Ping issues on home network

GregI · 21 Jul 2009 at 22:25

Hey guys. I recently moved from AOL to 02 Access. At the max dl speed of 8mb and all is good but sometimes my ping to sites would be very high. Like bbc.co.uk and google.co.uk would be 130ms and 140ms. I did a tracert and unless i completely missed something, the bad pings are from my own network.

I am using the 02 wireless box (as indicated in the pic

). I have a netgear router but it only gets assigned an IP when i use PPPoE (whereas the 02 box and 02 site says to use PPPoA). Any help on what might be causing the issue?

Rroff · 21 Jul 2009 at 22:51

What does the 2nd hop show? (some routers do ping high but its a bug) also its possible its a problem with your wireless if your using that.

chronicfathead · 21 Jul 2009 at 22:54

Do you get the same ping times using just the IP, or is it only when you ping the name?

GregI · 21 Jul 2009 at 23:56

Hey, here is another screenshot. That should answer both of your questions? IP edited out obv.

chronicfathead · 22 Jul 2009 at 07:27

if you ping 192.168.1.254, is it still 99ms? As it is resolving google.co.uk to not being local, and then passing it on to O2's servers to look up, that could also introduce a delay.

I've had all sorts of DNS issues that cause slow connections, or non existent connections.

Background for others:
All servers/PC's/Routers etc. have an IP address, and normally a DNS name. DNS servers resolve the name to an IP address. If the DNS server has bad entries, Name lookup can take ages and even fail.

While in the console, one quick thing try, could be "ipconfig /flushdns" without the quotes.

GregI · 22 Jul 2009 at 10:23

chronicfathead said:
if you ping 192.168.1.254, is it still 99ms? As it is resolving google.co.uk to not being local, and then passing it on to O2's servers to look up, that could also introduce a delay.

Yay! Got a return of 1ms. Out of 3 requests though, i get one successful return and 2 request timed out messages. Something is up. Oh, it seems it is a wireless issue with that. When i ping from my PC (Ethernet) it's 3 successful replies of <1ms. Plugged ethernet into laptop and is now <1ms on all 3 continually. I am like 1 metre away from the 02 box so i don't see why that was a problem.

I don't understand what is up with the pings i was experiencing last night though. Is it a DNS issue?

tolien · 22 Jul 2009 at 11:35

DNS won't affect your pings.

I wouldn't put too much stock in what you get pinging the O2 box - it puts a low priority on answering to ICMP Echo Requests so if the router's busy with more important things it'll take a while to answer (if it does at all).

If the DNS server has bad entries, Name lookup can take ages and even fail.

But not each time you're pinging it. It would lookup the reverse DNS, either timeout and move on or get an answer, with the latency to that IP being unaffected.

chronicfathead · 22 Jul 2009 at 13:12

Sorry, laymans tech speak. Hopefully it might point people in the right direction. I've had several issues with DNS in the past causing connection issues with copiers and PC's in the past.

tolien · 22 Jul 2009 at 15:49

Maybe so, but it doesn't even apply to this case...

Edward78 · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:05

Good man, ditching AOL for a real ISP. Anyway that is odd that being on wireless does it, maybe you have a bad box??

chronicfathead · 22 Jul 2009 at 16:55

tolien said:
Maybe so, but it doesn't even apply to this case...

In his posts he is pinging a Name, which if I'm not mistaken will have to be resolved by a device somewhere. I asked him to ping the IP address to rule out a DNS issue, which I know can cause connection issues. The fact he can ping an adress and get varying results does make me think it's not particulaly a DNS issue. But DNS lookup has played a part.

I usually use speedtest.net for testing speed externaly, where I would normally see 40-60ms pings to London from Lincs.

All I was saying is that I have seen DNS issues cause strange behaviour, including slow connections. A delay while logging onto your PC can be caused by a DNS issue, but you can test for that by unplugging from a network while booting. Using flushdns can help resolve the issues.

GregI also states that he got a near perfect ping when he used the IP address and not the name.

How long ago did you switch? I know the ISP can test the line to see what the best settings are to get you the fastest connection, but I don't believe it is down to that, as the first hop in your test is internal.

