Intermittant Ping

[JackVane]

Hi all,

I hope I don't get in trouble for 'not reading all other posts about this issue', but honestly, I tried, and none that I can see describe my current problems, and there are just SO many posts, my eyes hurt!

Basically, my Broadband has be perfectly stable for years, and I test it regularly to confirm that. But online gaming was a little laggy. I heard about such a thing as a 'gamer profile' and called Sky to request that to see if it helped. Umm...

Numerous phone calls later I am back on what I presume to be a standard profile, because the gamer one was dreadfully slow. My router (a standard black Sky v2) indicates a negotiated speed of 5032/744, which is better than it has ever been. But all tests that I run now are so inconsistent. on pingtest.net I always show at least 4% packet loss - up to a high of 29%! Before my profile change it was always zero. Ping jumps around all over the place, jitter also. Noise margins according to the modem vary from 14 to 2, for no obvious reasons. Here is the result of a ping test via a cmd prompt. ( I think i did this right)

C:\Users\Nigel>ping Sky.com - your home for the latest news, sport and entertainment -n 20

Pinging a1065.b.akamai.net [90.223.233.136] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=61
Request timed out.
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=61
Request timed out.
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=46ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=61
Request timed out.
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=48ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=50ms TTL=61
Reply from 90.223.233.136: bytes=32 time=51ms TTL=61

Ping statistics for 90.223.233.136:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 17, Lost = 3 (15% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 41ms, Maximum = 51ms, Average = 44

More packet loss. And all this after a simple profile change.. Sky are now at a loss to understand, as am I. I have disconnected everything other than the modem, with a brand new microfilter..

Any ideas? Sorry if this was too long (and boring) and if another thread does exist that covers this please feel free to redirect me there.

Thanks,

Nigel.

[User05]

Reducing delays (a 'gamer profile') can make some lines unstable. Post up your stats - http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/view-routerstats.html

[Shonk]

I dont think you on max delays of 8

here's my ping to the same server with delays at 8

PING 90.223.233.136 (90.223.233.136): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=0 ttl=61 time=29.799 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=1 ttl=61 time=29.072 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=2 ttl=61 time=28.450 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=3 ttl=61 time=28.362 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=4 ttl=61 time=28.025 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=5 ttl=61 time=28.570 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=6 ttl=61 time=29.028 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=7 ttl=61 time=28.396 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=8 ttl=61 time=28.521 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=9 ttl=61 time=28.144 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=10 ttl=61 time=28.329 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=11 ttl=61 time=29.169 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=12 ttl=61 time=29.555 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=13 ttl=61 time=28.098 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=14 ttl=61 time=27.693 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=15 ttl=61 time=28.252 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=16 ttl=61 time=28.146 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=17 ttl=61 time=29.267 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=18 ttl=61 time=27.935 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=19 ttl=61 time=27.804 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=20 ttl=61 time=28.397 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=21 ttl=61 time=28.082 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=22 ttl=61 time=29.188 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=23 ttl=61 time=29.101 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=24 ttl=61 time=28.202 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=25 ttl=61 time=28.116 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=26 ttl=61 time=28.650 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=27 ttl=61 time=28.321 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=28 ttl=61 time=28.780 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=29 ttl=61 time=28.170 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=30 ttl=61 time=28.029 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=31 ttl=61 time=27.900 ms
64 bytes from 90.223.233.136: seq=32 ttl=61 time=28.297 ms
^C
--- 90.223.233.136 ping statistics ---
33 packets transmitted, 33 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 27.693/28.480/29.799 ms

[JackVane]

Hi,
Thanks.
Current stats as follows :-

System Up Time: 03:06:58

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 19134 20416 0 708 2729 02:04:40
LAN 100M/Full 12319 2016 0 256 44 03:06:53
WLAN 11M/54M 48993 54812 0 3861 1218 03:01:26

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 5269 kbps 766 kbps
Line Attenuation 48 db 25 db
Noise Margin 4 db 15 db

Sorry - couldn't make them appear in pretty boxes!

[Shonk]

Your noise margin on the downstream is quite low
and upstream is quite high

id get them to cap you a bit lower on the downstream
and uncap you on the upstream

[JackVane]

Thanks for that.

I find it very hard to explain these things on the phone - not that I don't know what I'm talking about (in general) but they do things by their own agenda. I have found all of the call centre staff to be superb this week, and willing to try to help, but every effort seems to either make things worse or just stay the same.

In the last few moments my downstream nm rose to 8, then dropped again...

[User05]

How many telephone sockets do you use?
Is there a microfilter connected directly into each telephone socket in use, ensuring that nothing is before the filter?
Is the router connected to the master socket or an extension socket?
Are you using the short grey dsl cable that Sky provided, or running an extension telephone cable to the router?
Do you have Sky tv connected to any telephone sockets?
Do you have a test socket?

[JackVane]

All good questions!
My master socket issue is a little hard to describe. I'll get to that in a mo....
2 telephone sockets - all microfilters just replaced today for new.
Router is as it has always been, on a high quality lead to what I am calling my 'Master' socket.
Sky is connected, but I have tried it with nothing but the router connected.

A test (master) socket exists - but a Previous owner must have used that as a seperate number. It is and has always been dead to me. Router is plugged in to the first working socket after the line enters the house. It is a standard BT item, non test.

Nigel

[JackVane]

Noise margin now showing as 0 (zero)... I guess that this is bad :P

[Shonk]

You should trace the wire coming into the house
and find out where it goes first