Packet Loss ?!?

[Ignition]

It's a router not a server.

Have you tried a UDP traceroute?

[Hans Gruber]

Originally Posted by Ignition

It's a router not a server.

Have you tried a UDP traceroute?

I meant the game servers (counter-strike:source in this case).

How do I go about doing a UDP traceroute?

edit: Here's a windows 'tracert' if that's UDP...

Tracing route to 4u-servers.co.uk [195.20.108.242]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1	 1 ms	 1 ms	 1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2	 7 ms	10 ms	 7 ms  10.65.0.1
  3	13 ms	 8 ms	 7 ms  pete-t2cam1-b-ge92.inet.ntl.com [80.3.130.129]
  4	31 ms	12 ms	 7 ms  pete-t2cam1-a-ge11.inet.ntl.com [80.3.131.9]
  5	 8 ms	 6 ms	10 ms  pete-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.3.129.5]
  6	29 ms	16 ms	13 ms  nth-bb-a-so-130-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.225]
  7	15 ms	13 ms	14 ms  gfd-bb-b-so-400-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.98]
  8   204 ms	 *	  168 ms  tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
  9	16 ms	19 ms	15 ms  212.250.14.18
 10	25 ms	21 ms	16 ms  4u-servers.co.uk [195.20.108.242]
Trace complete.

[Ignition]

http://www.nscan.org/cgi-bin/link.pl?link=m1_tracert021

Also http://tracker.5star-network.com/dow...ools_5star.exe

First is freeware second is shareware.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Hans Gruber

I meant the game servers (counter-strike:source in this case).

How do I go about doing a UDP traceroute?

edit: Here's a windows 'tracert' if that's UDP...

Tracing route to 4u-servers.co.uk [195.20.108.242]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1	 1 ms	 1 ms	 1 ms  192.168.1.1
  2	 7 ms	10 ms	 7 ms  10.65.0.1
  3	13 ms	 8 ms	 7 ms  pete-t2cam1-b-ge92.inet.ntl.com [80.3.130.129]
  4	31 ms	12 ms	 7 ms  pete-t2cam1-a-ge11.inet.ntl.com [80.3.131.9]
  5	 8 ms	 6 ms	10 ms  pete-t2core-a-ge-wan61.inet.ntl.com [80.3.129.5]
  6	29 ms	16 ms	13 ms  nth-bb-a-so-130-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.188.225]
  7	15 ms	13 ms	14 ms  gfd-bb-b-so-400-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.98]
  8   204 ms	 *	  168 ms  tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]
  9	16 ms	19 ms	15 ms  212.250.14.18
 10	25 ms	21 ms	16 ms  4u-servers.co.uk [195.20.108.242]
Trace complete.

Nothing at all wrong with that tracert.

[Hans Gruber]

Originally Posted by Ignition

http://www.nscan.org/cgi-bin/link.pl?link=m1_tracert021

Also http://tracker.5star-network.com/dow...ools_5star.exe

First is freeware second is shareware.

Ta, OK I tried the first one and this is what it came up with. I appreciate routers don't prioritise pings, but I am getting definate loss with my games and it can be very frustrating.

[Chrysalis]

here see the difference on leics area
__________________

here is with same ip and settings

[sasilrls]

i'm now running on the B/B service by B.T. & my kill's on HALO2 have gone from around 5 to 6 kill's to about 13 or more(sometimes the pack leader). so there you are proof i think.(this is only my opinion)ha ha ***** iv'e had enough.

[Horace]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

Nothing at all wrong with that tracert.

So you think hop 8 looks fine ?

204 ms * 168 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]

I'm just running a test on my connection. I keep getting spiking pings when ever there is action on my screen in games, such as MOH last night with the clan my ping kept spiking from 70 to 150 and even up to 200. No one else got this just me

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by Horace

So you think hop 8 looks fine ?

204 ms * 168 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]

Everything before and after that hop is fine so if it is like that all the time than that particular hop might be spiking occasionally but it wont be constant. If it was constant every hop after that hop would be high too.

Well, problem found. Any UK servers or Euro servers I connect to I get packet loss (and up to 10%). Although USA servers come back clear?

Any ideas?
__________________

2 tracerts with that freeware software shows the 4th hop keeps timing out, which I think is located in Birmingham

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Horace

So you think hop 8 looks fine ?

204 ms * 168 ms tele-ic-2-so-100-0.inet.ntl.com [62.253.185.74]

It's the last hop that is the important one. A tracert basically sends a ICMP packet to the required site with a TTL=1 (Time To Live) followed by one with TTL=2, increasing by 1 until the destination is reached or the maximum TTL value set is reached. Routers along the route will send back a "TTL expired in transit" message if the TTL field has reached zero by the time it hits that router thus building up the route taken until the final destination has been reached. As many routers give ICMP packets low priority this can show a result similar to hop 8 that you refer to. As the TTL is increased so that it is not zero when it reaches hop 8, that router gives the packet an higher priority meaning all is well after it.

[Horace]

Hmm..well I've seen packetloss in games occur, done a tracert and found exactly the same result. One or two routers dropping packets hence the asterisk, either due to overload or damage. Online games require a much more timely response than standard http traffic, if I had that kind of route on any game it would be spiking and probably unplayable even tho' my ping times would appear normal.

[Ignition]

Pretty please do a Google on how routers handle standard traffic and how they handle pings to themselves, there are completely different logical paths - if any more questions post.

Actually no forget that quick explanation.

Routers have at least 2 different processing components.

A generic CPU for doing the mundane stuff, calculating routes, taking in and processing commands, responding to ICMP traffic and packets with a destination address that's one of the router's interfaces, etc, etc.

The other part is usually a dedicated Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) based Switching/Routing/Forwarding engine which takes packets in, strips the headers and decides based on a routing and a forwarding table (maintained through interaction with the CPU for ARPing, retrieving information from routing protocols, etc) which of its' interfaces to shove the packet out of, and then re-encapsulates the packet in new headers.

Most packets the ASIC based engine knows what to do with them due to previous packets and the CPU is not involved in any way. Only when dealing with a completely new network is CPU interaction required.

I hope this helps a bit. Also remember routers don't give a monkeys about whether the traffic is TCP or UDP, they work on IP level and won't look upwards of this unless told to, which requires CPU as the routing engine only deals with IP and below.

[Hans Gruber]

So if this packet loss isn't the client, server or NTL's doing, where is it coming from?