[SOLVED] Packet loss during random times of the day, Good at night..

[Cj87]

Hey so I've been having a packet loss issue ranging from 1-30% typically and it happens very randomly and seems to happen mostly during the day/evening and settles down at random times but there seems to be little to none during the middle of the night. My ping will be 30ish and spike up to 1-300 if I am getting the packet loss, sometimes it even stays at 30ms but I will still be skipping in-game and it's unplayable. I have had my ISP out twice and they've replaced coax cables and wiring from the house to the pole, I've also upgraded to a RAX48 Netgear Router and a CM1000 Modem. However the issue still persists. I have done a tracert and I have found out that I get the request timed out error for the IP of my modem. What do I do next? I can provide a screenshot of all CMD's running at once. I ran ping -t on every IP that the tracert -d to google gave me. the 2nd IP in the list is getting the error which should be my modem?

Edit: They are supposed to come again thursday with a more advanced tech per say.. I really would rather this not happen as I read somewhere that if it was my modem or router IP giving the issue I could solve this myself...

 

[COLGeek]

Any patterns to the poor times? When (time wise) does performance improve at night?

Keep in mind, your cable ISP service shares network services with your neighbors. Their use can impact your use, to some extent.

Do you experience the packet loss with both wired and wireless connected devices? One more than the other?

 

[Cj87]

Any patterns to the poor times? When (time wise) does performance improve at night?

Keep in mind, your cable ISP service shares network services with your neighbors. Their use can impact your use, to some extent.

Do you experience the packet loss with both wired and wireless connected devices? One more than the other?

I noticed anywhere from 11AM-11PM I would get packet loss and the intensity would vary. I only game on my PC and I notice when the packet loss is going on that even streaming buffers and I cannot play online very well at all.
In the middle of the night it tends to go away or go away at random times in the evening, like now.
I don't see how this could be a neighbor thing if this has been going on for the last month and wasn't an issue for years, plus my old hardware was quite old so I even replaced it all.

Edit: Does the ping -t request timed out to the IP of my Modem not mean anything ??

If this thread is still relevant, I may be able to help you find the source of the issue. If you have a Windows PC, open up a command prompt (Search: cmd) and type the command "tracert -d www.google.com" and the hit enter. This will give you a list of every IP your connection bounces through to get to a connection. In this instance, it will be checking every IP your connection passes through to get to www.google.com. You can change the destination by changing "www.google.com" to almost any website or IP address (some sights wont work, though).

Once you find out the path your connection takes, open a new command prompt window for every connection in the path (I'd skip any that the tracert -d command prompt timed out on). In each of these command windows, enter the command "ping -t" and then space and enter a different IP address from the route that tracert -d revealed (hit enter once done).

Line up your ping command windows in the order that tracert -d shows them in. The ping -t command will continually ping the IP you enter and reveal when there an issue by saying "Request timed out." When multiple IPs timeout simultaneously, then that means that there is an issue with the machine that has the closest IP (farthest up on tracert -d) to you.

If you are using a connection with 1 router and a modem, then the 1st IP will be your router and the second will be your modem (your modem will be your 1st IP if you are connected directly to the modem). If the issue is due to these components, you may be able to solve the problem yourself. If the issue is in the IP after your modem, then the line is probably to blame. Anything after the modem will most likely have to be taken care of by your ISP. If you can only use modems provided by the ISP, then it is likely you will have to deal with the ISP to resolve the issue as well.


I followed these EXACT steps and the 2nd IP on the list is the one I cannot ping -t.

 

[bill001g]

It all depends on what the device you are calling a modem really is. If it really is cm1000 that is a simple modem.

If it is actually just a simple modem it does not really have a IP address. It is best considered a media converter. When you run tracert the first ip is your router. The second IP should be the first router in the ISP network.....on the far end of the coax cable. The modem is invisible to IP/tracert

Since you say hop 2 does not respond makes me also think you only have 1 router.

Hop 2 not responding does not actually mean there is a problem, it just means the ISP has configured it to not respond. Makes testing harder but they sometime do this to prevent people from running denial of service ping attacks against it. You would then just ping hop 3 if that one would respond.

Time of day issues are almost always other people using the network. In many cases it is related to the different houses having different enough signal levels that they conflict. It could also be a neighbor that has incorrectly installed something like moca and is injecting garbage into the cable company segment near your house.

