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#2870 - 06/20/16 04:12 AM Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS?
Ben Offline


Registered: 06/20/16
Posts: 5
Hi!

I have been having intermittent trouble (timeouts) connecting to my VPS server which is running www.ngwenyaglass.co.sz

We have two internet connections at work... One is SPTC Swaziland and the other is MTN South Africa. I get the timeouts only when on the Swaziland connection (which is intermittent). Were able to have two connections here as were very close to the South African border so we can use a South African modem with a sim card in it.

I have had the server checked out by cPanel guys and they think it could be the ISP after checking and not being able to find a problem on the VPS, according to afrihost.co.za (The VPS host) they do not have any firewalls on un-managed servers so the timeout should not be them.

I have only just installed PingPlotter and really dont understand what I am seeing on the graph. Can anyone make any sense of where my problem is? Please see attached image of the last 30 mins

Edit: Adding second screenshot for illustrating changing connection to MTN SA PingPlotter---ngwenyaglass.co.sz-02.jpg

Edit2: Adding pp2 file

Hopefully
Ben


Attachments
PingPlotter---ngwenyaglass.co.sz.jpg (632 downloads)
PingPlotter---ngwenyaglass.co.sz-02.jpg (601 downloads)
ngwenyaglass.co.sz.pp2 (434 downloads)



Edited by Ben (06/20/16 09:39 AM)

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#2871 - 06/21/16 06:44 PM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Ben]
Phillip Offline
Pingman Staff


Registered: 12/30/15
Posts: 49
Loc: Boise, Idaho
Hi Ben,

Sorry to see you are running into network issues!

It is really tough to tell what is going on in your trace - due to the final destination being kind of muddy (not responding to ICMP Echo requests some of the time). You *may* want to try switching packet types to see if the final destination responds better using UDP or TCP (by going to "Edit" -> "Options" -> "Engine" and switching the packet type to either "UDP Packets" or "TCP Packets").

I definitely can see a lot of packet loss that travels all they way from the starting hop to the final destination. That *may* indicate an issue internally (i.e. the computer, cables, modems or other devices, etc).

The goal at this point should be to isolate and eliminate any variables (that you have control over) to see if you can definitively narrow down what the source of the problem may be here. What seems to work the best (in our opinion) is to start at your computer and work out. Start with eliminating the issue lying within your computer. Try tracing from another machine to see if you still see the same behavior as before. If you don't, you know the issue has to do something with your computer. If you did still see the same behavior, move on to the next thing in line (which would either be your ethernet cable or wireless signal). Try replacing your ethernet cable with a new one you know works - and then start the trace again. The last thing in line would be your modem and/or router. This is where you may need to get your ISP involved. If you have the ability, you can try replacing your modem and/or router and then start a trace once again to see if the behavior persists. If this didn't resolve the issue - move on to the next thing in line on your network. If you are interested, we've got a guide that goes over a few different strategies on this front, which you can find here:

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

Hopefully this helps out! If you should find yourself with any questions, or needing any further guidance - you can always email us at support@pingplotter.com

Cheers!

-Phillip


Edited by Phillip (06/21/16 06:44 PM)

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#2872 - 06/22/16 02:45 AM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Phillip]
Ben Offline


Registered: 06/20/16
Posts: 5
Hi Philip,

Thanks for the reply!

This is all getting very confusing. I just swapped to TCP and UDP. UDP was showing 100% packet loss on all hops and TCP shows intermittent(5 seconds on/5 seconds off) on the first two then 100% on the rest. What that means I have no idea.

I don't know if switching engine can be seen in the logs or whether I supposed to do separate logs for the switch? To be honest I am completely in the dark here.

The guys who set up the network have been less than helpful. They pretty much keep me in the dark with what is going on. For instance I tried to setup an email account over a year ago and it still cannot receive from the internal network, but can send and receive from everyone else. There is a local machine that downloads all emails and then delivers them to PCs in the office so that they don't download the same messages multiple times. Internet is slow and expensive here in Swaziland.

I've attached almost two hours of logs from this morning. You can see the huge packet loss from about 8:15am when I switched to UDP an TCP.

I'm lost!

