Constant Disconnections and Latency Spikes

you're still getting massive ping spikes on your first hop and I don't know what's causing it. it's not normal.

granted it doesn't happen often because the average is still very low, but it clearly DOES happen because it's logged in the trace.

I'm 90% sure that between those 4 second latency times and the packet loss still showing up, that is still your issue.

I wonder if you might have some other resource issue on your PC causing those to happen when your PC gets warm or highly utilized. I've seen it happen before.

just as a comparison, I can run a trace overnight and not get 4 second latency or any packet loss. my results are always consistent (at least on the first hop). obviously I cannot control once it leaves my network, but inside my network it's rock solid and THAT is the big difference and problem right now.

Do you have any other PCs on the network you can run a trace from for comparison? is really like to be able to narrow it down to your PC specifically as the problem, but the only way to do that is to run traces in parallel and compare results.

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Perusoe wrote:

I know you're trying to help. But, before you comment, you should do some research. If you had gone back and read through just my posts in this thread, you would have all the answers to your questions.

And after what happened to the GGG America servers last night, I find it hard to believe it's all "[my] issue".

I've read the whole thread previously, but it's been a while and I answer a LOT of posts, so I don't always remember every post in every thread.

That being said, I'm not saying there aren't potentially OTHER issues going on as well, but it is CLEAR from your WinMTR trace that there is still SOME issue within your network because the trace doesn't lie.

You're getting 4 SECOND latency to your first hop (your router) and losing 4% of packets to the same location. That carries on through the WHOLE trace so it's clearly not just some mitigation or filtering unless it's happening at the router/modem level .. which I doubt.

Without having a second PC/Laptop/Device to test with, it's just REALLY hard to narrow it down much more... unless you want to format your PC and randomly start replacing hardware like your network card, etc.

It could just be a NIC going bad.. it could just be the software on your system causing resource contention... it could be a LOT of things.

but it's clear that there is SOMETHING going on between your PC and your first hop (router/modem).

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Perusoe wrote:

It's a little better than the one I previously posted. However, according to Simon_GGG, a 1%-5% packet loss is considered normal.

I'm beginning to lose faith in this "WinMTR" program. Sometimes I disconnect frequently and have constant lag spikes and desync and other times it's flawless, like tonight, regardless of what WinMTR says.

If you don't trust WinMTR, you can try PingPlotter instead. It does something similarly, but is a little more graphical. The text output on that one is much more difficult to read however.

Also, PingPlotter has different Packet Types you can use since some networks have issues with ICMP and you can use TCP or UDP instead. You might want to try running them side-by-side to see if their results match. Usually they do though unless you've got ICMP issues.

1% to 5% packet loss isn't "normal" for a lot of people, but it doesn't necessarily mean that there is some huge problem that is going to cause you all sorts of issues. ANY packet loss is not "good", but there are levels which are more tolerable. 1% to 5% is that range. But that's only one part of the picture. Not only are you losing some packets to your first hop, but you're getting latency spikes to that same hop as well. The two combined aren't good to have, especially as the numbers get higher.

1% and 2 seconds is much better than 4% at 4 seconds however. It's still not 0% at 27ms however. As I said, a normal situation for a "working" system should show NO packet loss on the first hop, and less than 50ms at worst/max. What happens after that is going to depend on your ISP and wiring, etc... but that first hop should be consistent with no loss and low latency. When it's not, it means there is still some issue within your personal network (could be OS related, could be hardware related, could be Driver related, could be PC related, could be Router related).

TL;DR: Try PingPlotter running next to WinMTR and compare results (in different Packet Type modes) and see what the results look like. If it's consistent with WinMTR and you're still getting the loss/latency on your first hop, there's still an issue with your personal network.

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Perusoe wrote:

I believe you missed the point I was trying to make. The operative phrase here was,

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Perusoe wrote:

It was one of the best gaming sessions I've had in a long time.

And when I said "WinMTR", I was referring to any of those programs.

However, I will consider using both WinMTR and PingPlotter, the next time I need to report an issue. (Or a good gaming session, with poor WinMTR and PingPlotter results).

I got that you had a better session than normal. I'm glad.

I don't expect it to last however if something in your network/PC/configuration doesn't change.

As for the tools themselves, they do exactly what they're supposed to do. They trace networks and run packets against the various hops to look for network problems. PingPlotter is better than WinMTR only in that it can specify the packet types to get around certain filtering issues. What they report is what they see. If what they see isn't good, then there is something going on somewhere to make it that way.

