Question Internet 15+ times per hour disconnect for a couple of seconds

[Martafak]

Hello,
My problem is bothering me since 18.3.2022 and ever since just keep me from doing pretty much anything games/work/calls. I have tried calling ISP for support, and technicians for physical control but nothing was fixed.
The same problem also appeared a month before however quickly disappeared without me doing anything.
Also, the problem was a lot worse the first week from 18.3. as the ISP was fixing some problems on a nearby transmitter. At first, I believed that it would fix the problem, but I was wrong. 28.3.2022 the repairs were made and the problem continues without change to this day
The problem itself causes the internet to "disconnect/freeze" for 3-5 seconds sometimes 15+ times per hour every single day pretty much at any time. During mornings and nights, the problem is only less frequent.
Videos are usually pre-loaded, so they don't freeze, but calls and games freeze or go quiet all the time.
I have called for ISP support many times without success, and at this point, it feels like they had to check everything, but still somehow missed something that caused this problem.

Modem:
EC120-F5
https://www.tp-link.com/cz/search/?q=ec120-f5&t=&category=support

Internet speed:
advertised max 50/20, min 15/6
https://prnt.sc/ngElL2qSF4Sh

What my home network looks like:
https://prnt.sc/s3eNCe_mjdfk

Is the problem on every device?
YES, every device has the same problem

How does the problem affect video games?
„Game.mp4“ and „Game2.mp4“
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kmjo094lzM-_XzotrPBw4aVzoG0NbK4B?usp=sharing

As shown, the game freezes for a couple of seconds.
During the freeze, there are no disconnect signs
https://prnt.sc/B7Ri4VTBfATh
nor any visual changes (lights) on the router itself

CMD: ping xxx -t example of the „disconnect“
„Ping.mp4“ (ignore the ping values. It was recorded when the ISP was doing some changes and looking at the problem - spoiler: he did not find anything, even though it was happening during the control)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kmjo094lzM-_XzotrPBw4aVzoG0NbK4B?usp=sharing

I was told by ISP/Technician that the “time request out” is not that uncommon and that the internet should work normally unless there are many time requests in a row (which I don’t have). However, I am pretty sure that these requests are different as shown in the short video on google drive it just freezes for a couple of seconds and then continues.
Normally (while the internet works well), as I have seen these requests just appear but don’t cause any freeze in the cmd, and the next second the normal reply continues.

I have also tried to run simultaneously another cmd pinging other websites including 8.8.8.8 however, the results were identical. I have also tried during this time to ping my receiver (192.168.x.x) and got periodically a 1ms reply each time.

What I have already tried:

1. Calling ISP, where they presumably:
- tied to tune it up many times (no idea how or what)
- monitored the problem -> without success, they found no outages, etc

2. ISP Technician
- Checked incoming signal from the nearby transmitter, and found nothing but what he called “very good signal” (I can see the transmitter from my window)
- checked the router/receiver settings (did not find any logs about any outage or error)
- changed router modem (not 100% sure if they changed the power cord as well)
- changed POE
- changed receiver and cables

3. Tried to personally look into router settings -> I don’t have access to it and as I was told by their technician even he has limited access to the settings (they are getting it already all setup from their supplier)

4. Tried to connect only receiver > POE > PC1/PC2/PC3 each pc individually to see whether the problem might be in only one PC or perhaps in the router settings (which I don’t have access to)

I am sure that the ISP support and technician most likely made some changes that I don't know about, so keep that in mind as I can't include what I don't know

If anyone has any idea what might be causing this problem, I would appreciate it if you would help me. Hopefully, the problem can be removed!

 

[bill001g]

For some reason the video will not play for me.

You say the ping values are not valid. What do you see when the ISP is not testing.

There are 2 things that can cause delays in games. The first is large variation ping time. Over 100ms difference between pings can easily cause lag spikes in games. It is actually better if it consistently high than to change. The other is timeout/packet loss. The ISP is correct you will lose some here and there but it should be nowhere close to say 1%. What is really bad though is if you lose more than one in a row. Because of how ping works this is actually a couple seconds of outage.

So what is not obvious at first since the device you call a modem is really a router and the device you call "receiver" is closer to what a modem does. I assume this device is what is plugged into the wan port. This appears to be a wireless internet connection. These are going to get random ping spikes and random data loss just because of it being wireless. You are sharing the wireless bandwidth with other customers that live near you. Some systems are better than other. The cheap systems just use the same wifi as you use in the house. More advanced systems have more control of the radio so you and your neighbors do not transmit at the same time. The most advanced systems use LTE much like a cell phone company but it is run on unlicensed radio bands.

