacing your existing modem with that and monitoring the connection overnight again to see if the packet loss pattern is the same.

We do have a great guide on network troubleshooting here:

http://www.pingplotter.com/netnirvana/

Go ahead and give those few things a try. Hopefully, that will point you in the right direction to solve this. If not, please let us know (and if you can send another screenshot with the full graph or a .pp2 data file that would help us further).

Cheers!

-Phillip

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#2828 - 04/05/16 04:41 PM Re: Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night [Re: Phillip]
Tyler Offline


Registered: 04/04/16
Posts: 4
I have attached the .pp2 data file for the past day or so. I can tell sometimes, for example at noon, the packet loss is occurring on a hop that is outside my control which isn't a huge deal since that is the minority. I am most concerned about the packet loss from 7:45pm to approximately 8:00am.

Hop one IP doesn't match my modems public IP and obviously doesn't match the IP of my internal network so how can I be sure that is within my network?

Yes I already swapped all cables with nothing helping and have also gone through quite a bit of other troubleshooting steps. I bought a new modem and I am hard wired in. I eliminated the router to make the setup as simplistic as possible in order to find the problem. I am using the latest firmware however Comcast pushes the latest one I don't believe I could update even if I wanted to.

Any help after looking at the pp2 data would be greatly appreciated. I have invested about $400 so far in trying to find a solution, none of which have worked and I am going mad! smile


Attachments
c-192-223-30-175.premium-chicago.nfoservers.com 2016-04-05 0000.pp2 (733 downloads)


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#2829 - 04/05/16 05:51 PM Re: Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night [Re: Tyler]
Tyler Offline


Registered: 04/04/16
Posts: 4
Also I went and poked around in the attic and I saw the coax run through my attic tightly wraps around some electrical line that goes somewhere else in the house. Do you think any of the data shows that this could also be an issue, the coax that runs into my modem is experiencing interference?

This would explain why it happens at a certain time every night if one of my roommates turns on a light or something of that nature that is connected to that line that my coax is wrapped around. Also coax obviously has a bend radius so it should be address either way but that wouldn't explain why it is happening mostly at night.

Thanks again.

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#2830 - 04/05/16 06:53 PM Re: Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night [Re: Tyler]
Phillip Offline
Pingman Staff


Registered: 12/30/15
Posts: 49
Loc: Boise, Idaho
So now that we have it narrowed down to the possible location of the issue (between the computer and hop #1), and the time frame of the issue, it is just a process of elimination from here.

The best way to troubleshoot is to evaluate and eliminate all variables. So starting from your computer, look at the cables and any joints or junctions before the cable goes into your modem. The best way to eliminate this as a possible variable for the issue is to get a cable (newer preferable) and plug that cord straight from the computer directly into your modem. No patches or extenders or anything. If, after you do this, the packet loss still occurs - then you can rule out the issue being your cable going into the attic and wrapping around the electrical line.

If this direct cable does improve your packet loss, then you can try running a new cable into the attic that doesn't wrap around anything - and go from there.

One last thing to consider - because you know a time-frame when it is happening, see if you can find a pattern of things that are going on at that time. For instance, if you have a roommate that gets on the computer at that time. Or if your computer or Xbox or something is set to install updates or do backups at that time. Things like that - which may be causing latency.

Go ahead and try this and let me know what happens.

Cheers!

-Phillip

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#2831 - 04/05/16 07:02 PM Re: Packet Loss at Certain Time Every Night [Re: Phillip]
Tyler Offline


Registered: 04/04/16
Posts: 4
I just had a tech out here replace the coax in the attic. So I will check back tonight and see if that fixes it. I was talking to my roommates and we were turning everything on in the house to try and replicate the issue but we were unsuccessful. Again I'll let you know after I monitor it tonight.

Thanks

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