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#599 - 10/07/01 08:13 PM ## detecting 100% packet loss
Anonymous
Unregistered


I am having a problem with my cable modem going dead. In other words I can not even reach the first hop. I need to know if there is a way of having ping plotter ignore any packet loss less than say 95%. I have configured it to simply ping the first hop but I am getting graphs in the red only to discover that the packet loss being shown is 10% in some cases indicating that the connection is still viable.<br><br><br>

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#600 - 10/08/01 02:31 AM Re: ## detecting 100% packet loss
Pete Ness Offline



Registered: 08/30/99
Posts: 1106
Loc: Boise, Idaho
What do you mean by "ignore any packet loss less than 95%"? I'm uncertain what your goal is - are you setting up an alert?<br><br>The packet loss shown is based on the time period you specify in "Samples to Include". If this is a big number - and you've been running Ping Plotter for a while - then the packet loss percentage will grow slowly - even when the connection completely dies. Another possibility is that you have the upper graph focused on a period other than the most recent (this is done by double-clicking on the lower graph to focus in on a time). Right-clicking on the lower graph and selecting "Reset focus to Current" will move the focus back.<br><br>On another note - related to your question, but not addressing it ... in most cases, it's not a good idea to go to hop 1 - as this is a gateway router that may not be configured to respond reliably - particularily when the final destination is this address. For best results, find a destination that is close - but is something that isn't a router. A good example of this is your ISPs mail server - or any web site or server that's in your local area. Going to that destination will show more reliable numbers (and be more meaningful if you're trying to report something to your ISP as well).<br><br>If you clarify a bit what you're after - and what you're seeing (can you post an image of what you're seeing?) would help a lot on this.<br><br>

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#601 - 10/08/01 03:53 PM Re: ## detecting 100% packet loss [Re: Pete Ness]
Anonymous
Unregistered


What my aim is to capture some proof that my internet connection is failing. I have no idea how frequently this occurs as the only way I find out is when I attempt to get mail, go to a web site etc and the connection fails. I then do a finger on a IP address and if I do not receive any output I know that the Internet connection is down. To further verify I try to do a traceroute to any reliable web site and it does not get past the first hop which is the ISP's gateway. What I want to be able to do is to look at the output of Ping Plotter have a red vertical bar indicate a 100% packet loss which would mean that the connection to the Internet failed at that time. Right now as it is configured red bars can indicate anything from 10% packet loss and up. It makes it difficult to find if any total failures exist in the time frame covered.<br> <br><br>

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#602 - 10/08/01 06:18 PM Re: ## detecting 100% packet loss
Pete Ness Offline



Registered: 08/30/99
Posts: 1106
Loc: Boise, Idaho
The red bars in the lower graph can represent anything from a single lost sample - to 100% packet loss for a period of time, depending on the scale you're using.<br><br>See <A HREF="http://www.pingplotter.com/forums/showflat.pl?Board=Beta&Number=412" target="_new">the post about packet loss display</A> for more details on how this works. Some red at all means that you've lost at least one packet - which is 100% of the packets sent out that 1 time. Now, it may be that you want to know about a specific period of time. Depending on the scale you're using, that is represented by a red period of some width - the wider, the longer the downtime. If you're normally showing enough samples at once to have it averaging multiple samples, you can change that packet loss percentage scale so that a full-height red bar is 100% (again, see the linked post for some details on this).<br><br>Of more importance, though, is probably setting your "samples to include" for a specific number (ie: if you're doing 1 sample a second, setting "samples to include" to 60 will be one minute), and then double-clicking on the period you're interested in. The upper graph will show the packet loss % for the number of samples you specify - and the "focus rectangle" on the lower graph will move to show which samples you're showing the avg/min/max for. You can then move this focus window (by double-clicking on the lower graph) to see what the percentage is for just that period you want.<br><br>Hopefully, this gives you some additional info on how to tailor and move the display to show your problems to your ISP. Of course, you're welcome to include a link to an image that I can see - and I'll be happy to comment on it to give you some advice on showing the results you want.<br><br>

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#603 - 10/09/01 09:48 AM Re: ## detecting 100% packet loss
Giles Offline


Registered: 09/26/01
Posts: 9
some questions to ask if you want to troubleshoot your connection;<br><br>- does this happen around the same time everyday?<br>- does this happen at certain intervals?<br>- have you always had this problem?<br>- when did you first notice the problem?<br>- are there certain sites you cant go to, or you just cant go anywhere?<br><br>if your connection dies such that you cant go anywhere, i would recommend setting pingplotter to trace to several hops beyond your default gateway over a period of a couple nights to see what is going on.<br><br><br><br>

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