• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

My home internet service is racked with problems (Solved!)

arredondo

arredondo

Senior member
If excessively high ping, high jitter and packet loss is not an internal issue, how do you get the service provider to fix it?

I've had terrible stats for the past half year between 7PM and 12 AM almost every evening. Everything used to be fine for 6+ years. We're talking 1%- 3% packet loss on Pingtest.net (it is zero during the day), and the ping/jitter numbers go into the hundreds (I get 10-20 ping and 5-10 jitter during the day). I have NOD 32, Malwarebytes, Win 7's firewall as well as Spyware Busters and they don't show any viruses/trojans/etc infecting my main computer (besides, the console is also screwed up simultaneously).

This affects two separate computers (one wireless, one hard wired) and a gaming console (hard wired) in the house. When it gets really bad, online gaming is impossible, streaming low-rez 240P videos on YouTube still need buffering, and basic web pages take too long to load.

I've disconnected the router many times, no luck. I've used several different quality modems, no luck. The company came out and connected a dedicated cable from the box on my house and my modem (to ignore the splitter with my cable TV service), no luck.

During problem periods, the 3D trace route recommended in another thread here shows no issues with the first hop, but invaribly the 2nd hop and others going forward start to spike badly.

The company has come out at least five times, but no solution has worked. Any suggestons please?
 
Last edited:
Switch providers.

I had AT& T DSL on the third tier and after they upgraded everything to Universe Internet My service improved 100% because they used better wireless routers and doubled the speed. Tell them their lack of fixing the problem is a violation of your contract.

Unfortunately nowadays everyone wants to sign you up for a term length on your equipment for like 2-3 years. Sometimes if you opt out you have to pay penalties or something.

I think many times what the problem is that they use substandard wireless routers that are of dirt poor quality.
 
Last edited:
First you make sure that you know if the trouble is in your LAN side or the ISP side.

The way to do it is by connecting one good computer directly to the Modem and see what you get.

If the problem is on the ISP side (given what already was done) I think that you probably have to accept the situation.

I.e., the ISP will Not change the way they overload of the bandwidth in the your area at the time that it is all consumed by NetFlix and the like streaming down their content.

It sad but that is the way it works for the "Vassals" in the current "Feudal" economy.

In my weekend area the only service that it is available is Verizon DSL. I upgraded years ago to 7Mb/sec. and everything was working well. However, starting 3 months ago during the evening the
connection goes down to 1.9Mb/sec with horrible pings. It has Nothing to do with my system and there is nothing that I can do about it.

ISPs contracts are very carefully use the word Max. bandwidth with No definition of Minimum bandwidth.



😎
 
Last edited:
Since you are effectively part of Los Angeles (suburbs) I have a hard time believing that there aren't any other ISP options in your area.

Try putting your full address - not just ZIP Code - into this search engine to see what it says. You'll need the exact address to get an accurate list for your home but according to that site, Charter, AT&T and Platinum Equity all provide wired broadband service in your ZIP Code, and TMobile, Verizon, AT&T and Nextel provide wireless broadband there as well.
 
Epilogue

Fardringle, after reading your post, I looked up Platinum Equity, but they look like they sell to businesses. I was aware that AT&T offered online service, but the last I checked they didn't in my area.

However, I checked again and they do offer high speed access for my address. That was two weeks ago. I ordered the internet service and cable TV - I've been so frustrated with Charter that I wanted to stop giving them one penny for anything. AT&T put me on a two week waiting list and I was counting the days for the service guy to come.

That brings me to today. The guy came by, hooked everything up, and while my max dload speed with the new service is at least 66% slower than the best with Charter (18 mbps vs. 60 mbps), the stability of the signal, especially during prime time, is absolutely amazing!

No packet loss! Low ping numbers! And the Jitter rating (important for signal stability) is usually a 1 or a 0!!! The ratings with Charter were never that low, and at the worst times they were literally in the hundreds.

The second best part of today was calling Charter to officially cancel all their garbage services. The CSR was trying anything to keep taking my money every month, and I enjoyed the ability to brag about the new services already up and running as I told her no.

I'm finally back to playing fighting games online at night and the experience is as smooth as butter. I don't know how long I would have continued to wallow in internet misery if you didn't insist I check with AT&T. Thanks a lot bro. 😎
 
Last edited:
When I moved from my little town that maxed out at 3mbs AT&T DSL to the big city with Comcast 25mbs cable I thought I'd be happy. While my download speeds are way better, my quality of service is nothing like I had with that dedicated line, IE DSL.
 
I've been happy with ATT DSL (other than the fact that I'm now maxed out on speed with their system at 5mb). But they've been a little flaky the last month.

I called them up this morning with no service, and within 30 seconds of talking to the tech, who was still getting my info, the line was back up. Hmmm. Maybe the squeaky wheel syndrome was in effect.
 
If you guys ever get the chance to upgrade to their U-Verse fiber optic internet cable service, jump all over it. The quality is perfection so far.
 