Ben


Attachments
ngwenyaglass.co.sz 2016-06-22.pp2 (422 downloads)


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#2873 - 06/22/16 05:23 AM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Phillip]
Ben Offline


Registered: 06/20/16
Posts: 5
Here are some tests from another PC in the office. This PC only connects to the Swaziland connection and has no wifi so is directly connected to the wireless router by cable.

I couldn't test it with TCP as it said winpcap was not loaded.


Attachments
ngwenyaglass.co.sz ICMP.pp2 (436 downloads)
ngwenyaglass.co.sz UDP.pp2 (400 downloads)


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#2877 - 06/27/16 05:26 AM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Ben]
Ben Offline


Registered: 06/20/16
Posts: 5
Today (Monday) the Swaziland network is working. I have just captured 4 and a half hours of the data for connecting to our website nwgneyaglass.co.sz... Please see attached


Attachments
ngwenyaglass.co.sz Working.pp2 (432 downloads)


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#2878 - 06/28/16 09:52 AM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Ben]
Ben Offline


Registered: 06/20/16
Posts: 5
OK so I have no idea what to do with this data. I have hours and hours of it. All I know is that I have untraceable problems.

The guys who set up the network here are at best fumbling to do their job and refuse to even help setup an email address without paying a fortune. The entire country has not caught up yet with the rest of the world regarding using the internet for business and pleasure.

It could be the my local network, it could be the ISP and god forbid its my VPS server.

But I see constant packet loss on the first hop on other websites too. What ever a packet loss is??

I am lost

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#2883 - 07/06/16 07:34 PM Re: Is it my ISP, my local network or my VPS? [Re: Ben]
Phillip Offline
Pingman Staff


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

There are a couple of points you mentioned in your posts that I would like to hit on first before getting to your data.

You asked if switching from ICMP to UDP or TCP shows up in the logs. They actually don't. The best thing to do is to just right click in the graph for the final hop at the time you switch packet types and click "Create Comment" and then type in a comment that will let you know what happened at that time (i.e. Switched to UDP Packet type).

I also wanted to let you know that "Winpcap" is a software required to run TCP packet type. This is a really small software that runs behind the scenes. You can download it at http://www.winpcap.org/.

The last thing I wanted to hit on before getting into the meat if things is what a packet and packet loss is. When you do a trace (either a ping, tracert or PingPlotter trace), you are sending out a "packet" (otherwise called a request or ping) to another device which asks for that device to respond back. Once the "packet" is received back from the device, the time it took to send and receive the packet is measured in "latency". If a request has been sent out, but never comes back, it is considered "packet loss". If you send out 10 packets, and 9 packets make it back then this would be represented as 10% packet loss (1 out of 10 didn't make it back). What sets PingPlotter apart from a command line ping or tracert request is that PingPlotter sends requests at a determined interval - and continues until you stop the trace. It also sends requests to every hop on the way too, so that you can view the data for latency and packet loss for those hops as well (to determine where the issue is coming from).

Ok, so now for the trace results for this latest trace you did. I can see a couple of issues present in this trace. The first issue is the first hop (which should be your modem inside your network). I can see some packet loss originating from this hop that carries through to the final target (meaning it is influencing the trace). This would indicate something between your computer and hop 1 causing an issue. You will want to try to eliminate variables that could be causing this issue. Between eliminating variables, you should trace again to see if the packet loss (red lines) stop. The first thing would be to switch to a wired connection if you are on wireless. If you are already on a wired connection, try replacing your cable with one you know is good. If you have access to a different modem, you can try replacing the modem. You may even want to see if the first hop looks the same from another computer (to see if it is something within your network).

The second issue I see is starting at hop 3. This *appears* to be the first hop outside of your network (hop 1 being your modem and hop 2 probably being your router). You can see high latency starting at hop 3 (the black line in the graph) that continues on to the final target. For this, you will want to build a compelling case to bring to your internet service provider showing the high latency. Here is a document on how to do this:

http://www.pingplotter.com/manual/building_a_compelling_case.html

If you follow the guide here:

http://www.pingman.com/network-nirvana/

It will help you from start to finish resolve your network issues.

Hopefully this helps out! If you should find yourself with any other questions, or needing any other assistance - please don't hesitate to let us know. You can email us at support@pingplotter.com

Cheers! 

-Phillip

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