Question Having major network issues after various fix attemps.

[ravensfan852]

Hi everyone,

I'm having really bad issues with my internet and being able to play online games. Speed tests show up fine, ping tests show up fine, but whenever I play online I'm having major latency issues and ping spikes as well as packet loss.

At this point I've done everything I know to do. The modem and router have been replaced. Both cables have been replaced to CAT6 (400MB internet). We've had a tech come out and inspect our tap points for noise and other issues and they've found nothing.

I'm playing on a wired connection but unfortunately I don't have wireless capability. A wireless adapter would be next on the list, I guess. I don't seem to have issues with general video streaming or watching anything on the PC, only for the only gaming or streaming while I play, so it seems like there's some sort of "upload" problem. Speeds show fine there, too, though.

Please see this link for a picture of my ethernet performance in the general Windows performance manager. Windows 10. Notice the frame drops (~25% on twitch). I don't know the technical side of networking, so I don't know what I'm looking at as far as details.

apex-2

Image apex-2 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Thank you in advance!

 

[bill001g]

Pretty much means nothing to monitor the ethernet port unless you are running a program that will attempt to download at a fix rate for a long enough period of time to get a good graph. The data rates constantly change even stuff like netflix or youtube do not actually stream at steady rates they will send burst of data and then do nothing. They do this in case there are errors and they can resend the data before you the empty the buffer of good data you are watching.

The IP addresses you black out mean nothing they are local IP used only in your house not your actual internet IP. What is interesting is it appears you have IPv6 enabled. Try to disable it in the nic settings. IPv6 causes all kinds of strange issues and you don't actually need it for anything. May not fix anything but it is better to have it turned off until you find something you actually need it for.

After that try to leave a constant ping run to 8.8.8.8 in a background window and see if you get packet loss or maybe very large (larger that 100ms) spikes in the latency. Speedtest is not affected by small amounts of data loss but games are and to some extent twitch is.

It may not be a network issue, one of my machines gets all kinds of strange issues with twitch and frame drops. I for a very long time had windows visual effect crap getting stuck eating cpu and causing drops in twitch. I turned something off in those setting that fixed it, never bother to figure out why other than it was another stupid windows feature that they forced on me with a patch.

Many times games have issue because of video settings. The game will blame data loss and high ping times on the networks when it really is the game getting stuck in some video process.

 

[ravensfan852]

So after disabling IPV4 and IPV6 separately, disabling either causes issues. Without IP6 the packet loss spikes, without IPV4 I can't connect to most things.

I don't know what it is at this point. I don't think it's anything with the hardware because everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago. Exact same setup.

 

[bill001g]

IPv6 was only a guess since it is a common issue. You have to actually test the network. Just because the game says you have network loss means very little. I mean if I was your ISP I would blame the game company server or ISP, you have no proof it is not those things.

You have to do more testing. Again start with a ping to 8.8.8.8 in a background window. Then if that shows issue run tracert 8.8.8.8 to get the hops in the path. Then leave a constant ping run to hop1 (your router) hop 2 (the first ISP router) and 8.8.8.8. This should help you isolate where the issue is.
The most common and easiest to fix is when you see no loss to your IP but you see packet loss and to the ISP first routers. This generally means there is a issue with the cable between your house and the ISP.

 

[ravensfan852]

Good morning @bill001g - thank you for the reply.

I apologize, I know next to nothing about networks. What info do I use for the ping to the router, and where would I find it? The only router I have is the ISP's. Apologies if that came off like I had two. Please see the the attached for a 500 count ping to 8.8.8.8. I also ran a tracert to the DNS that I looked up for my ISP. At least from the little bit of reading I've done, it looks like there might be an issue here due to the failed read and the spike in ping time? I attached couple of things to maybe be what you're looking for. The last one was looking up the IP using IPConfig, so I blurred that one out just in case.

Thank you again for your help.

https://ibb.co/nmV6BNY

https://ibb.co/TK1K77M

https://ibb.co/pwPwWzV

https://ibb.co/vB36dG0

https://ibb.co/KDtwYqC

 

[bill001g]

The only IP that would matter would be the one that is assigned to your router. The others are just the ISP routers and at the most someone could guess what city you live in.

