OK, so I made a thread about this earlier and seemingly found the source of the issue. You can find the previous thread here: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2351763/temporary-packet-loss.html
Long story short, I all of a sudden had a complete internet blackout for several hours on September 12th of this year. The modem showed that it wasn't receiving any connection at the time, aside from local connection to the router. Since this black out, I get sporadic bursts of 1-5 seconds of 100% packet loss.
Given that 100% of the packets are lost, these short burst have been a continual annoyance in video streaming, video chat, voice chat, and online gaming. Every time one of these bursts occurs, my video applications gets stuck buffering or my online game completely stops for a few seconds (potentially even boots me).
I've been going back and forth with my ISP, Armstrong Cable. Three trips from servicemen have resulted in the entire line (both inside and outside of the house) and the modem being updated/replaced (notably, in regards to the modem, with an earlier model than the prior model). Yet, the problem persists and they can never seem to detect the source of the problem.
I've run personal tests using the tracert -d and ping -t command prompts on Windows to determine the source of the issue. I would trace a route to an example website (usually www.google.com) and then continuously ping the individual IPs in the route. I'd then knock off everything, save for the closest effected IP when a mass loss would occur. When connected to the router, the ping test always shows that the second IP in the path is where the packets are being lost. When connected directly to the modem, the 1st IP is where the issue arises. Wouldn't this indicate that in both instances, the packets are being lost between the modem and router (or other solitary device) meaning that the modem is the issue (multiple cord have been used, so I doubt it is the cord)? It is worth mentioning that the test results were the exact same thing with the prior modem. The ping test have also always indicated 0% packet loss between the router and PC whenever the router has been a part of the route.
I've done the last thing I could possibly think to prevent this issue and used a setting in my router to limit the bandwidth going through the WAN port to match my internet service rate. This didn't resolve anything.
If you could provide any insight into this issue, I would very much appreciate it. I'm a gamer, and so this issue is a very much effecting me. Do you think I got a second faulty modem or is something else going on here?
Plain Issue Specs:
-Current Modem Model: ARRIS TM502G Telephony Modem
-Prior Modem Model: ARRIS TM602G Telephony Modem
-Router: TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Wireless N750 Dual Band Router
-Devices I've Attempted to Bypass the Issue Via Direct Modem Connection: Lenovo IdeaPad Laptop (Windows 7), XBox 360, XBox One, PS4
-ISP: Armstrong Cable (Zoom Internet)
-ISP Service Speed: 15 Mbps download, 3 Mbps upload
Internet Connection Test Images (examples of when the error occurs over different configurations):
-This test was taken on my laptop while wirelessly connected to the router. The top ping test is testing my connection to the router and the bottom is the second IP in the path (aka, the modem):
-Here is the same test but done while connected to the router via a CAT 7 Ethernet cable:
-A similar test to the ones before but done when connected directly to the modem via a CAT 5 cable (the modem IP is different because I power cycled my PC and modem for the best results):
-Here is the test done on my desktop while connected to the router via a CAT 7 cable:
-Here is the test done on my desktop while connected directly to the modem via a CAT 7 cable:
Update: I decided to closely monitor my modem while running a test; I found that my modem most certainly indicates that there is a problem whenever the loss occurs. I witnessed it 3 times, the last of which I captured on video (forgive my lack of an HD camera):
-Excerpt Pic from Video:
-Video: [video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1pUar_N_A"][/video]
Update 2: I made a video where I played Halo 4 on my XBox 360 while simultaneously doing a ping test on my desktop in Windows 8 (it's the same desktop as mentioned before but running in Windows 8, instead of 7). The following are time's I've marked where the modem lags out [(i) = interrupts gameplay,(ve)= non-interruptive visible effect, (m) = in-menu ]: 16:14 (i), 21:25 (i), 26:6, 27:16 (i), 40:8 (i), 42:19, 51:09 (i), 1:02:11 (m), 1:04:01 (m)(ve), 1:06:52 (i)
-Gameplay/Ping Test Video: [video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppfZXG8JCw"][/video]
Long story short, I all of a sudden had a complete internet blackout for several hours on September 12th of this year. The modem showed that it wasn't receiving any connection at the time, aside from local connection to the router. Since this black out, I get sporadic bursts of 1-5 seconds of 100% packet loss.
