Question Packet Loss/Ping Plotter results

[swadewade]

Hello all,

I have Blue Stream cable. Every evening between 6pm-11pm I'm subject to brutal packet loss. I run Ping Plotter constantly and capture the loss to send to the ISP (image below), but they could care less. Their techs have come out and said the inside is good to the tap. One of the techs even suggested that he thought the tap was the problem, but Blue Stream doesn't want to hear it. Management insists the problem is coming from my network, and because it's an intermittent issue they're having fun playing games with me. I've filed 2 FCC complaints, a BBB complaint...they could care less.

Is there a way for me to show that this really is a "them" problem? I've taken the step of installing Ping Plotter on a work laptop and hooking directly to their modem via ethernet with the wifi shut off and I still see packet loss, so I can't believe it's an issue with the devices on my network.

EDIT: So I read this reply from bill001g and will give the multi-hop ping approach a try. I think my real concern here is the ISPs complete lack of interest in resolving this. What can I do? If the FCC and BBB won't motivate them I don't know what will. Any other "screws" I can turn on them?

 

[bill001g]

Your first problem is the contract you have with the ISP likely does not guarantee anything. They likely have words like "up to" even for the bandwidth. They likely do not even mention latency or packet loss.

If you were to test with speedtest I bet you sometime do get the rated speed. If you had lot of money and took them to court they would likely win because the contract pretty much say they can take you money and deliver crappy service. This is also why no government agency is going to help.
Things like BBB and other consumer things only matter if it can affect other consumers choice. Most internet connection you are very lucky to have 1 high speed option so it doesn't matter how badly the BBB rates them you can not pick a vendor with a higher rating.

There is not much more you can do. Your results pretty much prove there is some issue in the connection between your house and the ISP first router. Since it is even their modem that makes it even more their issue but have you actually tried to replace the modem device just in case it actually the problem.

Although not as common in recent years because of the huge bandwidth increases this is what you used to see when a ISP over sold the network. You share the bandwidth with a bunch of your neighbors between your house and where ever the ISP cabinet is.
Lets say there is only 1gbit total but they have sold 300mbps plans to 50 people it does not take a lot of them using their internet at the same time to over load the system.

The ISP is going to deny there is any problem in cases like this. The only solution they have it to run more wires so less people share each one, and that means boring in the street. They could also spend money to upgrade to a higher version of docsis that can share say 10gbit but that means replacing all the equipment in their cabinet as well as replacing all the modems in people houses. Many larger ISP have actually spent the money to upgrade. Smaller ISP will go do I spend 10 million dollars to upgrade or do I just tell some customer where they can put their $50/month.

It is so surprising how much more responsive a cable company is when another company say puts in fiber in the same neighborhood and they now have actual competition.