I am not sure can be fixed. It is just a different form of playing games on wireless which is not recommended.

 

[Martafak]

For some reason the video will not play for me.

You say the ping values are not valid. What do you see when the ISP is not testing.

There are 2 things that can cause delays in games. The first is large variation ping time. Over 100ms difference between pings can easily cause lag spikes in games. It is actually better if it consistently high than to change. The other is timeout/packet loss. The ISP is correct you will lose some here and there but it should be nowhere close to say 1%. What is really bad though is if you lose more than one in a row. Because of how ping works this is actually a couple seconds of outage.

So what is not obvious at first since the device you call a modem is really a router and the device you call "receiver" is closer to what a modem does. I assume this device is what is plugged into the wan port. This appears to be a wireless internet connection. These are going to get random ping spikes and random data loss just because of it being wireless. You are sharing the wireless bandwidth with other customers that live near you. Some systems are better than other. The cheap systems just use the same wifi as you use in the house. More advanced systems have more control of the radio so you and your neighbors do not transmit at the same time. The most advanced systems use LTE much like a cell phone company but it is run on unlicensed radio bands.

I am not sure can be fixed. It is just a different form of playing games on wireless which is not recommended.

The video you are unable to play is Game2.mp4 I assume. For some reason, it is sometimes working, sometimes not. However, it is fine as long as you were able to see at least Game.mp4 which is showing basically the same stuff.

About the pings. When the ISP is not testing I see identical freezes before it writes out "time request out" however without the high ping. My ping is usually around 30-50 depending on the time.

Also, I didn't think it is important to mention, but I have been using the same ISP for more than 10 years and the only thing that has changed is the power/cost of our computers. During the years I have seen a game or video call lags caused by high or spiking ping. And I am confident in saying that this is different. Now that you have mentioned the 1%. I actually on many occasions measured value even higher or at last really close to that 1%. examples:
https://prnt.sc/59T7vNs_mRQx and https://prnt.sc/7glx2l7W7shn
However, I have yet to see it actually write out more than 2 times the "request timed out" during the freezes that this problem causes. I can say about this as well that as long as the cmd does not freeze before it writes out "request timed out" it does not freeze any game/call etc. In fact, I have in the past (before this problem) witnessed on many occasions getting 3-5 time requests in a row but the internet was fine.

I do apologize as you might know I'm not from English speaking country and to be honest, I am not even sure how are the devices called in my language so the translation is even harder.
Nevertheless, the modem mentioned at the top is indeed a router. If you mean the so-called receiver is plugged into wan (router) then it indeed is, however, the connection between the receiver and router is done with the POE so it is definitely wired. But if you meant whether the receiver is wirelessly receiving/sending data from/to the ISP's transmitter then, yes, it is wireless. Also, I thought that the simple diagram of my house network would suffice, but all the computers I'm measuring from are getting the same data, has the same problem, and are all wired with cables.

I don't believe that my direct neighbors would affect my internet connections as I live in a small village that hasn't really grown in size/population in the last 5 years and other "customers near me" are in the next town/village at least 10 km away. Because of that, I don't think they might be affecting the connection. Also, I can't forget to mention that the ISP and Technicians told me that there are no similar reported issues in my village and even the entire region around me or any network overloads on their part. Assuming they weren't lying that is.

I Hope more information like this helps to solve this issue of mine.

 

[bill001g]

The problem is if there is any radio in any of the links it really doesn't matter if the rest is wired. That said even a link that uses wires all the way can get loss if there is some kind of defect in the wiring.

You can eliminate all the stuff inside your house by running a ping to the router IP. That will show that the router, the pc and the cabling are good. You could also hook your pc directly to the POE adapter which would then pretty much only test the radio link.

This tends to be very hard to troubleshoot. The problem is you have no way to tell if the loss is just because of say poor signal or if it is because of interference. It is highly unlikely the ISP has a connection that only has you as the customer. There are expensive dedicated point to point connections but those tend to only be used by a business. It greatly depends on the technology they are using as to how they share the bandwidth between customers. If it uses one of the systems like say a cell phone company uses the central tower can control when each device is allowed to transmit. If it is using simple wifi then it dependent on the end device to not transmit at the same time which is hard when they can not hear each other.

1% loss will cause issues in a game and all you can do is discuss with the ISP what they think is causing the loss. Could be the outdoor radio is out of alignment or something.