Constant packet loss even with ethernet and massive ping spikes

[Simon Slays]

Hi all, 

 

I have been getting really bad ping spikes even when pinging just my router. I really need help figuring out the issue as it's driving me insane and I can barely play online games. I used to have no ping spikes at all and it only recently started to happen, the packet loss is also constant. I will add a graph from PingPlotter of me pinging just my router. Any help with this will be much appreciated.

[Arrogath]

what router do you have, does it seem to be running hot? Do you have any other ethernet cables you could try? what about if you use different ports on the router for your network cable? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers for your network adapter?

[Simon Slays]

20 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

what router do you have, does it seem to be running hot? Do you have any other ethernet cables you could try? what about if you use different ports on the router for your network cable? Have you tried reinstalling the drivers for your network adapter?

I have a Sky Q router, I'm from the UK. It's also not running hot. I do have other ethernets but they're too small to reach from the router to the pc, I don't think the ethernets are the problem though since they're basically new and the packet loss also happens over WiFi. The test image above is also over WiFi but I will put one that is over ethernet in this. I have also already tried different ports for the ethernet cable. I have gone to device manager and tried to update the drivers that way but it said I have the best drivers available for my pc.

[Biomecanoid]

10 minutes ago, Simon Slays said:

I have a Sky Q router, I'm from the UK. It's also not running hot. I do have other ethernets but they're too small to reach from the outlet to the pc, I don't think the ethernets are the problem though since they're basically new and the packet loss also happens over WiFi. The test image above is also over WiFi but I will put one that is over ethernet in this. I have also already tried different ports for the ethernet cable. I have gone to device manager and tried to update the drivers that way but it said I have the best drivers available for my pc.

is you PC downloading stuff in the background ? maybe windows updates ? Did you reboot your router and PC ?  This happens only on this PC and other devices are unaffected ? Boot from a Live Linux USB and see if the problem still exists

[Simon Slays]

This is me pinging the final traceroute to Google and the packet loss is still really bad.

[Simon Slays]

3 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

is you PC downloading stuff in the background ? maybe windows updates ? Did you reboot your router and PC ?  This happens only on this PC and other devices are unaffected ? Boot from a Live Linux USB and see if the problem still exists

Hi, I'm not currently installing anything and closed out of all the things that could possibly be updating so it can't be that. I have rebooted the router today but not my pc. When using PingPlotter on the mobile version it says I'm not getting packet loss when pinging the router but I am on my pc. I'm unsure what a Live Linux USB is and I don't have a USB available to use because I've not bought one yet. 

 

This is my ping from yesterday via ethernet as well, I don't know why it's playing up today.

[Biomecanoid]

27 minutes ago, Simon Slays said:

Hi, I'm not currently installing anything and closed out of all the things that could possibly be updating so it can't be that. I have rebooted the router today but not my pc. When using PingPlotter on the mobile version it says I'm not getting packet loss when pinging the router but I am on my pc. I'm unsure what a Live Linux USB is and I don't have a USB available to use because I've not bought one yet. 

 

This is my ping from yesterday via ethernet as well, I don't know why it's playing up today.

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview

[Simon Slays]

50 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#1-overview

I'm unsure what you want me to do?

[Biomecanoid]

1 minute ago, Simon Slays said:

I'm unsure what you want me to do?

Boot your computer from a USB running Linux, to check if its a hardware problem or windows fault

[Simon Slays]

Just now, Biomecanoid said:

Boot your computer from a USB running Linux, to check if its a hardware problem or windows fault

I don’t have a USB right now, sorry.

[Biomecanoid]

Just now, Simon Slays said:

I don’t have a USB right now, sorry.

You can do the same with CD/DVD

[Simon Slays]

 

2 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

You can do the same with CD/DVD

I don't have that on my pc either. I reset my router again and I'm no longer getting packet loss but I still am getting ping spikes, here's the current test.

 

[ndesign.ie]

Few things:

Swap network cable, sounds like a damaged cable.

Check Network adapter settings in advanced area for cache size, big packet limit, buffer size/timeout

Trace the wire, if it passes by a microwave, fridge, etc anything with motor intermitting on off - > interference.

[Biomecanoid]

1 minute ago, Simon Slays said:

I don't have that on my pc either. I reset my router again and I'm no longer getting packet loss but I still am getting ping spikes, here's the current test.

For troubleshooting purposes you should have a way to bypass windows and run apps independently of windows. That is where CD/DVD/USB came handy. It saves you lots of time and headaches.

