neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL
| reply to TPoise
Re: [Speed Issues] 35147 - Chelsea Alabama Packet Loss
I live off of Hwy 41, highland lakes area. Close..
I am averaging about 2% 'longterm' packetloss. I mean this by a plotter that has been running for a week or so now.
Ever since the storm that knocked out power and service from the Leeds headend here, things have not been the same. I'm not real sure what the culprit is.
That being said, your description seems a bit more severe.
Your RF parameters look fine, the SNR could be higher, but it is in specification.
The modem isn't one I am familiar with. Did you buy that modem, or did Charter lease it to you?
If you get an interval of packetloss 10-20 times an hour, call it in,.. Get them to roll a truck and show the technician your packet loss. That will get the ball rolling.
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Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. |
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TPoise
.NET Superstar
join:2006-07-03
Chelsea, AL
| Very close, we should be on the same head-end in Leeds.
This is my own modem, it's a pretty popular one. I "steadily" average 6% packet loss long-term. Meaning if I do a ping with a count of 250 or 500, it will get atleast 5% packet loss, sometimes as high as 12%. I haven't been able to successfully get a ping 100% complete. 5% is enough to ruin my online gaming experience and make me want to switch elsewhere. But for the time being I'll give Charter a chance to figure things out.
I called technical support tonight and they weren't too helpful. They said 6-10% wasn't enough for them to worry. They ran a few diagnostics and said my modem levels have been steady and nothing they can see on their end. However, I have a trucking coming on Friday afternoon.
I was just wondering if any others were having similar issues. Does anyone know if Bellsouth DSL is any better/more stable? |
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pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL
| Ping your CMTS and if you are getting timeouts and packet loss then try giong to your local office and complaining - if they wo't come out cna check it out then call in a Corporate Excalation.
You maybe have a flaky Tap or some other cable plant problem (if the packet loss is on the CMTS).
That has been one of the intermittent problems I've nad for 2 years and Im on my 2nd Corporate Escaltion now and they just replaced the Tap outside my apartment last week and that helped one (some) of my problems.
By the way - my siganls were always "within spec" also. So that doesn't necessarily mean squat. |
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neofate
Caveat Depascor
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Birmingham, AL
| reply to TPoise
Yup, we are probably on the same uBR port -- Maybe not, but within spitting distance I'm sure 
Anyhow... 6-10% IS enough for them to worry. Whoever you talked to is an idiot.
Any consistent packet loss approaching 10% or even 5% is not acceptable. Any system tech/engineer and many Level I tech's would concur.
A CSR rep should also concur,.. but I digress.
With that kind of packet loss, no, you can't enjoy many aspects of your HSi connection.. especially Gaming. With FPS you will simply get disconnected or at best just die alot.
With a less demand for ping, such as an MMORPG, you will disconnect 'some' and lag out for X seconds or minutes often -- Resulting in a frustrating sometimes unplayable experience.
The packet loss also effects normal browsing, transfers, and everything else the HSi connection is meant to serve.
Bottom line, what I'm getting at is this is something they should fix, no doubt about it. So don't think it is within acceptable parameters for the monthly fee you are paying. While they don't guarantee 100% uptime,.. while it IS up,.. it should be working at 99.9% if not 100% stability. Anything less is a problem in the network (plant) .. or residence. If in residence, they WILL fix the problem,.. if you have line maintenance on your package (like 4$ a month extra) they won't charge for the fix. If you don't , they still many times don't charge you.. all depends. (that is a hint..  )
I still question your modem for some odd reason -- It might be worth a shot to lease one from charter for a month. (Its a couple bucks.. no big deal) See if that helps anything.. if not you haven't lost anything.
Glad a truck roll is coming. Definitely show the Tech your packet loss through ping. Go ahead and have a ping -t 4.2.2.2 -- or ping -t www.google.com or ping -t www.charter.com
going well before the tech arrives.. Just drop to the command prompt and have it running in the background for a few hours before he arrives. So when he does, you can immediately show him the command shell, and simply scroll up through the hours of pinging, and it should have your sections of 'time outs' over and over as your scroll. Then you can also talk to him a minute while it is currently still pinging, and show him when it starts dropping packets/timing out in real time.
That will establish definitive problem instead of a 'intermittent so says the customer'
Have the modem hooked directly to the computer, no router in between on the trouble call day, and for these pings.
Make sure the tech doesn't just come in see it and leave. Have him use his HUK meter to test all the levels applicable and potential noise/ingress/egress etc on your line to see if it could be causing any regular errors. Perhaps having the meter running long enough for the loss to occur and monitoring if any signal change occurs would be beneficial. (All techs are of differing levels of experience/knowledge and equally import, diligence to solving the problem).
So, basically:
Hopefully he tests everything he can with his equipment and know how.
Hopefully he brings a spare modem, and gets it provisioned on the spot real quick just for T/S purposes (if the problem isn't found).
If nothing is found inside, he should at least go to your Demarc, and your Tap to measure levels there as well.
Finally, if he can find nothing wrong, but can't deny the problem.. A follow up needs to be set in motion. Be it a system technician to come out and sweep your residence/node (neighborhood) -- Or, perhaps, a senior technician who is better able to diagnose such problems with more experience with what to look for and how to utilize their equipment.. and so on.
Just don't let him leave without a resolution or a 'next step' per se. As that just wastes everyone's time and money.
Lastly,.. On your DSL question: The answer is Yes and No.
In our area, currently, DSL is not 'as fast' if you are on the 10meg package.
If you are on 5meg -- You can get 6meg DSL. So it is equivalent or slightly faster than the mid grade package.
Compared to your current connection with charter , with its problems,.. Yes, DSL would be more reliable. (Unless for some insane reason you had line issues with DSL as well).
For the time being I would at least give them a shot at resolving the issue, and if it becomes a hassle with no resolution in sight... then perhaps, entertain the idea of DSL.
If you want,.. in the mean time download:
»www.pingplotter.com/downloads/pngplt_1.exe
pingplotter -- (free version).
Run it, and set it to trace: unlimited, Delay 5-10seconds, and include all Samples.
Then add an address of your choosing, google, yahoo, level 3 dns 4.2.2.x, etc and leave it on .. (very low TSR proggie).
After several hours.. take a screenshot of it and post the image in this thread,.. (again if you want to.. this will just show the trace path and you packetloss/error/latency , current/avg) -- Handy program to have around imo.
Hope you get things taken care of,
--
Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. |
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TPoise
.NET Superstar
join:2006-07-03
Chelsea, AL
| Well I guess I will have to continue on with it. I had an appointment set for 3-5pm today and Charter was a no-show. Not even a phone call. And the rep on the phone said "They're showing you as still open so give them another few hours or so."
Shoddy customer service. No wonder they are losing customers and have over $19 billion in debt.
I've attached a screen shot of the plot for the past 8 hours where I'm pinging www.Google.com. Is there anything I should be noticing here? |
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pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL | you should set PinPlotter to display the graph so we can see the results over time. |
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TPoise
.NET Superstar
join:2006-07-03
Chelsea, AL | Can you do that with the freeware version? If so, how? |
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TPoise
.NET Superstar
join:2006-07-03
Chelsea, AL | reply to TPoise
Well they "forgot" about my Sunday appointment as well. DSL here I come... |
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pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL | Look on the PinPlotter menu under View and see if you see Show Timeline Graphs and Graph Current Sample and Graph Min/Max Range |
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