Packet Loss - what's causing it??

[harris1986]

Hi guys,

Over the past month i've been getting a large amount of packet loss on my internet connection, it seems to be random when it happens but I notice it most in online games where the game will freeze/lock for a second then be fine.

I presumed the issue was to do with Bethere and after numerous support tickets sent they hadn't resolved my problem, i was getting it every 5-10seconds, I have since changed isp to Ukonline and the packet loss happens very rarely now however it does still happen. My understanding is that as i'm on a 8mb UKonline connection as opposed to the 24mb Bethere I will get less packet loss as less packets are being sent?

My questions is what could be causing this as i've never had this before and only recently started? I'm connecting using powerline adapters and my theory at the minute is the powerline adapters are overheating causing them to not work properly as they are located close to a radiator?

 

[harris1986]

Agreed problem being as i can't predict when/if the spikes or packetloss is occuring it's hard to replicate the problem. Guess i'm just going to have to plug a Cat5 in and just game till my hearts content to see if I get any spikes.

 

[harris1986]

Well yes and no, there is worse ways of testing a net connection i'll give you that, however as I play online games at a competitive level gets a tad annoying when you see someone you need to kill and you spike lol then unfreeze and your dead

 

[harris1986]

Hi Wij,

Thanks for clearing that up, the issue has happend on two seperate isp's so I am fairly certain it's not isp related, I'm at work during the day so my net is only used in the evenings and consequently me being in the house means the heating will kick in which is why i'm thinking it's causing the adapter to over heat as it starts off fine when i'm playing then after a few hours and later on in the evening kind of 8-9pm onwards it starts playing up.
I'm fairly certain it's my powerline adapter as i've never had this issue before

 

[harris1986]

Agreed, I have a fairly small box room and the adapter is within a metre from the radiator so i'm putting it down to this for the time being. I shall try testing with a Cat5 for a bit and see if this resolves the issue in which case i'll either have to get some new adapters or workout a way to cable Cat5 to my room lol.

 

[harris1986]

strangely i upload/download fine, as i've tried this , i'm even getting high upload/download speeds above what line supports lol im supposed to be on UKonline 8mb down/768up and im getting 8.5mb down and 1meg up lol.
And i've also tried with and without interleaving on the line this makes no difference to the packet loss but as expected my ping does go up with interleaving on.

 

[harris1986]

hmm just done a ping to my router here are the stats -

Pinging 192.168.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.0.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 3ms

 

[harris1986]

Ok just done a couple of tracert's, you can see from hop 5 in the bbc the spike however there is none on the google trace

C:\Users\weym0>tracert www.google.co.uk

Tracing route to google.navigation.opendns.com [208.69.34.231]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 2 ms 1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 20 ms 19 ms 19 ms cr0.smbu.uk.easynet.net [87.87.250.182]
3 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms ip-87-87-154-129.easynet.co.uk [87.87.154.129]
4 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms be2.er10.thlon.ov.easynet.net [195.66.224.43]
5 17 ms 17 ms 17 ms 195.66.224.185
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 18 ms 31 ms 17 ms opendns.demarc.cogentco.com [149.6.146.158]
8 10 ms 11 ms 11 ms google.navigation.opendns.com [208.69.34.231]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\weym0>tracert www.bbc.co.uk

Tracing route to www.bbc.net.uk [212.58.251.197]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 5 ms 4 ms 4 ms 192.168.0.1
2 39 ms 20 ms 21 ms cr0.smbu.uk.easynet.net [87.87.250.182]
3 15 ms 15 ms 15 ms ip-87-87-154-129.easynet.co.uk [87.87.154.129]
4 21 ms 18 ms 17 ms 212.58.238.190
5 137 ms 23 ms 76 ms 212.58.238.189
6 12 ms 11 ms 11 ms 212.58.238.129
7 13 ms 11 ms 12 ms 212.58.239.58
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 * * * Request timed out.
23 * * * Request timed out.
24 * * * Request timed out.
25 * * * Request timed out.
26 * * * Request timed out.
27 * * * Request timed out.
28 * * * Request timed out.
29 * * * Request timed out.
30 * * * Request timed out.

Trace complete.

 

[harris1986]

okies well just tried with ethernet cable direct to router and again i'm getting packet loss what could be the cause of this? 2 different pc's/ 2different isp's / 2different routers lol possibly time to phone BT and tell them to sort the line out?
Here is a ip where I just tested and getting the same packet loss as before (note I get packet loss on all servers)
C:\Users\weym0>ping 82.149.235.135

Pinging 82.149.235.135 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 82.149.235.135: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.149.235.135: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.149.235.135: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=55
Reply from 82.149.235.135: bytes=32 time=25ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 82.149.235.135:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 25ms, Maximum = 26ms, Average = 25ms

C:\Users\weym0>tracert 82.149.235.135

Tracing route to 82.149.235.135 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 2 ms 1 ms <1 ms 192.168.0.1
2 45 ms 12 ms 11 ms cr0.smbu.uk.easynet.net [87.87.250.182]
3 7 ms 7 ms 7 ms ip-87-87-154-129.easynet.co.uk [87.87.154.129]
4 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms bu4.er10.thlon.ov.easynet.net [89.200.135.144]
5 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms bu4.gr10.telon.uk.easynet.net [89.200.135.145]
6 25 ms 25 ms 24 ms te0-0-0-7.er10.ixfra.de.easynet.net [87.86.77.24
9]
7 29 ms 26 ms 26 ms decix.fra1.tng.de [80.81.192.83]
8 27 ms 26 ms 26 ms decix.rt03.ix.aixit.net [83.141.1.41]
9 26 ms 26 ms 25 ms 82.149.235.135

Trace complete.

 

[harris1986]

getting huge stutters in games every few seconds and have only been getting them recently

 

[harris1986]

nope defo packets lost, shows in cs 1.6 and source both show this :s

 

[harris1986]

tried those in the past mate neither worked here is a screenshot of my net stats in game you can see the spikes where the connection is losing packets

 

[harris1986]

any thoughts guys ?

 

[harris1986]

using 20k 101 101 rates , however have tried lowering updaterate to combat this issue (which didn't work).
Eulogy i'll try giving that a shot and post my results