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66 Messages
IPv4 Packet loss on windy afternoons
Hello,
I have been working from home for over a year now and my Comcast/Xfinity internet performance has been very reliable, until now...
Starting on 4/21, my connection has been experiencing severe intermittent packet loss (1% - 20%). This seems to happen around 13:00 and continues until about 17:00, especially when its windy outside. I logged into my modem to check the logs (Motorola MB8600) and nothing over a notice level 6 (message sent). My signal-noise and signal levels are very good (SNR: 39.4 - 40.1 dB) and -2 to 0.2 dBmV respectively on the main channels (1-32). My OFDM channel 33, however, is not very healthy at all with a SNR of 0 dB and signal level of -7.1 dBmV. Speed tests have been fine, even in the afternoons, 80-100/4-6 Mbps on a 100/5 Mbps tier.
Any idea of how to troubleshoot further? I think the problem is upstream with the CMTS but getting comcast/xfinity to do anything other than take my monthly payment seems unlikely at best...
One more tidbit, which may be significant, there have been two new cable hookups in my neighborhood recently; one neighbor on my node and another on an adjacent circuit. This seems more causal than coincident.
Oh, one last detail: I'm only having trouble on IPv4, my IPv6 connection seems to be pretty solid. Unfortunately my work VPN only supports IPv4 so that doesn't help much..
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
azdeltawye
Contributor
•
66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: After resetting modem, all the non-critical event logs were cleared and revealed more meaningful error logs - see below. Also, the OFDM channel (33) appears to be locked and healthy now.
Time Not Established
Notice (6)
Honoring MDD; IP provisioning mode = IPv6
20:07:18
Mon Apr 26 2021
Notice (6)
DS profile assignment change. DS Chan ID: 32; Previous Profile: ; New Profile: 1.;CM-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CMTS-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
20:07:24
Mon Apr 26 2021
Warning (5)
REG-RSP-MP Mismatch Between Calculated Value for P1.6hi Compared to CCAP Provided Value;CM-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CMTS-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
(edited)
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Thanks for the reply!
Here are current screenshots of my modem status..
Downstream Status
Upstream Status
Event Log
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 8 2021
Fri Jan 15 2021
Tue Jan 19 2021
Mon Mar 29 2021
Sun Apr 4 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Wed Apr 7 2021
Mon Apr 26 2021
Mon Apr 26 2021
(edited)
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update; the Comcast/Xfinity technician stopped by yesterday and indicated everything looked great. He hooked up his test modem and said everything was within spec. He did remove a 3 dB attenuator on the line that a previous tech had installed several years ago. He said that he couldn't see a need for it and said it might even help..
Flash forward to today and the packet loss is back...
Here is the current modem status and signal levels. Notice the received power levels have increased about 3 dB which is expected. Also notice that there are a fairly large number of uncorrectable errors.
(edited)
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: Its been two days since the Comcast technician was at my house and declared 'everything looked great', since then the latency and packet loss errors have been occurring sporadically. Here are the router logs from my WAN Gateway monitor utility since then. Notice the majority of lost packets are on IPv4, the IPv6 connection has been pretty stable.
Router: pfSense
Modem: Motorola MB8600 (Docsis 3.1)
Comcast Gateway (IPv4): 73.24.196.1
Comcast Gateway (IPv6): fe80::29e:1eff:fe59:822
Apr 29 12:27:35 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13213us stddev 7461us loss 21%
Apr 29 12:27:58 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14007us stddev 8977us loss 19%
Apr 29 12:29:14 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 15309us stddev 8624us loss 21%
Apr 29 12:30:46 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13040us stddev 7369us loss 14%
Apr 29 13:25:49 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13192us stddev 6927us loss 22%
Apr 29 13:26:04 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12367us stddev 6322us loss 15%
Apr 29 13:39:28 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13761us stddev 7310us loss 13%
Apr 29 14:16:13 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 11554us stddev 5801us loss 21%
Apr 29 14:17:03 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 17274us stddev 23689us loss 19%
Apr 29 14:22:21 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 16698us stddev 10059us loss 21%
Apr 29 14:23:24 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14649us stddev 12736us loss 9%
Apr 29 14:27:20 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14083us stddev 8215us loss 21%
Apr 29 14:28:52 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12598us stddev 6569us loss 15%
Apr 29 14:46:10 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14151us stddev 8704us loss 21%
Apr 29 14:46:45 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 15686us stddev 9666us loss 20%
Apr 29 15:20:22 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13535us stddev 6845us loss 21%
Apr 29 15:21:07 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 15162us stddev 10428us loss 14%
Apr 29 15:45:11 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 17307us stddev 9636us loss 21%
Apr 29 15:46:18 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14269us stddev 7880us loss 13%
Apr 29 16:15:30 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14024us stddev 7021us loss 21%
Apr 29 16:15:56 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12758us stddev 6099us loss 15%
Apr 30 03:24:13 dpinger 1948 WAN_DHCP6 fe80::29e:1eff:fe59:822%igb0: Alarm latency 606387us stddev 1708476us loss 3%
Apr 30 03:25:16 dpinger 1948 WAN_DHCP6 fe80::29e:1eff:fe59:822%igb0: Clear latency 37815us stddev 71762us loss 0%
Apr 30 10:37:41 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 10185us stddev 3625us loss 21%
Apr 30 10:38:51 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14690us stddev 8564us loss 15%
Apr 30 10:38:58 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14403us stddev 8032us loss 22%