Hopefully you will continue to get streaks of good gaming sessions without the interference or other problem that is causing the packet loss and latency... but as I said before, I believe it's only a matter of time unless something is changed to make the problem go away.

I already told you.. in order to PROPERLY diagnose the issue, you need another PC on your network.

THEN we can tell if it is specific to YOUR PC, or the Network your PC is on.

The reason it's a vague answer is because we are basically at the end of the limits on what we can do remotely with your situation. We have identified WHERE the issue is (on your network), and now we have to identify WHAT on your network is causing the issue. You've already replaced the Router/Modem hardware so I don't think it is that. That leaves the cable, the wiring, and your PC itself (hardware and software).

There is only so much we can do remotely to assist you. This is it.

In order to go any further, we need more hardware on the network to determine if the issue is with your network, or with the PC on the network.

Having a second PC would also be able to help us diagnose whether or not it was your cable, etc. We could compare the two results and determine which are the same and which are different.

I tend to believe it's probably related specifically to your PC itself... but I don't know whether it is hardware related or software related (or a combination of both).

as for your bullet points, I believe I already answered them throughout the many posts here, but I'll answer each one individually to make it as clear as I can.

What settings should be set for our network?
That is going to depend entirely on your "network setup", what type of hardware you have, what type of software you have, etc. There are no specific "one settings" that work for everyone. The types of hardware and software play more of a role than individual specific settings, unless you have a firewall just blocking everything (which doesn't look to be happening).

Does this relate to those connected through DSL over a telephone line, cable users or both?
Since your issue is not with your Modem but something on the other end of the network (other end from the ISP, IE: you) it doesn't matter whether it is DSL, Cable, Satellite, Wireless, Cellular, etc.

What configuration? What are we looking for, where do we find it and what are the optimal settings?
Answered in one, but when I say "configuration" in your case, I mean the way your network is set up, and everything on it...including the hardware and PCs. I'm not talking specifically "software" or "router/modem software config".

What settings do we need for our firewall? Where do we find this and what are the optimal settings?
I don't think a firewall is causing an issue in your case because that's USUALLY an all or nothing sort of thing. It either works or it doesn't.. there isn't usually a "sometimes work, and sometimes doesn't" unless the hardware or software itself is acting up incorrectly.. which is why it is so hard to diagnose. As for the "settings" for the firewall, I usually recommend starting with "none", "disabled", "uninstalled", "might as well not even be there" settings. Then work from there. In your case, I don't think it would make a difference.

What settings do we need for our anti-virus programs? Where do we find this and what are the optimal settings?
Same as Firewall. Start with "might as well not even be there" and go from there. In some situations, that actually involves a "clean PC" without the AV installed, or having the AV completely disabled and then uninstalled. I have seen situations where AV/Firewall software act up and take over the drivers/system to the point that they're still "there" even after uninstall. This causes a LOT of issues, but in your case, I don't think this is the issue either.

What it boils down to for me is a few possible scenarios:

1) Your Ethernet card is dying.... causing some issues intermittently.
2) Your drivers are acting up with your software due to resource contention or otherwise (shared IRQs, DMA, etc) and you're getting bottlenecked by this causing your ethernet to be only responsive some of the time.
3) There are other resource issues going on causing the problem to be intermittent. Could be failing hardware, could be incorrectly configured hardware, could be a lot of things. Hard to say for sure on this end of the line.
4) Your OS is mis-behaving for whatever reason. Only way to know if this is the cause is to completely format/re-install the OS. I understand when people don't want to do this. I do it fairly often from a known-good clean image to save myself some aggravation.

Your situation is unique because it's intermittent, for sure on your network, and those are the toughest to figure out due to the various factors at play. What makes it worse is you don't have a second machine on the same network to test with. With a second machine, we could eliminate everything except your PC as being the issue (or verify a more specific issue in that case).

There are really no more answers for you that aren't "vague" because that's the nature of PC problems (or really any hardware/software system). It's not that I don't know about these types of problems or know how to diagnose them, but I don't know how many more ways I can say that the issue is on your network/pc but we cannot help you with it.

The reason you're chasing your own tail is because you lack the ability at this point to further troubleshoot and diagnose the issue (don't have a second PC, and can't take your PC to a different network). If you could do either of those two things, it would help immensely narrow down the possible causes.