Given that 100% of the packets are lost, these short burst have been a continual annoyance in video streaming, video chat, voice chat, and online gaming. Every time one of these bursts occurs, my video applications gets stuck buffering or my online game completely stops for a few seconds (potentially even boots me).
I've been going back and forth with my ISP, Armstrong Cable. Three trips from servicemen have resulted in the entire line (both inside and outside of the house) and the modem being updated/replaced (notably, in regards to the modem, with an earlier model than the prior model). Yet, the problem persists and they can never seem to detect the source of the problem.
I've run personal tests using the tracert -d and ping -t command prompts on Windows to determine the source of the issue. I would trace a route to an example website (usually www.google.com) and then continuously ping the individual IPs in the route. I'd then knock off everything, save for the closest effected IP when a mass loss would occur. When connected to the router, the ping test always shows that the second IP in the path is where the packets are being lost. When connected directly to the modem, the 1st IP is where the issue arises. Wouldn't this indicate that in both instances, the packets are being lost between the modem and router (or other solitary device) meaning that the modem is the issue (multiple cord have been used, so I doubt it is the cord)? It is worth mentioning that the test results were the exact same thing with the prior modem. The ping test have also always indicated 0% packet loss between the router and PC whenever the router has been a part of the route.
I've done the last thing I could possibly think to prevent this issue and used a setting in my router to limit the bandwidth going through the WAN port to match my internet service rate. This didn't resolve anything.
If you could provide any insight into this issue, I would very much appreciate it. I'm a gamer, and so this issue is a very much effecting me. Do you think I got a second faulty modem or is something else going on here?
Plain Issue Specs:
-Current Modem Model: ARRIS TM502G Telephony Modem
-Prior Modem Model: ARRIS TM602G Telephony Modem
-Router: TP-LINK TL-WDR4300 Wireless N750 Dual Band Router
-Devices I've Attempted to Bypass the Issue Via Direct Modem Connection: Lenovo IdeaPad Laptop (Windows 7), XBox 360, XBox One, PS4
-ISP: Armstrong Cable (Zoom Internet)
-ISP Service Speed: 15 Mbps download, 3 Mbps upload
Internet Connection Test Images (examples of when the error occurs over different configurations):
-This test was taken on my laptop while wirelessly connected to the router. The top ping test is testing my connection to the router and the bottom is the second IP in the path (aka, the modem):
-Here is the same test but done while connected to the router via a CAT 7 Ethernet cable:
-A similar test to the ones before but done when connected directly to the modem via a CAT 5 cable (the modem IP is different because I power cycled my PC and modem for the best results):
-Here is the test done on my desktop while connected to the router via a CAT 7 cable:
-Here is the test done on my desktop while connected directly to the modem via a CAT 7 cable:
Update: I decided to closely monitor my modem while running a test; I found that my modem most certainly indicates that there is a problem whenever the loss occurs. I witnessed it 3 times, the last of which I captured on video (forgive my lack of an HD camera):
-Excerpt Pic from Video:
-Video: [video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1pUar_N_A"][/video]
Update 2: I made a video where I played Halo 4 on my XBox 360 while simultaneously doing a ping test on my desktop in Windows 8 (it's the same desktop as mentioned before but running in Windows 8, instead of 7). The following are time's I've marked where the modem lags out [(i) = interrupts gameplay,(ve)= non-interruptive visible effect, (m) = in-menu ]: 16:14 (i), 21:25 (i), 26:6, 27:16 (i), 40:8 (i), 42:19, 51:09 (i), 1:02:11 (m), 1:04:01 (m)(ve), 1:06:52 (i)
-Gameplay/Ping Test Video: [video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vppfZXG8JCw"][/video]
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