Apr 30 10:41:48 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 73360us stddev 120972us loss 11%
Apr 30 10:46:29 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14529us stddev 8187us loss 21%
Apr 30 10:49:28 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14618us stddev 8258us loss 18%
Apr 30 10:51:43 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14819us stddev 8114us loss 21%
Apr 30 10:52:25 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 16236us stddev 10791us loss 17%
Apr 30 10:56:27 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 80072us stddev 100595us loss 21%
Apr 30 10:57:16 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12283us stddev 11769us loss 15%
Apr 30 11:01:44 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 16441us stddev 9824us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:04:31 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 86110us stddev 123361us loss 7%
Apr 30 11:05:08 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 101494us stddev 129502us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:08:09 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14013us stddev 8504us loss 20%
Apr 30 11:08:11 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14181us stddev 8667us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:11:11 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 29363us stddev 43507us loss 16%
Apr 30 11:14:37 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 15364us stddev 8683us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:15:05 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 16210us stddev 12082us loss 19%
Apr 30 11:26:28 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 18364us stddev 10843us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:27:42 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 16344us stddev 9711us loss 19%
Apr 30 11:27:59 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 27640us stddev 26627us loss 22%
Apr 30 11:29:11 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12364us stddev 6115us loss 15%
Apr 30 11:32:54 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 47060us stddev 70415us loss 21%
Apr 30 11:35:52 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 11990us stddev 5863us loss 10%
(edited)
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: For the first time I experienced packet loss events over the weekend. The problem seems to be getting worse! Today at 5pm was particularly bad. See Gateway monitor logs below. I checked the modem event logs during the time that the packet losses were occurring and I noticed the repeating Notice/Warning: message sent/message timeout..
Also an anecdotal observation; the packet losses seem to be occurring at times of high wind gusts. Today was particularly windy.. Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but perhaps the wind is blowing the lines around and causing an intermittent connection. The majority of Comcast rigid coax lines are overhead on utility poles in my neighborhood...
Modem logs
17:25:02
Sun May 2 2021
Notice (6)
CM-STATUS message sent. Event Type Code: 16; Chan ID: 159; DSID: N/A; MAC Addr: N/A; OFDM/OFDMA Profile ID: 1.;CM-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CMTS-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
17:25:06
Sun May 2 2021
Warning (5)
MDD message timeout;CM-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CMTS-MAC=[Edited: "Personal Information"];CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.1;
(edited)
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Gateway Monitoring Logs
May 1 19:01:30 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13317us stddev 5663us loss 21%
May 1 19:02:21 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 14330us stddev 9339us loss 15%
May 2 09:21:46 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13189us stddev 7274us loss 21%
May 2 09:22:05 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 15217us stddev 19707us loss 20%
May 2 09:49:32 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13384us stddev 6817us loss 21%
May 2 09:50:13 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13702us stddev 7078us loss 19%
May 2 10:03:56 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13353us stddev 7546us loss 21%
May 2 10:04:58 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12668us stddev 6826us loss 17%
May 2 10:07:49 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 12904us stddev 7531us loss 21%
May 2 10:09:05 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 12798us stddev 7069us loss 15%
May 2 17:11:20 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14222us stddev 7863us loss 21%
May 2 17:11:33 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13454us stddev 7573us loss 16%
May 2 17:13:19 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 86564us stddev 123692us loss 21%
May 2 17:32:45 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 16906us stddev 19519us loss 17%
May 2 17:38:24 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 16256us stddev 9685us loss 21%
May 2 17:41:02 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13576us stddev 7372us loss 19%
May 2 17:42:16 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13275us stddev 6544us loss 21%
May 2 17:42:37 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13373us stddev 6596us loss 19%
May 2 17:46:53 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 15406us stddev 14914us loss 21%
May 2 17:47:52 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 18381us stddev 23465us loss 15%
May 2 17:50:58 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 18437us stddev 13464us loss 21%
May 2 17:51:12 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 18013us stddev 13403us loss 20%
May 2 17:51:23 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 19090us stddev 14017us loss 21%
May 2 17:52:09 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 15005us stddev 8879us loss 16%
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Gateway Monitoring Logs for Monday 5/3/21 showing significant latency and packet loss in the late afternoon
May 3 16:41:55 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 17228us stddev 9754us loss 21%
May 3 16:42:09 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 17353us stddev 10140us loss 16%
May 3 16:43:53 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 15027us stddev 8998us loss 21%
