TL;DR

All devices in my home get intermittent packet loss that happens more often during peak hours. ISP has sent 4 engineers out to visit and they can't work out why. Neither can I.

Longer detail.

I get intermittent packet loss on my machine. While gaming it is enough to give me a significant and very annoying lag spike, but not enough to ever disconnect me. While video calling it is enough to make the call skip or lag, but again not disconnect.

Internally I use powerline adapters to connect my gaming pc, but they're not the problem because even laptops ethernet wired into the router get the lag spikes.

I don't experience as many when gaming off peak. On Boxing day I was able to game with none at all. My contract is finished with my ISP this month. Alternative ISPs are not as good (not fibre to the home). So I am reluctant to leave, but I did a trial with another ISP and there was no packet loss. So I decided to buy pingplotter and post here in the hopes someone can help me before I decide on moving provider.

I have tried isolating the router from other electrical equipment too, but if you suspect it is that I would be interested to know.

https://imgur.com/eUFXQzf - there is a screenshot showing one of the bursts of packet loss. Hop 1 and 2 always shows 100% PL - so I guess hop 3 is where it is beginning but it is hard to tell? Is there a way to clear that up.

https://imgur.com/DhzZWun - here is a broadband quality monitor, the final hour or which overlaps with the screenshot above.

Hi ChrisP,

Thanks for writing into the forum!

It sounds like you're having some frustrating experiences with your internet connection and PingPlotter is perfect for tracking these down to see where the issue is!

It's hard to tell just from your screenshot exactly where the issue may be since the focus is set to 5 seconds but I think you're on the right path. One way to deal with a device that's reporting a bunch of packet loss is to trace directly to that device.

So for instance you could trace to the IP addresses of hop #1 and hop #2 and they may respond better. Here is an article that goes into more detail about why they may be responding poorly. When you trace directly to that hop's IP address the TTL does not = 0 when the packet reaches the device so it generally prioritizes it differently and responds.

However, some devices are programed to pass along to the next-hop but otherwise ignore ICMP packets all together and that's when you'll see 100% packet loss. Your router should respond and if it doesn't you could possibly adjust the config to respond to ICMP packets (Google the model of your router and "ICMP" and see what the manual says about it).

If you want more feedback I'd be happy to take a look at your data but I'd suggest gathering a good chunk (24 hours) with an intermittent issue like the one you describe. I'd suggest tracing to these destinations:

1. Trace to the site or service you are having issues with (Netflix, Fortnite server, Zoom.com, etc.).*
2. Trace to a reference address such as 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1 as a control to compare to
3. You can also trace to your ISP (generally hop #2 or #3). A "WHOIS" google search on the IP address usually provides results about who the IP address is registered to.
4. To your router (Usually the first hop in the route - 192.168.0.1 or something similar).
5. Trace to your NIC (Network Interface Card). In Windows, run Command Line as administrator and type ipconfig and look for the IPv4 address - this is your NIC IP.
6. Finally, trace to your loopback address (127.0.0.1). This lets you verify that any issues you are seeing are not related to the hardware or IP stack on the machine you're using.

*To find your game server or specific site IP address you can open the command line (in Windows WIN+R -> type "CMD") or terminal (on Mac cmd+SPACE -> type "terminal" -> Enter) and type "netstat -n" this will give you a list of all of the connections that your machine is connected to. You will see headings for Protocol, Local Address, Foreign Address, and State. Look through the list and see if you can find a program name that seems like it might be your game and grab the Foreign Address and that is likely your game server IP address. If you can't find it you can do a screen grab while connected to the server and then disconnect and do another netstat -n and compare the two as whatever one is missing is likely the one you want to trace to.

Once you have gathered some good data you can share your results with us by changing your Focus field to reflect at least 24 hours, clicking File -> Share -> Create Share Page, and paste the URL of your share page in an email to support@pingman.com.

- PingPlotter Sharing

Let me know if this leaves you with any questions!

Thanks,

-Poe

Thank you Poe for that detailed help!

I got the IP of the gameserver and I am ready to run all the other traces you suggested, however on my pingplotter window the "new target" option is greyed out. I've a single user license, can I have multiple targets?

Silly me, it is limited to two targets! So I am building a case with all that help, but here are some relevant bits I have discovered so far.

https://i.imgur.com/xWh3J4r.png

Basically the packet loss bursts happen at the same time regardless of whether it's to the COD server I am connected to, the first public IP in the chain or to my own router.

Given that the bursts seem to happen even to my own router is it logical to assume that the problem is inside my apartment and not with my ISP - or is it possible that some sort of interference with my ISP is causing the router issue?

Notes on router.

1: In my old apartment the router worked fine.
2: The ISP has since replaced the router and it did not solve the problem.

Final post.

Based on POEs feedback and pinging the router I discovered it was a problem with the router. As noted this was a replacement router sent by the ISP - and the previous router had worked fine in my old apartment with the same network setup. Only two of us here and the other person isn't much of an internet user so my only conclusion is that either electrical interference was causing the problem, or my smart heating hub (which I got when I moved here) was causing the problem.

Today I set up an ASUS third party router and set my Virgin Hub 3 to Modem mode, and I'm currently three glorious hours without packet loss.

Thanks all, could not have done it without pingplotter.