If you have fiber to the home then yes it should be quite a bit better. 😀

It might not be the same for all ISPs but the one I work for will guarantee a minimum of 75% of the advertised speed on download, with no guarantee on upload speed. They do not guarantee the ping times nor anything to do with jitter, either. They will however do best effort anyway. If I get a call about ping times, we have various profiles with different settings, lower delay, etc. I've happily tweaked those ones in the hope of getting better ping times.

There's no reason the network support team at your ISP can't try different profiles if you ask nicely.

However, the fact that it was happening at very specific times suggests it could have more to do with congestion and certain traffic being prioritized lower.

Glad to hear your upgrade seems to have fixed the issue! You should also ask for a discount on your bill if you haven't already done so. I'm sure they will do something, although if you never called about it before then you might not get a huge discount.
 
You might not realize that I completely changed companies to resolve the issue. By being a new AT&T customer (and dropping Charter), I save $30 a month because of the special deals they have if you lock in for a year.

To Charter's credit though, one rep did give me a small credit for the terrible connection, but in the end I dropped them anyway. I agree with you that congestion must have been the problem though they would never admit it.
 
Last edited:
I have a question, especially for you zCypher since you are in the industry. I have two computers, two TVs and one console connected to the new fiber optic cable service (not DSL). The technician set it up so that coming from the box outside, I have three cable lines going separately into the house - one line directly to each of the two TVs and one line to my modem - no splitter is involved.

Do I degrade my online gaming experience on the console in any noticeable way if I have, say, one computer streaming You Tube videos and one TV on showing programs simultaneously? Will the ping/jitter quality remain virtually unaffected, or is it best to have everything turned off but the console? I play fighters online and want to minimize any adverse impact on the experience.
 
Last edited:
arredondo said:
Epilogue

Fardringle, after reading your post, I looked up Platinum Equity, but they look like they sell to businesses. I was aware that AT&T offered online service, but the last I checked they didn't in my area.

However, I checked again and they do offer high speed access for my address. That was two weeks ago. I ordered the internet service and cable TV - I've been so frustrated with Charter that I wanted to stop giving them one penny for anything. AT&T put me on a two week waiting list and I was counting the days for the service guy to come.

That brings me to today. The guy came by, hooked everything up, and while my max dload speed with the new service is at least 66% slower than the best with Charter (18 mbps vs. 60 mbps), the stability of the signal, especially during prime time, is absolutely amazing!

No packet loss! Low ping numbers! And the Jitter rating (important for signal stability) is usually a 1 or a 0!!! The ratings with Charter were never that low, and at the worst times they were literally in the hundreds.

The second best part of today was calling Charter to officially cancel all their garbage services. The CSR was trying anything to keep taking my money every month, and I enjoyed the ability to brag about the new services already up and running as I told her no.

I'm finally back to playing fighting games online at night and the experience is as smooth as butter. I don't know how long I would have continued to wallow in internet misery if you didn't insist I check with AT&T. Thanks a lot bro. 😎
Click to expand...

Well, that's one of the issues with using cable. It's effectively a huge, bridged layer 2 network and is very susceptable to this type of problem. Most cable networks are not properly set up either, which just compounds the problem.

DSL is not perfect, but it definitely has the potential to offer a much better quality of service. Equipment and telcos are finally evolving to be able to provide DSL service using neighborhood IP DSLAMs. This will allow them to utilize VDSL, which has top speeds of upwards of 100mbps.

VDSL is definitely the future of high-speed internet on a large scale and in the suburbs. Fiber-to-the-node and VDSL over the existing copper. That's the way we're going to evolve. Heck, even ADSL2+ goes to 22mbps. So for non-television customers, ADSL2+ is cheaper per port, but VDSL is there for the television customers.
 
arredondo said:
I have a question, especially for you zCypher since you are in the industry. I have two computers, two TVs and one console connected to the new service. The technician set it up so that coming from the box outside, I have three cable lines going separately into the house - one line directly to each of the two TVs and one line to my modem - no splitter is involved.

Do I degrade my online gaming experience on the console in any noticeable way if I have, say, one computer streaming You Tube videos and one TV on showing programs simultaneously? Will the ping/jitter quality remain virtually unaffected, or is it best to have everything turned off but the console? I play fighters online and want to minimize any adverse impact on the experience.
Click to expand...

It depends on your distance from the DSLAM. However, that'll generally be no. Your 18mbps cap is different from the TV service. It is possible that the TV service will eat in to the 18mbps, but that's not highly likely.

I've been using AT&T uVerse for about 4 years now, and it's been fantastic and I have not noticed any problems with jitter or latency when watching TV (though I haven't had TV for the past two years).

Like I said in my previous post, your connection to the DSLAM is probably capable of 50mbps to 100mbps. The set top boxes are IP-based. The COAX connection to them from your modem is actually a local HPNA IP connection. They talk IP over your same DSL connection, though they won't be shaped in the same way as your general internet connection.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top