Ping Spikes

[JWK]

Hi,

When I ping the address given by my ISP support dept (203.164.3.231), I see an average of between 25 & 35ms, then every 10 seconds or so, it goes up to between 50 & 75ms for about a second.

My ISP says this is a bit strange & could be a virus, or at least some kind of program sending data in/out.

Does this seem strange. I have used Ad-aware to clean my system of spyware etc. The ping checks were done with all auto-update programs off as I figure they must be checking constantly to see if updates are available. I use Norton antivirus which is up to date.

Thanks, Ape

My system spec is:
Gigabyte GA-7DXR (F9 Bios)
AMD 1.4 266 Thunderbird
512 PC2100 DDr
Seagate 60g Barracuda 4
Creative GeForce 2 GTS (Latest 40. Beta Drivers)
Creative Audigy DE
Plextor 401240 CDR
Toshiba DVD/CD
LS120 Drive
Motorola 4100 Cable modem (V2.1 Drivers)
Network card (disabled)

 

[CALV]

what is that IP for ? im at work now so cant look, but normally a delay in reaching a host is caused by traffic not a virus


If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?

 

[JWK]

It's just a webpage of Optus, my isp, where you go initially to tell them where you are in the country (Australia).

When I was on the phone to the support guy, he kept pinging my PC & said there is this spike. When I asked if I could monitor the ping from my pc, he said just ping a suitable ip address & gave me the one I put in my last post.

If the spike I see is due to traffic, is there another way to monitor my modem/ping situation. I presume the spike he saw had nothing to do with traffic.

Thanks, Ape

 

[CALV]

whats the initial problem?

imagine a web page hosted on a server, say for example on a pc with a 1 meg conenciton.
1 person connects to it, it works fine, because they have all the 1 meg of bandwidth to themselves
BUT then another 1000 all connect to it, it would be slow for each person, during this period of slowness, if you were to ping the server, you would get a slower response than if you were to ping it when no one else was on there.
I KNOW this isnt always the theoretical case, but theory and practice arnt always the same


If they squeeze olives to get olive oil, how do they get baby oil?

 

[JWK]

Yes, but with the help desk they were pinging my pc, or my modem as they made me disconnect it from my pc while testing. Surely they would not be affected in the same way I would as they were just looking at my PC, not a webpage that everyoneelse may be accessing.

The spikes were not present when the PC was disconnected from the modem therefore they figured it was some software causing the spikes.

Initially, I just wanted to know how fast I should be downloading (I have cable, not ADSL). They told me around 400kb/sec, which is what I get. Then they mentioned the spike thing.

I just wanted to check to see if anyone thought something was a bit strange. I'd also like to know how I can check the situation. Obviously, pinging a website as reccommended by the help line is not the way to go due to what you have mentioned.

Well, thanks for your help so far, I appreciate it. I'm off to bed now.

Ape

 

[jlanka]

what about hooking up a different PC and seeing if the problem still exists?

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[jihiggs]

what kind of programs are you running? file sharing apps, instant messangers, desktop weather updates, news, anything?

how do you shoot the devil in the back? what happens if you miss? -verbal

 

[JWK]

Well, I shut down microsoft updates & Norton autoupdate. I do have Kazaalite installed but it is not running. I have also used Ad-Aware to identify any programs that are communicating through modem. No other programs are running. Messenger is disabled.

I don't have another PC to connect up unfortunatly.