Question Intermittent internet dropouts and WinMTR results ?

[jjbutkowski]

Hey! Over the past month or so my internet has been totally dropping out, a lot, a bunch of times a day but it only lasts for not even thirty seconds and then it reconnects. Comcast has been out twice and the second time they seemed to have fixed the problem after replacing the buried cable that runs to the box by the street. However my internet issues are still no better. After doing some research I was led to WinMTR to figure where along the line my problem is occurring

https://imgur.com/a/Tnz8N4N

View: https://imgur.com/a/Tnz8N4N

Now it seems to me that the problem lies at the sixth and seventh hops where the "Worst" column spikes are very high. If that is the case does this mean the issue lies totally with my ISP and I should yell at them more? Please help me to make sense of the above WinMTR results lol. Thanks.

 

[bill001g]

What is your actual problem. Are you getting dropped from a open session like a game or while you play video, or is it that web pages sometimes refuse to open ?

They really need to rewrite tools like this if they are going to make them available to people with no network knowledge. You are misreading the tool. A real problem starts in some hop and then affects every hop past there and most importantly it affect the actual end location. When the tool shows no errors to the actual destination IP then anything is related to testing errors.

Many routers in the path have software to prevent denial of service attacks using tools likes this that ping routers. The limit the amount of CPU that can process packets like that. Responding to request like this are also very low priority. You would not want your data delayed because it was responding to someone else's testing.

Your problem could also just be very intermittent and the tool was not running at the time. Start with very basic stuff. Open 3 cmd windows. Leave a constant ping run to your router (hop1), the isp first router (hop2), and the final destination. Let this all run int background and when you detect some issue quickly switch to these and see if you see anything.

Note you really don't want to see a real issue at some router many hops into the path that affects the destination location. You are generally not going to be able to talk to anyone that can fix it. The level 1 techs at your ISP have no access and if it is in another ISP you have almost no chance to find a contact person.

 

[jjbutkowski]

What is your actual problem. Are you getting dropped from a open session like a game or while you play video, or is it that web pages sometimes refuse to open ?

They really need to rewrite tools like this if they are going to make them available to people with no network knowledge. You are misreading the tool. A real problem starts in some hop and then affects every hop past there and most importantly it affect the actual end location. When the tool shows no errors to the actual destination IP then anything is related to testing errors.

Many routers in the path have software to prevent denial of service attacks using tools likes this that ping routers. The limit the amount of CPU that can process packets like that. Responding to request like this are also very low priority. You would not want your data delayed because it was responding to someone else's testing.

Your problem could also just be very intermittent and the tool was not running at the time. Start with very basic stuff. Open 3 cmd windows. Leave a constant ping run to your router (hop1), the isp first router (hop2), and the final destination. Let this all run int background and when you detect some issue quickly switch to these and see if you see anything.

Note you really don't want to see a real issue at some router many hops into the path that affects the destination location. You are generally not going to be able to talk to anyone that can fix it. The level 1 techs at your ISP have no access and if it is in another ISP you have almost no chance to find a contact person.

Thanks, for the response. My issue is I get totally dropped from a game when it cuts out, also streaming (YouTube TV) will buffer along with webpages not loading. I attempted the basic tests you recommended and found that replies kept rolling in from my router, however, the first ISP router and final destination both timed out. Also, FWIW I've noticed that it happens much less frequently late at night or earlier in the day.

 

[lantis3]

Many moderators will suggest you turn off IPv6, and set DNS to Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

 

[bill001g]

In some ways this is a good test result. When your lose connection to the ISP router it generally means there is some issue with the cable coming to your house. Even better that it does it during the day....some people it only does it when the ISP techs are not working.

There is a slim chance it is the modem. It depends on if you have a separate modem or a modem/router. Hopefully there are logs that might give you a clue. Not exactly sure how you find it on a modem/router combo unit. With a separate modem a common IP address to access it is 192.168.100.1.

There should also be a very useful screen that show the signal level and number of errors you are getting. You can look up the recommended signal levels. This though is what the ISP tests you can't really do much about the levels. You could verify that any indoor cable appears to be tight with no dirt or water. You could also put the modem as close as possible to where the cable comes in to see if the levels are any better. Not very likely but something to do while waiting for the ISP to come out again.

If you router and modem are separate you could also try to remove the router and plug directly into the modem. Not likely but removes 1 point for the ISP to attempt blame. All depends on how common this is. You really should lose almost no ping to the ISP router IP. Even 1% is extremely high. If you only get large blocks of loss and few single loss packet it is more likely the modem is disconnecting and reconnecting...it can take a couple minutes sometimes to reconnect.

Since the ISP has been out before it is not likely a simple bad cable connection in some box. Time of day issue tend to be caused by other people. Used to be you saw internet issue between the time people got home from work and bed time. Now with work from home it not as simple. Maybe schedule the appointment for when it most commonly happens and hope the ISP gets lucky.
You would think the ISP has logs on their equipment that shows if your modem disconnects and reconnects and if other people modem have issue at the same time.