Intermittent browsing
 

Hey all,

This is not a complaint, more a query. Browsing has been sparadic over the last week or so. (Slow responses mainly) Having checked speedtest.net and pingtest.net (abeit with a pinch of salt) downstrem seems ok but upstream starts well and then drops to about half the speed it should be. The beta of pingtest.net suggests a 5% packet loss. Could this be the reason for poor site loading?

Here are modem stats and a ping result to this site, following this i will post a tracert

Downstream Lock : LockedDownstream Channel Id : 4
Downstream Frequency : 586750000 Hz
Downstream Modulation : QAM64
Downstream Symbol Rate : 6952 Ksym/sec
Downstream Interleave Depth : taps12Increment17
Downstream Receive Power Level : -4.6 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 38.0 dB

Upstream Lock : Locked
Upstream Channel ID : 1
Upstream Frequency : 25800000 Hz
Upstream Modulation : QPSK
Upstream Symbol Rate : 2560 Ksym/sec
Upstream transmit Power Level : 48.5 dBmV
Upstream Mini-Slot Size : 2
C:\Documents and Settings\Chris>ping -n 20 www.cableforum.co.uk
Pinging www.cableforum.co.uk [87.106.245.143] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=39ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=52ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=55ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=67ms TTL=53
Request timed out.
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=77ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=47ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=56ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=1438ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=35ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=33ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=53
Reply from 87.106.245.143: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=53
Ping statistics for 87.106.245.143:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 19, Lost = 1 (5% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 33ms, Maximum = 1438ms, Average = 120ms

Tracing route to www.cableforum.co.uk [87.106.245.143]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 6 ms 3 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.254
2 15 ms 9 ms 14 ms 10.94.180.1
3 45 ms 41 ms 18 ms leic-cam-1b-v129.network.virginmedia.net [82.3.36.141]
4 45 ms 31 ms 25 ms leic-core-1b-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net [195.182.174.149]
5 20 ms 30 ms 44 ms nth-bb-b-as6-0.network.virginmedia.net [213.105.172.41]
6 14 ms 44 ms 20 ms tele-ic-1-as0-0.network.virginmedia.net [62.253.184.2]
7 15 ms 14 ms 19 ms linx.bb-c.the.lon.gb.oneandone.net [195.66.224.98]
8 53 ms 29 ms 33 ms te-1-3.bb-c.bap.rhr.de.oneandone.net [212.227.120.49]
9 82 ms 63 ms 54 ms ae-4.bb-d.bs.kae.de.oneandone.net [212.227.122.7]
10 47 ms 61 ms 47 ms ae-7.gw-distp-a.fs.kae.de.oneandone.net [212.227.121.225]
11 33 ms 35 ms 36 ms ae-1.gw-prtr-r1-1a.fs.kae.de.oneandone.net [195.20.247.199]
12 57 ms 42 ms 34 ms server1.cableforum.co.uk [87.106.245.143]
Trace complete.

hope this helps, not really good at reading ping and tracert. BTW on wireless and it is the only device on channel 11 in the area

Re: Intermittent browsing
 

If it's packet loss you're complaining about, then it might help to understand its significance. (You can look up some of the acronyms!)

1/
GAMING - generally uses UDP packets. Lost packets are the responsibility of the application to manage, Real time games are unlikely to request a re-send of the packet. So you'll get jerky performance or application instability.

2/
DOWNLOADING - uses TCP packets. Lost packets are re-requested from the source and eventually the data arrives at whichever end intact. If packet loss rises above 5%, then you'll notice the effect of repeats because effective throughput drops.

3/
PING & TRACERT - uses the ICMP protocol which bears no relation to real life data transfer. It is a protocol used for diagmostics as you have done. The PING test tells you whether you have end-to-end connectivity and the overall quality of the link as expressed in the packet loss rate. TRACERT tells you where the bottleneck or problem might be. You'd need to ping/tracert to different web sites, say overseas, to maximise the chance of a common path in the UK so that you could see if there is an identifiable bottleneck.

So, a single ping/tracert test is inconclusive and a range of statistics would be necessary.

Since your modem stats are fine, there might be a bottleneck in the system. By the way, a busy/oversubscribed router in the VM chain would discard packets; TCP packets would be re-transmitted and that effect would appear in the 5% packet loss figure.

Hope all that helps answer your question.

Re: Intermittent browsing
 

Ouch, you used the word complaining! I really am not, just wanted to understand possible causes a little more. Thanks for the response :D

Re: Intermittent browsing
 

Yeah - complaining was a hastily typed word not meant in the negative spirit. I could see you wanted to understand stuff so that's what I concentrated on.

So, do you understand a little more?

Re: Intermittent browsing
 

Yeah cheers, i think i do. So basically it could just be an unavoidable bottle neck up the line somewhere