This really is only something the ISP can test for. You can look at the signal levels in the modem and see if there are withing the recommended values but again there is not much you can do to change this if they are bad.

 

[Cj87]

It all depends on what the device you are calling a modem really is. If it really is cm1000 that is a simple modem.

If it is actually just a simple modem it does not really have a IP address. It is best considered a media converter. When you run tracert the first ip is your router. The second IP should be the first router in the ISP network.....on the far end of the coax cable. The modem is invisible to IP/tracert

Since you say hop 2 does not respond makes me also think you only have 1 router.

Hop 2 not responding does not actually mean there is a problem, it just means the ISP has configured it to not respond. Makes testing harder but they sometime do this to prevent people from running denial of service ping attacks against it. You would then just ping hop 3 if that one would respond.

Time of day issues are almost always other people using the network. In many cases it is related to the different houses having different enough signal levels that they conflict. It could also be a neighbor that has incorrectly installed something like moca and is injecting garbage into the cable company segment near your house.

This really is only something the ISP can test for. You can look at the signal levels in the modem and see if there are withing the recommended values but again there is not much you can do to change this if they are bad.

Oh wow okay I got the confused. I have A router and a cable modem. Every IP in the list responded except the 2nd one I was talking about which you say is done on purpose so that isolates that.
The neighbor thing is still crazy to me that it would be fine for years to count and all the sudden i'm plagued with this with no answer.
However I don't even doubt it.
But here is a speed result

And my modem settings:
https://prnt.sc/1yzbq2e

https://prnt.sc/1yzbs6x

https://prnt.sc/1yzc4v4 event log too

Edit: Do I even bother with their 3rd visit? they want to send someone 'more equipped' this time too.

 

[bill001g]

SYNC errors are very bad many times they cause the modem to reboot. The levels on your end are fine so it is likely some issue with the cable company equipment. These by themselves are not likely your issue since they occur at random times and during the day, but the time stamps are messed up in your log.

My guess is there is something wrong with the ISP equipment and as the traffic load increases it is getting more errors.

The times you get errors are when the most people are home using internet. For while it changed when more people were working from home but the times you report are pretty much when people get home from work or school and start up netflix and other stuff.

I guess you could check that you do not have a automated backup running but it is unlikely it is something that you are doing directly that causes this. If you did not have the SYNC errors you could suspect the ISP over sold the network and it was purely too many people using the internet. That problem is not simple for the ISP to fix. I suspect you are not the only customer getting sync errors.

These are actually very hard sometimes for the ISP to find. If they come out and test when there is low traffic load they will not see a problem and it is rather hard for them to simulate traffic from multiple people. They have to be testing when the problem is happening so maybe schedule a appointment for the last one of the day.

 

[Cj87]

SYNC errors are very bad many times they cause the modem to reboot. The levels on your end are fine so it is likely some issue with the cable company equipment. These by themselves are not likely your issue since they occur at random times and during the day, but the time stamps are messed up in your log.

My guess is there is something wrong with the ISP equipment and as the traffic load increases it is getting more errors.

The times you get errors are when the most people are home using internet. For while it changed when more people were working from home but the times you report are pretty much when people get home from work or school and start up netflix and other stuff.

I guess you could check that you do not have a automated backup running but it is unlikely it is something that you are doing directly that causes this. If you did not have the SYNC errors you could suspect the ISP over sold the network and it was purely too many people using the internet. That problem is not simple for the ISP to fix. I suspect you are not the only customer getting sync errors.

These are actually very hard sometimes for the ISP to find. If they come out and test when there is low traffic load they will not see a problem and it is rather hard for them to simulate traffic from multiple people. They have to be testing when the problem is happening so maybe schedule a appointment for the last one of the day.

Okay. I have them coming from 5-7PM and It typically likes to shoot up around this time so hopefully they can catch a glimpse.
How do I check if I have a automated backup running?
This sounds like an unfortunate situation, would changing ISP even do me diligence? I've been with them 11 years and they seem very interested in resolving this issue, but that's how they're supposed to act.

 

[bill001g]

You can look at the resource monitor network tab and it will show you all the open sessions and how much data they are transferring.