[SOLVED] Periodic high packet loss when in online games.

[Zer0Maverick]

Issue started a month or so ago. Whilst playing most, if not all games that use an online component, my internet will destabilize and eventually the game will kick me out for high packet loss (sometimes as high as 100%), whilst ping remains somewhat the same, coupled with the fact that if i'm in any VOIP application at the time nobody can hear what i'm saying for the period of high packet loss. This will only occur for a few seconds but it is enough for the game servers to disconnect me, and it happens roughly every 10-15 minutes, but only when in game.

ISP - Sky Broadband (UK)
Router - ER155 running firmware 2.11.2629.R
Connection - Wired via Powerlink

Motherboard - Asus Z170 Pro
PSU - Corsair RM750x
OS - Windows 10 Home

 

[bill001g]

It is not likely the powerline units but you need to rule them out. You could use ethernet cable to really confirm but if you leave a constant ping run to your router in the background you should be able to tell. If you see no packet loss when you see the loss in the game then your powerline is likely ok. If you see loss it could also be your pc or router in addition to the powerline units.

Your next step is to run tracert to say 8.8.8.8

What you want to do is leave a constant ping run to the ip in hop 2 of the trace. This should be your ISP router. What you are looking for is loss in this hop. It means that there is a problem with the connection to your house. You will want to show the ISP that you see no loss to your router (you know they will blame your equipment) but you see loss to the first router in the ISP network.

 

[Zer0Maverick]

It is not likely the powerline units but you need to rule them out. You could use ethernet cable to really confirm but if you leave a constant ping run to your router in the background you should be able to tell. If you see no packet loss when you see the loss in the game then your powerline is likely ok. If you see loss it could also be your pc or router in addition to the powerline units.

Your next step is to run tracert to say 8.8.8.8

What you want to do is leave a constant ping run to the ip in hop 2 of the trace. This should be your ISP router. What you are looking for is loss in this hop. It means that there is a problem with the connection to your house. You will want to show the ISP that you see no loss to your router (you know they will blame your equipment) but you see loss to the first router in the ISP network.

Yeah i'm getting a 25% loss in the second hop to the ISP router. Nothing wrong with the first hop, so this is a problem with the connection to the building?

 

[bill001g]

Yes that is generally what it means. The ISP should be able to fix that it is almost always a cable issue..... I will assume you are not using mobile broadband that is harder to fix.

Run 2 pings at the same time. 1 to your router that shows no loss and 1 to the ISP router showing the loss. Even the level 1 tech will understand what that shows.

 

[failboat]

Anytime you max your connection on up or down it will do that. Most of the time it's going to be bufferbloat, but you should still check for any hardware/config issues. powerlines and wireless bridges are last resort items. i would recommend replacing those if you can or testing without them.

Monitoring to identify this requires quite a bit more power than a standard router has. So trying to pinpoint it can be very difficult. resource monitor in windows will show what your pc is doing. so if it's something like Steam downloads then you can just throttle them. More speed is a great solution if your current speed / number of people < 5Mbs or if your contract isn't competitive look for a better one. Qos is an option that can work if you buy the hardware. only a few are worth trying.

Usually when you can hear everyone fine and no one can hear you in voip you are swamping your upload. any cloud storage or uploading to twitch etc will swamp it fast. ISP generally don't give you much upload speed.

 

[Zer0Maverick]

Anytime you max your connection on up or down it will do that. Most of the time it's going to be bufferbloat, but you should still check for any hardware/config issues. powerlines and wireless bridges are last resort items. i would recommend replacing those if you can or testing without them.

Monitoring to identify this requires quite a bit more power than a standard router has. So trying to pinpoint it can be very difficult. resource monitor in windows will show what your pc is doing. so if it's something like Steam downloads then you can just throttle them. More speed is a great solution if your current speed / number of people < 5Mbs or if your contract isn't competitive look for a better one. Qos is an option that can work if you buy the hardware. only a few are worth trying.

Usually when you can hear everyone fine and no one can hear you in voip you are swamping your upload. any cloud storage or uploading to twitch etc will swamp it fast. ISP generally don't give you much upload speed.

Thing with the powerline is it has never been an issue in the past, this issue has only been occurring within the last month or so and i cant' think of anything i've changed to my setup that would trigger such a response.

Also my ISP's upload is abysmal, i get sub 1mb upload at the best of times but again this hasn't been much of an issue up until recently. I've been able to play games and talk over VOIP no issue.

 

[failboat]

Thing with the powerline is it has never been an issue in the past, this issue has only been occurring within the last month or so and i cant' think of anything i've changed to my setup that would trigger such a response.

Also my ISP's upload is abysmal, i get sub 1mb upload at the best of times but again this hasn't been much of an issue up until recently. I've been able to play games and talk over VOIP no issue.

Check your router for any type of monitoring. It might log an average by the minute or have a package like iftop. It's difficult to catch very small bursts, but if something sustains for ten-twenty seconds you should be able to see it.

With iftop you can watch it on another screen and screenshot or pause it when u see it spike. Then figure out which device has the internal ip and you can try and ip lookup the external if you still can't narrow it down.

openwrt is a very good router. it has monitoring and very good qos if bufferbloat ends up being the issue.