We have issues with rubber-banding in games and sudden spikes in Ping. Often games will kick us. Anything requiring constant connection will lose it multiple times during the day. Speed can still register at or above what we pay for (50 Mbps) but can also fluctuate wildly. We have around 9 devices (including Chromecast and iPhones etc) connected but not all in active use at once.
In trying to get the ISP to help they requested every kind of ping plotter and trace route I can provide. Ping plotter shows a 100% packet loss at the last hop to the ISP. Could this be the reason for our issues? I have tried to get them to explain how this is OK but as yet nothing. The technical team has has said there’s no issue and nothing to fix.
This is a recent example of a command prompt ping (I manually stopped it as it otherwise runs non-stop):
PING iinet.net.au (52.64.91.12): 56 data bytes Request timeout for icmp_seq 0 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1 Request timeout for icmp_seq 2 Request timeout for icmp_seq 3 Request timeout for icmp_seq 4 Request timeout for icmp_seq 5 Request timeout for icmp_seq 6 Request timeout for icmp_seq 7 Request timeout for icmp_seq 8 Request timeout for icmp_seq 9 Request timeout for icmp_seq 10 Request timeout for icmp_seq 11 Request timeout for icmp_seq 12 Request timeout for icmp_seq 13 Request timeout for icmp_seq 14 Request timeout for icmp_seq 15 Request timeout for icmp_seq 16 ^C
I think the NOC network operation centre are getting you to use ping correctly and iiNet.net.au is ping-able. They’re diagnosing packet loss. Run in cmd ping -n 200 52.64.91.12 and copy packet loss after it does the 200 ping tests. There’s an Australian standard if packet loss is over a certain percentage they need to arrange a house call tech appointment and he’ll also check your connection outside of your house to the pit. Also do a tracert google.com and make sure your internal network isn’t to blame and you reach the next hop outside your network. Remember some hops will not respond as they block it but internal network ie 192.168.x.x should and the one after that. Have a nice day and hope you get this sorted
That’s kind of you thanks and thanks for spelling out NOC. I’m guessing my issue isn’t showing up on ping tests and getting me to ping their own site, iinet.net.au, has just confused everything. I’m willing to bet if you or anyone else were to ping that site you’d get the same result, 100% packet loss. Megared17 in another comment thread was able to let me know it’s actually an Amazon server so it doesn’t pertain to them, or me at all. Megared17 also suggested interference from neighbours but in trouble shooting with iiNet I’ve already switched channels twice and turned band steering off. I’ve seen the rapid speed drop occur while connected to Ethernet too. I’m thinking the only remaining explanation is the physical line to the node. They have told me it’s achieving 88 Mbps (I pay for 50 Mbps and get this most of the time except when it loses its mind and drops and kicks us etc). The line to the node is copper. Not much I can do about that. If that’s the cause of the problem then switching ISPs isn’t going to help.
Is there anything else that might explain seemingly random lag spikes and speed drops that last around an hour and occur in peak and off peak times? Also occurs when everyone is using devices and when only one or two are. Do devices sitting doing nothing but holding a connection present an issue (at random) with connection quality?