[Simon Slays]

I need to explain that I have my wired ethernet connection via a TP Link powerline adapter which obviously runs off the wiring in my house. I had an older TP Link powerline adapter and it worked perfectly fine without any ping spikes. I then upgraded to a more expensive model and it was fine for a while. I then got a surge protected extension lead and plugged it into the outlet next to the powerline adapter. So they're both next to each other on the same outlet, could the surge protection be causing the interference. It can't be any other appliances as they are on separate circuits. I am also getting this issue over WiFi as well so it can't be the powerline adapters at fault.

[Simon Slays]

5 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

For troubleshooting purposes you should have a way to bypass windows and run apps independently of windows. That is where CD/DVD/USB came handy. It saves you lots of time and headaches.

I wish I had a USB available but I don't because I am kinda new to PC so haven't really needed to do anything other than driver updates and downloading games and stuff.

[ndesign.ie]

Surge protectors do interfere with signal, have you tried the powerline on surge protector?

 

The surge protector could be pushing frequencies back in, like a power spike......  need to test this...

[Simon Slays]

1 minute ago, ndesign.ie said:

Surge protectors do interfere with signal, have you tried the powerline on surge protector?

No because it lowers the Mbps that the powerline adapter can send, that's what happened to my old adapters that were plugged into a none surge protected extension lead. The TP Link does have a passthrough where I can plug the adapter into the wall and then the extension lead into the adapter but I asked TP Link support and they said I shouldn't do that. It's also advised not to plug a powerline adapter into an extension lead but I didn't know that with my old ones.

[Biomecanoid]

8 minutes ago, Simon Slays said:

I need to explain that I have my wired ethernet connection via a TP Link powerline adapter which obviously runs off the wiring in my house. I had an older TP Link powerline adapter and it worked perfectly fine without any ping spikes. I then upgraded to a more expensive model and it was fine for a while. I then got a surge protected extension lead and plugged it into the outlet next to the powerline adapter. So they're both next to each other on the same outlet, could the surge protection be causing the interference. It can't be any other appliances as they are on separate circuits. I am also getting this issue over WiFi as well so it can't be the powerline adapters at fault.

This explains everything  powerline adapters don't play well with surge protectors plus they are dependent on the electrical wiring of the house so it you have lot of noisy devices like a vacuum cleaner, AC etc working they mess up data bandwidth that is why some time they work and others don't. 

 

WiFi frequencies can be crowded as well.  Buy a looong ethernet cable and test your computer connected directly eliminating the powerline adapters.

[Simon Slays]

The packet loss was completely gone but now it's starting to come back again.

[Simon Slays]

5 minutes ago, Biomecanoid said:

This explains everything  powerline adapters don't play well with surge protectors plus they are dependent on the electrical wiring of the house so it you have lot of noisy devices like a vacuum cleaner, AC etc working they mess up data bandwidth that is why some time they work and others don't. 

 

WiFi frequencies can be crowded as well.  Buy a looong ethernet cable and test your computer connected directly eliminating the powerline adapters.

Only problem is it's not my house so I can't put an ethernet through the entire house, I also have cats so they would just chew at it most likely. I get that the adapters aren't the best but like I said I wasn't experiencing any problems until recently and my old powerline adapters worked great. I also always get my full bandwidth when using them to download games and stuff.

[Simon Slays]

Is it normal to have packet loss over WiFi from the first hop (which is my router)? Over powerline I don't seem to be getting any.

[Simon Slays]

Here is what it looks like on WiFi after the first red block and then after the second red block is when I enable the ethernet again. The ping is stable for now but I guarantee when I turn my pc on again tomorrow it will be all over the place again.

[Biomecanoid]

6 minutes ago, Simon Slays said:

Only problem is it's not my house so I can't put an ethernet through the entire house, I also have cats so they would just chew at it most likely. I get that the adapters aren't the best but like I said I wasn't experiencing any problems until recently and my old powerline adapters worked great. I also always get my full bandwidth when using them to download games and stuff.

Its just TEMPORARY for 10 min to troubleshoot.  Troubleshooting is not a black art or a guessing game you have to take action to fix issues. You can not wish away the problem by just looking at the ping and data loss statistics.

 

You should determine if the problem is hardware of software:

Boot with Linux if everything is OK the problem is windows if the problem persists its hardware

 

You should double check your network:

Get rid of the powerline adapters and connect with the simplest way possible using a long ethernet cable

 

 

 

" I wasn't experiencing any problems until recently "  Stuff go wrong when you least expect them to, that is how the world works. Does not mean much

 

" my old powerline adapters worked great "  In the computer world if anything is working you don't mess with it. You can not improve something that not broken and already working. Use you old adapters if you still have them.

[Arrogath]

main issue with powerline adapters is your connection quality will vary based on how much electrical noise is on your system. For example cheap led bulbs with trash power factor also tend to generate a lot of excess noise on the line. Could be loads changing as opposed to when you restart your system. Noise also isn't necessarily restricted to the circuit it's generated on