So this shows a whole lot of nothing.

You have to be very careful about ipv6. IPv6 can have a different path so when you test you have to be careful you are consistently always testing ipv4 or ipv6.

If your problem is intermittent you now have the problem of it running the testing tools when it happens.

 

[ravensfan852]

I'll have to get in contact with the ISP at this point. I've done pretty much everything else I can.

I took my PC to my friend's house - played and streamed at the same time, no issues at all.

He brought his PC to my house and he was getting the packet loss and ping spikes. We connected directly to the modem, same issue.. So on my end everything has been tested, and we've tested outside variables that have eliminated it being a driver/hardware malfunction.

 

[bill001g]

The problem is the ISP are going to be jerks and say it is not their problem....and sometimes they are actually correct.

Although your pc working in another location makes it unlikely it is the pc it could still be something similar. For example say your friends house does not support ipv6 and your does and is using IPv6 for a connection. Just a example because we saw the IPv6 in earlier traces.

You are almost going to have to do the ISP job for them and prove to them there is a issue with their network. If your friend uses the exact same ISP then it is likely it is somehow related to the last mile cables coming from the first ISP router/equipment to your house. The good news is this is the easiest to convince the ISP to fix.
If it is a different ISP then it can actually be the game companies ISP and their interconnection to your ISP. You need to hope not because it tends to be impossible for a end user to get this fixed.

What I would first do is check all the levels on the modem and make sure they are within the recommended ranges. This varies a bit depending on the exact version of docsis you are using. Some modem also will show you corrected and uncorrected error packets. Uncorrected errors are packet loss. Maybe you get lucky and there is something useful in the log. There is always some junk messages so try to find one the have time stamps to where you saw issues in the game.

Normally you would leave a constant ping run to hop 2 but for some reason it does not respond. The ISP did this intentionally for some reason but it makes testing a bit harder for a home user. You can ping hop 3 which is still in the ISP network and it would still show if there was a issue to the line to your house.

 

[ravensfan852]

Honestly, at this point I'm done running test after test after test. I've done more than my due diligence of testing and troubleshooting. It's obviously nothing on my end.

 

[bill001g]

Good luck I hope you get a tech at the ISP that is not just looking to close tickets to hit his time goals rather than fix actual problems.

 

[Ralston18]

Seconding the above. ISP techs are always under pressure to get tickets closed and will fix the first thing that seems amiss and leave. Not real helpful if the problem is intermittent and comes back again.

"It's obviously nothing on my end." That is far from proven.

Just because the devices are new that does not necessarily mean that all will be well. Configuration matters but so does the physical connectivity between them. Could be a bad splitter, faulty cable.... etc.. Lots of substandard cables being sold.

Do any other network devices/computers have problems? If some devices have problems and other devices do not - what is common to the problem devices?

Wired is much more preferred than wireless for gaming. And (without knowing the problem) going wireless could make gaming performance even worse. Wireless adds more variables making troubleshooting even more complicated.

There is much more testing that you can do and that testing needs to be done. Otherwise, without some good piece of luck, the problem may not be resolved.

You used Task Manager. One tool of many.....

What about Resource Monitor, Process Explorer (Microsoft free), Task Scheduler, Update History?

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

Reliability History (very helpful with revealing something that may have happened a couple of weeks ago) and Event Viewer: one or both tools may be capturing some error code, warning or even an informational event at the times the problems appear.

Modem and Router have been replaced: Make and model information? Incoming ISP connectivity (Coax, DSL, fiber)?

Look in the router's logs (if available and enabled) for any problems. Who has full access rights to the router? You will need help from that person.

Likewise do so for the modem as suggested by @bill001g.

Use the tools to discover what your computer is doing, trying to do, or even has stopped doing when latency and ping spikes occur.

Could simply be some app or utility be launched via Task Scheduler when triggered to do so. Or a faulty splitter/filter.