Issue with be-3111-pe11.111eighthave.ny.ibone.comcast.net

Here is an example of what it looks like when it occurs:

Please post a traceroute showing the packet loss.

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... 30% packet from be-3111-pe11.111eighthave.ny.ibone.comcast.net ...

The trace continues past the apparent packet loss at hop #7 and continues on to later hops. This suggests that the router at that address has been set to give low priority to responding to trace packets, and higher priority to its primary job: passing data along to the next hop. Please see https://www.dslreports.com/faq/14068.

Of greater concern is the amount of latency and packet loss at the very first hop, which is in your home. Packet loss there should be below 1%, and latency should be no more than a few milliseconds.

Agreed with @BruceW. I'll add a question.

Is this with a WiFi connection ? If so, for a test, does a computer that is hardwired directly to the router with an ethernet cable show the same packet loss problem at your router's hop ?

First thank you both for your responses, which qualify as the best I have had so far. But you can safely ignore the latency on the first hop, since the test I posted was done from worst location in my house relative to my wireless mesh (it is brick home and I have one zone that needs another mesh device). But more importantly, I have proven through repeated tests that when I get this congestion in the Comcast network, I can reproduce the same issue wired and wireless. It is intermittent but seems to occur at least a couple times a day, most consistently first thing in the morning and again in the late afternoon.

I think the key thing to focus on though is the packet loss. Most apps today can deal with higher latencies, but not so much packet loss. For example, during times like I posted, you can do a FaceTime call, but recipients will often miss your audio and see video lag. I'd be happy to show you a continuous ping - say a full day - running from a wired connection to the cable modem if you think that would help demonstrate better how the issue is both real and outside my house.

Also do you really think this is due to lower priority of traceroute? I would think the congestion inside the network is causing multiple issues, one of which is slower responses to lower priority packets. Note: I am doing continuous traceroute and then pinging the individual hops. Dropping ICMP requests due to priority seems unusual IMO.

Let me know if I can gather any additional data. I really appreciate the responses & feedback. I'm sort of reaching the end of my options here, where I need to either get this resolved or find an alternative solution, since it's impacting my work.

Thanks again!