Question Packet loss after 8

[PACKETLOSSDUDE]

So the title basically says everything I'm currently paying for the 1000 mbps and the last couple of months I've noticing some weird stuff when playing and is constant packet loss after 8pm or around that time.. any game will basically be unplayable cause Im on a constant 5% packet loss which is really annoying especially if you're the only one on the internet I called a&t a couple times and they just do some basic troubleshooting and change equipment but none of that really works I tried getting a new router and still same results, VPN as well I just don't know what to do at this point Im 100% sure is not my equipment cause I've been upgrading and still getting the same issues any suggestions ? oh and I've also tried pinging google through pingplotter when having the issue and can see the packetloss as well so its 100% the internet I believe I just don't know what to do cause I currently can't move....

 

[bill001g]

So where does the pingplotter show the loss.

Time of day issues are almost always other peoples traffic. My guess is they have some equipment that only takes errors when the traffic exceeds a certain rate...likely it has errors at lower rates you just can't see them as much.

The level 1 techs tend to not understand pingplotter...many people that post here also do not. What you want to do is do your own pings to the nodes in the trace. You would show them there is no loss to hop 1 but there is loss to hop2 and every node past it. This would mean the problem was between 1 and 2. Since I suspect this is a fiber connection it likely is not the fiber itself but I guess it could be. The fibers have physical splices in them that allow multiple people to run on the same strand of fiber. It depends how many neighbors actually use ATT but the number of splices can be as high as 256.

 

[PACKETLOSSDUDE]

So where does the pingplotter show the loss.

Time of day issues are almost always other peoples traffic. My guess is they have some equipment that only takes errors when the traffic exceeds a certain rate...likely it has errors at lower rates you just can't see them as much.

The level 1 techs tend to not understand pingplotter...many people that post here also do not. What you want to do is do your own pings to the nodes in the trace. You would show them there is no loss to hop 1 but there is loss to hop2 and every node past it. This would mean the problem was between 1 and 2. Since I suspect this is a fiber connection it likely is not the fiber itself but I guess it could be. The fibers have physical splices in them that allow multiple people to run on the same strand of fiber. It depends how many neighbors actually use ATT but the number of splices can be as high as 256.

Heres a pic of pingplotter

https://imgur.com/a/Svd4gOJ

View: https://imgur.com/a/Svd4gOJ

https://imgur.com/a/o4DrvE6

https://imgur.com/a/icJcAFJ

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

View: https://imgur.com/a/o4DrvE6

(another one)


I notice a slowdown in the afternoon but at night I just get packet loss and ping goes up like a 10% not a huge deal (the ping of course... the packet loss makes the game unplayable) but Its definitely weird since I usually play on a constant ping since Im the only person connected, it happens on all games too.. watching videos and doing regular stuff is fine but games where you have to react fast like Valorant or any other game that requires good/constant ping is just unplayable

 

[bill001g]

This is where using a fancy tool that you don't fully understand will just confuse you.

Too many people go "red bad must fix".

This is not to say you do not have issues in game but pingplotter is not showing the problem. Once you know what results to ignore this pingplot shows you have a great connection.

So first where you see the spikes in the graph. This is one of those things where they are graphing percentage change. Lets say instead of 15ms of you had 150ms. So a 10ms jump is 75% of the first average and less than 10% of the first. All the really matters is the actual number. A games does not care as long as the "jitter" is under 100ms or so.

Next all the really matters is the affect that is had on the final node. I am not real sure why you see the large list of nodes with 100% loss. This tends to be some firewall in the path or maybe a load balancer doing this. In you case you see about 15ms to google with almost no jitter at all.

A more common example. Lets say instead of routers these are traffic lights on your way to work. If a traffic light would delay you at say hop 3 you would then be delayed at every light past there are you would see this delay to reach your office. If the intersection is completely blocked then you sit there and never get to the office.
So if you somehow in reality consistent get to the office with no delays then the traffic report you hear are false....just like this tool is does not always tell the true story.

There are many reasons that you see this. Sometimes the router in the path is designed to limit its response to testing traffic. It will give priority to passing actual data and only when it is not busy respond to ping so you see this delay. Some are also designed to limit the amount testing traffic they respond to avoid
denial of service attacks. And then you have nodes that are configured to not respond at all.

In the end you need to work harder to find the problem. It does not appear to be obvious.

If you dig into the sites in this trace you first will notice that they do not follow the same path. The IP addresses are different in the later hops. This is likely due to load balancer/route balancing in the path. Next pretty much everything up to hop 7 is ATT. Everything past there is googles network.
So lets say this was a real problem where you get massive loss in the later hops what can you possibly do about it. You do not actually buy your internet service from google. This would be like trying to get a broken water pipe fixed in another city.

Not sure what to suggest. You maybe could test to the actual game server IP but again if the problem is not actually in your ISP then you can't do much. In reality you can only easily get issue in hop 1 (your router and pc) and hop 2 ( the connection you buy to your ISP) fixed.

 

[alceryes]

Are you on wifi?
Do you have any scheduled tasks/scans around 8pm that may use the network?
Do you have any other devices (NAS, etc.) that may be using your internet connection around that time (e.g. backups)?

 

[PACKETLOSSDUDE]

Are you on wifi?
Do you have any scheduled tasks/scans around 8pm that may use the network?
Do you have any other devices (NAS, etc.) that may be using your internet connection around that time (e.g. backups)?

