Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
Intermittent connection throughout the day, high packet loss (Please help)
Hello, I've been having a very unstable connection during certain times of the day for several months now, and the issue is only getting worse. High packet loss ranging from 10-20% at affected hours means that anything requiring a stable connection - Zoom calls, video games, video streaming - is literally unbearable. Video conferences drop to a frame coming through every 60 seconds w/ no audio, and any kind of live server just bombards me with disconnect screens for an hour straight. It's very unpredictable when this will happen: although it seems to be most frequent during 2-5 pm and 11 pm-1 am as per my local time, I've had some of the worst cases during non-peak hours such as 3-5 in the morning.
The thing is, I am increasingly being led to believe that my local/home connection is fine. We switched routers not too long ago which has not resolved the issue, and diagnostic tests I've been running from my end (see imgur link at bottom) seem to suggest that the problem is in my neighborhood's nodes.
Of course, I'm no expert and I could be wrong, but customer service is not being cooperative in this regard. The tech agents just parrot that "everything looks fine from their end" and only cite speed tests which I can already access from my phone. I've talked to around 5 people now who changed my router "settings" making no progress. We had two techs over and they couldn't find any problems in our house. I managed to escalate the issue a bit today, and was promised a technician looking at our local node for the first time tomorrow. I was still unable to talk to someone who understood what packet loss even meant though, despite trying to get redirected to the technical teams. Basically, the technician is only getting sent to our pole line because I told them that's what I wanted on the phone. (Agents only suggested remote fixes or techs checking our home wires again.)
In the event that it doesn't end up working out tomorrow, I would really appreciate if the experts here could figure out the problem with certainty and get resources on the right track to fixing it. I'm literally just an internet customer who wants to stay in a call without getting dropped every 2 seconds, I shouldn't have to be doing all the diagnostic work and ordering specific technicians to my house - again, which chat agents discouraged and repeatedly told me they had "fixed everything".
Sorry if anything above comes off as aggressive, I'm just incredibly frustrated right now. Again, I'm not an internet expert and am basically feeling my way in the dark here, asking for help because I hope that someone can actually pinpoint a solution for this.
Relevant information:
Downstream (1) SNR, power levels & upstream (2) power levels, albeit taken during hours when I was NOT experiencing issues, might update this later correspondingly:
38 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 25 |
40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.366287 | 40.366287 | 40.946209 | 40.946209 | NA |
2.299999 | 3.000000 | 3.000000 | 2.900002 | 2.799999 | 2.700001 | 2.599998 | 2.599998 | 2.599998 | 2.299999 | 2.500000 | 2.500000 | 2.700001 | 2.500000 | 2.700001 | 2.400002 | 2.599998 | 2.299999 | 2.599998 | 2.599998 | 2.400002 | 2.500000 | 2.799999 | 2.700001 | 2.400002 | 2.500000 | 2.400002 | 2.500000 | 2.400002 | 2.299999 | 2.099998 | NA |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
43.020599 | 42.270599 | 43.020599 | 42.520599 |
As for modem make, I have the latest trapezoidal xFi advanced gateway, installed a few months ago. There has been absolutely no trace of anything on my modem event logs, although the problems resemble time outs.
What I've gathered: Link to diagnostics & graphs. Note, these were taken from a computer wired to ethernet, but the problem is essentially the same on all devices on my network.
Thanks for your assistance and time.
Responses
jlavaseur
Valued Contributor
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431 Messages
7 m ago
For what it's worth, I downloaded PingPlotter and tried it out, you have to take the results with a grain of salt, this is taken directly from their site:
What about that 11% packet loss at hop 15?", you ask. Judging from the numbers for that hop and hop 16, what we're most likely dealing with here is a router that probably has a low priority for ICMP packets. A lot of network admins will set a router up to drop ping/ICMP packets first if it starts to get busy, I also did a couple of tests, I had 2 computers streaming music simultaneously, plus 2 downloads going on, plus 2 speed tests at the same time, PingPlotter was going crazy, yet my music never skipped beat, so I believe it don't monitor thru traffic, that being said, I wouldn't only look at that aspect of it, I once had a network card go bad, it worked but poorly, I swapped it out and that fixed it except I would sometimes lose connection, I did some research and checked my card settings and by default it had power savings on, which let it turn off the card to save power, I disabled that and never had another problem
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hodori0719
Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
7 m ago
Thanks, but seems like you misunderstood my problem. First of all I already accounted for IMCP priority in the descriptions for imgur link provided. This shouldn't cause any packet loss further down the line or the types of problems I am experiencing at the moment; you'll notice that the graphs on the PP page that you cited from don't resemble mine. And it is not something as simple as my network card, this is a household-wide problem not to mention I've replaced both modems and computers within the last six months.
Any admins that can take a look at this? Would be apprreciated. Thanks.
BTW, tech appointment was scheduled for today. Not sure if they came or not, said they would be working outside the house, but I got no confirmation calls. Either way, the problems persist.
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jlavaseur
Valued Contributor
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431 Messages
7 m ago
Sorry the example from the pingPlotter page, it was just used to show ping requests are moist likely low priorty, any way after reading your posts again, i have a few questions, you have the comcast gateway, which is a modem and router combined, you also mention a router, is that a separate unit connected to the gateway? If it is a separate unit the comcast gateway needs to be put in Bridge Mode to work properly, or you can have a double nat situation, just a thought
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hodori0719
Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
7 m ago
No, I have the default newest gateway rented/provided specifically for xfinity, and was using router/modem interchangeably. My bad for the confusion. Although, I have successfully set up an old additional router as an access point before but the problem is unrelated as it had been happening before that was done. The AP is also no longer in use. Anyways, the storm has been calmer for the last 30~ hours but problem still happening enough that it's mildly frustrating. Maybe it's also due to reduced traffic during the holiday, although that wouldn't explain the drops at 4 am.
Bumping this. Any suggestions with bringing this issue to Comcast? Might just end up switching providers at this point, I've tried everything I can do regarding troubleshooting from my end over a few months with little progress, and doesn't feel as if I'm getting any help from company.
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hodori0719
Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
7 m ago
@jlavaseur Also noticed you commented on similar problems here at Re: High Latency/Unstable Internet - Xfinity Help and Support Forums - 3387073.
First of all not sure what you're doing to "reproduce" up to 5500ms of ping, but that hardly sounds accurate. Most likely you're masking/faking ping but that won't actually affect system performance. Not to mention, system specs like RAM are irrelevant, and packet loss wouldn't heavily affect your music streaming test since system can just keep requesting the same packets from the server, and it's much less intensive on download speed/live response compared to things like video streaming or gaming.
Anyways, still looking for updates.
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hodori0719
Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
5 m ago
Don't see why my bumps are being deleted when I clearly still need help with this issue...? Or I could just repost the entire thread.
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ComcastKorie
Official Employee
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209 Messages
4 m ago
Hello there, @hodori0719. I am truly sorry to hear about the continued internet issues you are having. I rely on my internet for everything, so I feel the pain. I'd love to help look into this more for you. We would hate to lose you as a valued Xfinity customer. Do you mind sending me a private message with your name and address so I can better assist?
To send me a private message, click on my name, "ComcastKorie," and then click send a message.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Comcast: CARE, Product, Leadership. We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Solution.
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hodori0719
Frequent Visitor
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10 Messages
4 m ago
My bumps + other people's replies have been deleted 3 TIMES. Seriously, why do the mods on this forum spend time deleting valid complaints and criticism instead of actually trying to fix the problem...? I am switching providers this month. Don't do this to your customers
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