[SOLVED] Packet loss and ping spikes even after bypassing router

Oct 12, 2019
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Recently for the past month I have had a pretty bad experience with lagging in every game that I play and websites having to reload for me to actually see them. My problem seems to be a pretty consistent 1-2% packet loss and random ping jumps, while pinging google, from a baseline of 5-10 ping to random jumps to 60 or even higher.

My computer is hardwired into my router (Netgear Nighthawk R7300) but I have even bypassed my router into a POE box that my ISP (Nextlink) had supplied. The POE model is HERE.
Through many talks with my ISP they tell me that when they ping to my computer when I bypass the router or just to my POE box that they don't get any weird ping spikes (They say it is 30 consistently) and that all packets deliver for them. I've sent them a few imgur albums of my speedtests/pings in command prompt/ping plotters and I've tested with different ethernet cables to my computer and have tried a laptop straight into the router and also bypassing the router and straight into the POE box. I'm just looking to see if there is anything more that I can do on my end before they send a tech out because they say if it's anything wrong on my end, it's $70 for the call but it's free if not.


Some other info, my speed is 15down/3up, this is a fixed wireless line of sight internet (Radio on roof to their tower). We have had the internet for well over 5 years and when the company was smaller it was good and reliable. Before this all happened I did have a few days of pinging google and getting 1000+ ping and 40-50% packet loss in CMD and Discord, when I called the guy had said something about the frequency possible getting stomped on by other connections in other homes. When I have called and emailed support the last days they keep telling me that senior techs won't look at anything unless it is over 150ms ping or severe packet loss.

I have tried changing DNS settings on PC/Router separately and at the same time to Googles 8.8.8.8. I have changed cables between the POE and router with no change. I mainly only test my internet in the afternoon as I am at work during the day but 2pm and 11pm both have the same issues. In games like Rocket League I have over 100+ ping in game with the latency variation symbol and packet loss the entire time while a friend will have a constant 60-70 ping to west coast servers (Spectrum for him). In Apex or CSGO I will either be sliding around the map or disconnect all together multiple times.

All of the photos can be assumed my desktop PC hardwired into my router unless stated in the description of the picture. The servers for the speedtests are also about 20-30 miles away from what the website tells me. I have also pinged both google and nextlinkinternet website to test this so any NL is pinging the website for my provider.

View: https://imgur.com/a/OAKvX7o
 
Solution
POE means power over ethernet. It is not really even a network box, It is a power supply, almost like giving the model of your power brick that you connect to your router.

Still since it is ubiquiti brand and uses their proprietary form of PoE it likely is a ubiquiti units on the roof. Your ISP is a being extremely cheap and using normal WiFi for the connection. It suffers all the same problems as if you had a router in your house and had 50 devices trying to talk to it.

Most WISP providers (unlike yours) use equipment that is very similar to wifi but the remote radios are under full control of the central towers. Kinda like a cell phone tower. The newest WISP systems actually use LTE on the unlicensed radio bands...
Your ping tests are about normal for a wireless connection.
You have Ethernet in your home ,which is great, but you still have wireless delivery.
Your dropped packets is well within the acceptable range for wireless.
The few no ping returns is also within the acceptable faults for wireless.

You are in a similar situation as me.
The best broadband connection available to me is still questionable at best.
 
POE means power over ethernet. It is not really even a network box, It is a power supply, almost like giving the model of your power brick that you connect to your router.

Still since it is ubiquiti brand and uses their proprietary form of PoE it likely is a ubiquiti units on the roof. Your ISP is a being extremely cheap and using normal WiFi for the connection. It suffers all the same problems as if you had a router in your house and had 50 devices trying to talk to it.

Most WISP providers (unlike yours) use equipment that is very similar to wifi but the remote radios are under full control of the central towers. Kinda like a cell phone tower. The newest WISP systems actually use LTE on the unlicensed radio bands. These systems tend to have much less problems with the end stations stomping on each others signals.

Not much you can do. I suspect you use them because you have few other options. All depends if they are being greedy or can't afford the quality equipment. A ubiquiti radio costs about $50 for many models the radios used by quality WISP start at about $300 and many are over $500.
 
Solution
Oct 12, 2019
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Is there a reason that y'all might know of that would make my internet just change to this quality so quickly though? In the summer it was completely fine with no spikes in ping or any packet loss, there were days the internet would slow but it wouldn't be 40% of my plan nightly. It just seemed to come out of nowhere for me and now I can't even take a test for school without thinking that it might kick me off.
 
It could be a bunch of new customers where added or maybe you have a idiot teen neighbor running torrents. This is why many of these plans have fairly low caps.

Maybe the antenna got moved just slightly. Not sure if the ISP has ability to get into the radio and look at the signal levels. The better units used by WISP report these levels to the central controllers.

If it is like many of the ubiquiti device I used there is likely LED on the unit. If you really want to try it you could climb on the roof and see if you can move it a tiny bit and see if you get more leds.

Still I would test in the middle of the night and see if it is better. Many times these systems have major issue during prime hours say from 6pm-11pm.
 
Oct 12, 2019
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Would you or anyone else know of specific things I could ask them to look at specifically? Otherwise I get the "We pinged your equipment 5 days ago and saw no packet loss or high pings, so it should be fine"

Thanks for helping me so far, it's frustrating that this happens out of nowhere at all hours of the day and there seems to be nothing I can do or anything my ISP will suggest or try anything remotely.
 
The signal levels are the only thing that they could do much about. It also depends if they tune these. Not sure this again is a feature that the higher end gear does. It adjusts the output power so that units close to the tower and those farther from the tower are more or less equal.

In general you want as much signal level as you can get on the receive side.

They will never admit that they have over utilization of their network.

You could have a overload between your tower and other towers. Most these systems have multiple tower all daisy chained off each other. Then again it can be just too many neighbors sharing the same tower.

Normal wifi was not really designed for this type of application and it degrade quickly once you get above certain numbers of active clients.