Constant Internet Dropping

[keithlol]

So very recently we have obtained Xfinity's service. It is the only ISP in our densely populated area.

I ran WiFi on my computer for awhile. During the daytime, from 10am-5pm the connection was horrid. It would drop in and drop out every 20 ish seconds. At around 11pm was the time where the connection was constant; but for instance, launching steam/sending a message to someone or opening my router settings via a browser would knock off my internet like it was doing during the day.

I thought this was a WiFi problem. I read online that multiple WiFi connections available in a densely populated area is usually cause of bad connection, so I ignored what was going on. I hooked my Ethernet cord up last night, around midnight, no problems. This morning when I woke up around 10, the connection issues happened again.

I've tried to search around, looking at downstream and upstream values, and sorts. I can't seem to find what is going on, but I believe its an issue with Comcast. I have a splitter to allow connections to my DVR and my modem/router.

Important information:
Download Speed: 90mb/s
Upload Speed: 12mb/s

^^^^ Had to take the test 3 times. The first two times after about 3 seconds the connection dropped which ended the test.

ISP: Xfinity
Modem/Router (Combo, All in One Unit): Model: TG1682G Vendor: ARRIS Group, Inc. Hardware Revision: 11.0
Downsteam/Upstream Info:

Tracert Test during slow time:
Tracing route to chicago-ventrilo.nfoservers.com [216.52.148.4]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms 10.0.0.1
2 74 ms 133 ms 139 ms 96.120.112.21
3 77 ms 75 ms 76 ms Te0-4-0-8-sur03.main.comcast.net [68.86.118.65]
4 79 ms 78 ms 79 ms 68.86.188.249
5 117 ms 140 ms 91 ms 68.86.188.181
6 493 ms 588 ms 191 ms be-33491-cr02.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.165]
7 89 ms 89 ms 89 ms be-10563-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.82.158]
8 90 ms 89 ms 91 ms 96-87-8-110-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [96.87.8.110]
9 91 ms 141 ms 89 ms border5.po1-bbnet1.chg.pnap.net [64.94.32.10]
10 89 ms 90 ms 163 ms inap-b5.e3.router1.chicago.nfoservers.com [216.52.143.254]
11 149 ms 89 ms 91 ms chicago-ventrilo.nfoservers.com [216.52.148.4]

2 minutes later when everything has dialed down:
Tracing route to chicago-ventrilo.nfoservers.com [216.52.148.4]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 5 ms 3 ms 2 ms 10.0.0.1
2 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms 96.120.112.21
3 12 ms 14 ms 14 ms Te0-4-0-7-sur04.main.comcast.net [68.86.118.69]
4 11 ms 12 ms 11 ms 68.86.188.253
5 16 ms 25 ms 19 ms 68.86.188.249
6 28 ms 32 ms 29 ms 68.86.188.181
7 26 ms 29 ms 27 ms be-33491-cr02.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.91.165]
8 29 ms 29 ms 30 ms be-10563-pe01.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.82.158]
9 29 ms 26 ms 27 ms 96-87-8-110-static.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [96.87.8.110]
10 28 ms 29 ms 29 ms border6.po2-bbnet2.chg.pnap.net [64.94.32.75]
11 27 ms 27 ms 26 ms inap-b6.e2.router1.chicago.nfoservers.com [216.52.148.254]
12 27 ms 29 ms 42 ms chicago-ventrilo.nfoservers.com [216.52.148.4]

P.S: Even though I'm connected through LAN, I checked the LAN section of the router settings, it says that all 4 ports are inactive. I can take a screenshot of the ds/us levels later tonight when the connection is stable.

 

[maxwellmelon]

Just wondering do you have cable tv service? does the modem and tv service drop out at the same time? if so its Comcast. ive been having the same issue from 4pm-8pm every day for the last month. funny how its only during 4 hours of the day. and I know its not my home wiring because there box to my tv is only 6 feet. I think Comcast is doing something and not tell us because its kinda of funny how it started the same time as there data limits and I only use 50gb of the 300gb month limits.

 

[bill001g]

Those are really good modem numbers. The ones that tend to be the most telling are the correctable and uncorrectable errors. You have a huge amount of traffic it appears and zero packets even damaged.

This likely means your connection to the ISP is fine. The problem must be farther into the network.

All you are showing in your tracert is higher latency this is a very different issue that actual drops or outages.

Try to leave a constant ping run to hop 2. This is the connection to the ISP. You can also try other hops but the father you get away the less chance you have of fixing this.

This can purely be a overload condition. This is especially true if you see loss to hop2 but no corresponding errors in the modem. This means the data was not lost in transmission to your house but was dropped before it was put into the cable. It only takes a couple of neighborhood kids running torrent to cause this issue on a cable segment.

 

[keithlol]

Just wondering do you have cable tv service? does the modem and tv service drop out at the same time? if so its Comcast. ive been having the same issue from 4pm-8pm every day for the last month. funny how its only during 4 hours of the day. and I know its not my home wiring because there box to my tv is only 6 feet. I think Comcast is doing something and not tell us because its kinda of funny how it started the same time as there data limits and I only use 50gb of the 300gb month limits.

Yes, I have cable TV as well. My computer and dvr are in separate rooms, so I'd have to run from one to another. I heard only bad things about Comcast, yet they have the fastest speeds available in my area. Oddly, my data cap is at 1024gb, or 1tb, so I'm wondering why you only have 300gb (unless its a lower plan). I'm paying for Blast!, and am only supposed to get 75 down.

 

[keithlol]

Those are really good modem numbers. The ones that tend to be the most telling are the correctable and uncorrectable errors. You have a huge amount of traffic it appears and zero packets even damaged.

This likely means your connection to the ISP is fine. The problem must be farther into the network.

All you are showing in your tracert is higher latency this is a very different issue that actual drops or outages.

Try to leave a constant ping run to hop 2. This is the connection to the ISP. You can also try other hops but the father you get away the less chance you have of fixing this.

This can purely be a overload condition. This is especially true if you see loss to hop2 but no corresponding errors in the modem. This means the data was not lost in transmission to your house but was dropped before it was put into the cable. It only takes a couple of neighborhood kids running torrent to cause this issue on a cable segment.

Tomorrow morning when the traffic hits hard, I'll go ahead and just constantly ping the 2nd hop. I'll run it for about an hour or so, and put it into a pastebin. Sadly I'm in a densely populated area, so the torrent thing could be an issue. Lets say that the continuous spikes occur on hop 2, how would I fix it? Would I need to contact Comcast support directly?

 

[keithlol]

So It's 4pm, usually it's not bad right now. I just ran a ping for about 10 minutes to the ISP @ 96.120.112.21, which was the second hop. Yes, to a certain extent it's only high ping. However, if the high ping lasts long enough, I drop connection to anything I'm trying to do; or time out.

Last 10 minutes of running this:
https://pastebin.com/yFsc50pH

 

[bill001g]

You can call and ask the ISP but they likely will not do anything if it is due to capacity issues. They will of course try to deny it but you can show your ping to your router is 1ms but you get high ping to their router