Are you on wifi? No, and I use a CAT 6 cable I've tried different cables and still same results
Do you have any scheduled tasks/scans around 8pm that may use the network? Checked and nothing.. tried disabling anti-virus and same results
Do you have any other devices (NAS, etc.) that may be using your internet connection around that time (e.g. backups)? Nope, I just have the router

Keep in mind the packet loss is on all games which makes me think is the ISP but they say its fine. Also ran a tracert route to both of the games I play and I get a lot of requested timed out... On the game page it says around 8 requested timed out is fine but I get like 16 requested timed out and the only ips it shows its the first 5 and the very last one, like bill said "This tends to be some firewall in the path" but I got firewall disabled so I don't know what could be causing it or what can help fix it

 

[bill001g]

It is a likely a firewall at the game company but this does not explain why google does it too.

What I suspect is it is some strangeness with the routing to the actual routers in the path. Because your traffic seems to take different paths the path to the IP of these routers maybe also be different depending on what interface is being used. It doesn't really matter you have no access to these routers anyway.

The problem you have is game servers tend to not allow ping to them....some idiot will denial of service them floods of ping packets. So you can't actually test to the game server itself in many cases. Your best bet would to try to find a router that does respond that is as close to the server as you can get.

Still if there was a problem you can correct you would see issues in your ISP hops. Everything appears outside your ISP.

I mean the best case would be if you would see packet loss in hop 2. That way the ISP could come and fix the connection to your house. Maybe leave a constant ping run to this IP and you get lucky and see loss.

What it appears is you have a good connection from your house to deep inside att network. The problem might be in the connection to different ISP. The connection point depend on where you live and what cities the ISP have interconnects. Making this even more complex is the path can actually go to the server one way and come back another. Ie if you do a tracert from the server to your IP it would be different than the tracert you get to the server from your house.

What might fix/hide this problem is to use a vpn service. This is very hit and miss. You would need one that you could get to the VPN data center with no data loss and then that VPN had a different path to the end server you really wanted to use.

 

[PACKETLOSSDUDE]

It is a likely a firewall at the game company but this does not explain why google does it too.

What I suspect is it is some strangeness with the routing to the actual routers in the path. Because your traffic seems to take different paths the path to the IP of these routers maybe also be different depending on what interface is being used. It doesn't really matter you have no access to these routers anyway.

The problem you have is game servers tend to not allow ping to them....some idiot will denial of service them floods of ping packets. So you can't actually test to the game server itself in many cases. Your best bet would to try to find a router that does respond that is as close to the server as you can get.

Still if there was a problem you can correct you would see issues in your ISP hops. Everything appears outside your ISP.

I mean the best case would be if you would see packet loss in hop 2. That way the ISP could come and fix the connection to your house. Maybe leave a constant ping run to this IP and you get lucky and see loss.

What it appears is you have a good connection from your house to deep inside att network. The problem might be in the connection to different ISP. The connection point depend on where you live and what cities the ISP have interconnects. Making this even more complex is the path can actually go to the server one way and come back another. Ie if you do a tracert from the server to your IP it would be different than the tracert you get to the server from your house.

What might fix/hide this problem is to use a vpn service. This is very hit and miss. You would need one that you could get to the VPN data center with no data loss and then that VPN had a different path to the end server you really wanted to use.

Ok Im going to try a VPN, is there any specific one you recommend? Will exitlag be a good try or something like nordvpn is better? For this situation

 

[bill001g]

Completely impossible to predict. Even within the same city there are difference in the path data can take. This is always a try it and see. What I would attempt to find is a vpn service that actually has a data center in your city. Most large VPN services have direct connections to ATT as well as other large ISP so you have a slightly
better chance than someone on a small ISP.

 

[PACKETLOSSDUDE]

Completely impossible to predict. Even within the same city there are difference in the path data can take. This is always a try it and see. What I would attempt to find is a vpn service that actually has a data center in your city. Most large VPN services have direct connections to ATT as well as other large ISP so you have a slightly
better chance than someone on a small ISP.

Gave it multiple tries... with NordVPN and ExitLag and with ExitLag nothing really changes in terms of routing but it does with nord and I get the same results just with higher ping... is there something else I can do? like maybe switch ISPs? theres also comcast around here but I don't know if switching will maybe fix it or make it better.. also switching to maybe DSL or something like that could change the results?? Im currently trying with a mobile hotspot to see if I get those requested timed out and stop getting packet loss in game


(edit: Came to a conclusion that it is simply the server and is something I can't control, another question that stands still is.. Why do I get packet loss and my friend that lives 1h away from me doesn't... and we are connecting to the same server but it is what it is. I guess the only fix I got right now is get used to the packet loss till Im able to move

 

[Im_Still_Learning]

Heres a pic of pingplotter

https://imgur.com/a/Svd4gOJ

View: https://imgur.com/a/Svd4gOJ

https://imgur.com/a/o4DrvE6

https://imgur.com/a/icJcAFJ

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

View: https://imgur.com/a/o4DrvE6

(another one)


I notice a slowdown in the afternoon but at night I just get packet loss and ping goes up like a 10% not a huge deal (the ping of course... the packet loss makes the game unplayable) but Its definitely weird since I usually play on a constant ping since Im the only person connected, it happens on all games too.. watching videos and doing regular stuff is fine but games where you have to react fast like Valorant or any other game that requires good/constant ping is just unplayable

Check background activities ,services, antivirus, backup etc .also check CPU before and during the spike some thing could be hidden.