I've dealt with crumby, unfix-able internet for 3 years, and I've had enough. I'm trying to figure out the exact cause of my issues rather than wait for my ISP to tell me everything is fine for the literal hundredth time.
I'll try not to veer off onto angry tangents, I swear.

I have visible packet loss that affects everything on my connection (be it my smart TV, streaming, broadcasting, playing video games, VOIP etc.) but isn't detectable by standard means. Speed tests come out fine, ping tests, jitter tests, trace routs, everything comes up fine.

After spending some time trying to figure out the issue, I suspected UDP-specific packet-loss, but I don't really know how to confirm my suspicions.
I've found it extremely difficult to explain my problems with ISP tech support, mostly because they only deal with very basic stuff, but I just can't demonstrate the problems to them, they look at the tests and everything looks fine.

It only takes one look at this video I've put together (https://streamable.com/5zqm1) to demonstrate my issue (it's easier to see on 60+Hz monitors, the issue is much more widespread than just CS:GO, but I have no means of visualising it as well as this).
The video shows 3 clips, 1 demonstrating my POV on a 128 tick server (client-side recording), 1 demonstrating my POV on a server-side recording on my home connection, and the last clip demonstrating my POV on a server-side recording at a friends house, on his connection.

On the server-side recording from my connection, you can clearly see the server interprets my client as a stuttery mess (it doesn't stutter when I spectate other players in the same server demo), and on the server-side recording from my friends connection, everything is smooth and stutter-free (not to mention the gameplay felt like I was playing on a totally different game). It's clear that there's something terribly wrong with the way my traffic is getting handled on the way to the servers, and considering my friend lives 6km away, I doubt it's going haywire in some far-flung router owned by some random company (so it's my local infrastructure causing the issue).

Is there any kind of way that I can use the UDP packets function in the pingplotter standard licence to come up with concrete evidence of this 'undetectable' packet-loss? I tried running it on the default UDP settings to 8.8.8.8 for 24 hours, and couldn't see anything unusual.
CS:GO does UDP updates 64 times a second, so the 2.5 second intervals probably don't represent what goes on, but the second I start using the lower intervals everything starts dropping packets from the very 1st hop. I couldn't find much about UDP traffic from this website, but I'm assuming the packet loss is more likely due to websites or servers not liking random UDP traffic rather than my modem/router combo causing issues (as I've replaced the modem once, and the router 4 times)

My ISP isn't really at fault here, they've tried to fix the issue from what they understand, they've laid new cable from the street to my house and installed a new cable mount/ wall plate, and I've replaced all devices and ethernet cords in the house multiple times, but I'm just sick of having to deal with paying 110 dollarydoos a month for worse quality internet than my friends ADSL2+ connection...

Hi Spoidah,

Sorry to hear you're having some very frustrating sounding experiences with your gaming.

Thanks for the in-depth explanation and the video. Something to try with any kind of packet loss is to find the actual server that you are experiencing the issue with and trace to that specific server while you are playing the game and experiencing these stutter issues.

To find the server (assuming you're using a PC) you can do a "netstat -b" command in CMD (**Search box -> CMD -> Run as Administrator -> Yes -> netstat -b**) this will give you a list of executables as well as the associated IP addresses they are connected to. Look for a CS:GO related executable and find the IP under **foreign address** with a state of **established**. This is most likely the gaming server though occasionally gaming companies will obscure their server IPs if different ways so it's possible that it's not the same server you're connected to.

Trace to this address in PingPlotter while you play CS:GO and note the times when you are having issues (literally write down the times) and go back and try to match them to what you're seeing in the graphs.

At the same time I'd also suggest tracing to the following sites:

1. You can trace to your ISP (generally hop #2 or #3). You can do a "WHOIS" google search on the IP address and usually get back some results to see who registered the IP address to see if it's your ISP.
2. I would suggest tracing directly to your router (Usually the first hop in the route - 192.168.0.1 or similar).
3. Trace to your NIC (Network Interface Card). In Windows search for **CMD**, open a command prompt and type **"ipconfig"** (without the quotes) and look for the **IPv4 address**, this is usually your NIC IP.
3. Finally, trace to your loopback address (127.0.0.1). Tracing to your NIC and Loopback addresses lets you verify that any issues you are seeing are not related to the hardware or IP stack on the machine you are tracing from.

You can set up a UDP as well as an ICMP named configuration and trace to each IP with both configs. See this page for more details:

https://www.pingplotter.com/manual/named_configurations.html

I would suggest tracing to the above-mentioned IPs for a good chunk of time (48hrs) and see what kind of results you get back. Note down when you are having issues and send that over as well. Once you have a good chunk of time tracing to these addresses you can share your results with us by exporting your workspace (**Workspace -> Export Workspace file...**). Send us an email at **support@pingman.com** and we'll send you a **DropBox folder** to upload it to.

Once we get it we'll take a look at it and let you know what we see.

Let us know if this leaves you with any questions!

Thanks,

Poe