I believe all points are relevant, but I don't profess to knowing everything, so please feel free to point me in the right direction.

GregI · 22 Jul 2009 at 18:33

My activation email came on the 13th of this month. Initially it was around 2mb download. By about the 15th it was 5mb and i think around the 18th it maxxed out.

Okay, my pings were fine today until about an hour ago when they suddenly went weird again.

This morning those number were all around 40ms. The only thing i can think of that is causing these horrible pings is exchange congestion.

I've been trying to use my netgear router to test pings and whatnot. I simply cannot connect via PPPoA as indicated by o2. Only PPPoE works and i can access the net and ping sites but i can't ping/tracert my router.

Rroff · 22 Jul 2009 at 18:58

BT's central network has been horrendous lately for latency during peak times...

I get sub 9ms outside of peak times and it shoots to 50+ during peak

tolien · 22 Jul 2009 at 19:19

Is the latency as bad when you're using a cable?

chronicfathead said:
In his posts he is pinging a Name, which if I'm not mistaken will have to be resolved by a device somewhere.

Correct. The result will then be cached though, and the resolution time isn't counted by tracert.

I asked him to ping the IP address to rule out a DNS issue, which I know can cause connection issues.

If it was a DNS lookup, there wouldn't have been a trace. It would have failed at the first step and had nowhere to go. You're missing a bit of logic here: if the machine can't resolve a name to an IP, how is it supposed to ping it?

GregI also states that he got a near perfect ping when he used the IP address and not the name.

And a network cable rather than wireless. That is what's making the difference.

I believe all points are relevant, but I don't profess to knowing everything, so please feel free to point me in the right direction.

DNS is a red herring in this case. The OP's having latency issues, and that's totally irrelevant to DNS. Messing about with DNS resolution is just wasting your (and the OP's) time.

chronicfathead · 22 Jul 2009 at 19:59

tolien said:
And a network cable rather than wireless. That is what's making the difference.

~Steps back and shakes head.

My apologies, for some reason I completely skipped the fact he changed to a cable from wireless.

Unrelated now, but I'm sure you can have multiple DNS servers listed, which a server/pc will try to resolve until it can get a response?

It's funny how past experience can cloud ones judgement.

GregI · 22 Jul 2009 at 20:41

tolien said:
Is the latency as bad when you're using a cable?

I did use cable when i took that screenshot. Switched back on wireless and it's the same kinda pings. Now got my laptop and pc hooked up by ethernet.

Rroff, thanks for the info. Yeah, that would explain my problems. Before i went away from AOL LLU, i had a period of about a week with these download speeds,

(which was the main factor in changing, plus they wanted an extra 11 quid to keep my LLU connection). That slow period was i think BT's fault though. a lot of people were complaining from all different ISP's with similar issues. Before that incident i guess i never had these bad pings as i was using AOL's stuff at the exchange. I guess i should constantly email o2 asking for them to enable my exchange.

tolien · 22 Jul 2009 at 20:44

If you were on AOL LLU, it had nothing to do with BT.

So it's still bad using a cable, and it comes and goes? Definitely sounds like congestion and if you're using O2 Access it's probably their Centrals (though it's still not BT's fault; O2 don't want to part with money to buy more capacity).

GregI · 22 Jul 2009 at 20:55

tolien said:
So it's still bad using a cable, and it comes and goes?

It's just plain slow ping round about 4:30 i'd say. Goes back to normal ping in the morning when i wake up. Haven't been able to stay up at night to see when the pings return to normal.

Damn, the next town 5 miles away from me has O2/Be LLU.

gord · 22 Jul 2009 at 22:44

Well my AOL connection is thoroughly up the swanny..

Here is a pic of the OcUK ARMA2 vent server.. pinging in the app at 250~ and the CMD showing a ping/tracert to the same server pinging properly..

What can cause the difference between app and cmd?

gord · 22 Jul 2009 at 22:48

Weirdly enough.. my ping has just this instant returned to normal in the applications.. the congestion must have eased up.. they are properly ******* with me..