May 3 16:44:48 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13975us stddev 7269us loss 15%
May 3 16:59:20 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 12740us stddev 6634us loss 21%
May 3 17:00:25 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13211us stddev 6548us loss 15%
May 3 17:01:14 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14979us stddev 10062us loss 21%
May 3 17:02:19 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13096us stddev 12202us loss 16%
May 3 17:03:30 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 15898us stddev 22046us loss 21%
May 3 17:04:07 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 18060us stddev 30116us loss 18%
May 3 17:14:59 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 13735us stddev 7134us loss 21%
May 3 17:15:11 dpinger 2263 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 13588us stddev 7619us loss 20%
May 3 17:44:13 dpinger 81456 WAN_DHCP6 fe80::29e:1eff:fe59:822%igb0: Alarm latency 540772us stddev 891000us loss 0%
May 3 17:44:13 dpinger 82186 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 524643us stddev 891563us loss 0%
May 3 17:45:14 dpinger 82186 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 93532us stddev 321192us loss 1%
May 3 17:45:14 dpinger 81456 WAN_DHCP6 fe80::29e:1eff:fe59:822%igb0: Clear latency 106932us stddev 326469us loss 0%
May 3 17:50:49 dpinger 82186 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Alarm latency 14608us stddev 7229us loss 21%
May 3 17:51:35 dpinger 82186 WAN_DHCP 73.24.196.1: Clear latency 66341us stddev 96902us loss 13%
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: The second Comcast technician showed up today to have a look. He spotted a rogue splitter that was installed on the utility pole near my house. Apparently the splitter was used by contractors who installed the new cable service to my neighbor, there were not enough ports available so they put in a three-way splitter. He said that was most likely the cause of the problem and put in a work order to have the two-port rigid coax tap block replaced with a four-port device. He seemed pretty confident that fix would resolve my packet loss issues.
I'll report back after the work order is complete. Fingers crossed...
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azdeltawye
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Signal levels and error counts haven't changed much - see below.
I'll report back after the tap block has been changed out.
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azdeltawye
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66 Messages
3 years ago
So a week has passed since the last Comcast technician visit and nothing has changed:
I periodically check the Xfinity app on my phone to see if there is any 'Scheduled Maintenance' planned for my area but nothing yet..
Can someone from Comcast check to see if an actual work order was put in to replace the line tap?
Trying to work from home under these conditions is frustrating to say the least...
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: No resolution yet. I reached out Xfinity peer chat and inquired about the work order status. They replied and said that there were no pending work orders in my area and that they were unable to issue a new one. So we scheduled yet another technician visit since apparently they are the only ones who can write up a trouble ticket. This will be technician visit #3...
Packet loss issues still persist, and I have noticed a true correlation with the wind. Subsequently I have re-named the title of this thread to more accurately describe the issues I am seeing. There are hardly any packet losses observed when it is still, however when the wind gusts hit 20 mph or thereabouts, the latency increases and packets get dropped. This is primarily with IPv4 traffic, the IPv6 traffic seems to be unaffected.
Attached below is a screenshot from the IPv4 WAN Gateway monitoring utility in my router. This was today from 11am to 7pm. Today was very windy, wind gusts up to 30+ mph at times. For the 8 hour period it shows the average delay (latency) of around 11ms and average packet loss of 4%. Latency numbers tend to increase during periods of packet loss.
The screenshot below is the IPv6 monitor from the same time period showing 0% packet losses.
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Here is a picture of the areial tap block which my Comcast service is fed from. There are only two ports, yet three customers are connected, hence the splitter. Technician #2 was convinced that this was the root cause of my problem and said a different tap block with more ports needs to be installed. I guess we'll see what technician #3 thinks on Monday...
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: On Monday 5/24, technician #3 came out to take a look. After his evaluation he performed the following actions:
I asked him what he thought about replacing the 2-port tap block (suggestion from Tech #2). He didn't think it was necessary because my signal levels were healthy and pointed out that my service was connected directly to the tap port and not attenuated by the splitter.
Overall he was very helpful and knowledgeable about the system. We'll see if this does the trick...
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azdeltawye
Contributor
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: Tuesday 5/25 not a single packet dropped! However it was a very calm day without any wind. Wednesday 5/26 was a different story; slightly breezy in the late afternoon and evening. Packet losses started around 4:30 pm and continued through the evening. Back to the drawing board..
On a positive note; the packet losses I experienced on Weds were much lower than previous episodes. This might be a good sign...
(edited)
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azdeltawye
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66 Messages
3 years ago
Update: My connection has been pretty stable since my last post, however there has been very little wind.. Today, even though it was still, I did experience some periods of packet loss; a small blip in the morning and a couple hour period in the afternoon. See below. The afternoon packet losses appeared to be caused by heavy use of my internet connection; during that time I downloaded about 17.5 GB and uploaded about 1.6 GB. You can see the delay (latency) jump up from around 10ms to over 30ms during this same time period.
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