Need Help Interpreting Test Results

[2ot]

I've been experiencing some weird jitter and packet loss on my network for quite some time now. Last month it got bad to the point where it was frustrating to play most online games. I thought it was the modem, replaced it with the netgear cm700 and the problem got better but wasn't fixed. Now I'm looking funny at my asus rt-ac66u because I think I have extensively tested everything else. ALL cables have been checked using a network cable tester, modem replaced, Comcast has great results with other customers in my area, AND I just installed a fresh copy of Windows 10. I am running out of options and really don't want to spend more money. I think maybe this Berkeley Netalyzr test might help me solve the problem, but I am quite inexperienced with networking so it makes little sense to me. ANY help would be appreciated, if you need any more information / results from the test I would be glad to post them, I just posted the ones that were flagged for reasons that weren't predicted to be a security measure. 

 

 

Network performance (?): Latency: 33 ms, Loss: 0.0% +

 

TCP connection setup latency (?): 36ms +

The time it takes your computer to set up a TCP connection with our server is 36 ms, which is good.

 

TCP connection setup latency (?): 36ms +

 

Background measurement of network health (?): no transient outages +

During most of Netalyzr's execution, the client continuously measures the state of the network in the background, looking for short outages. During testing, the client observed no such outages.

 

Background measurement of network health (?): no transient outages +

 

Network bandwidth (?): Upload 8.6 Mbit/s, Download >20 Mbit/s +

Your Uplink: We measured your uplink's sending bandwidth at 8.6 Mbit/s. This level of bandwidth works well for many users.
During this test, the client observed 62 reordered packets.

Your Downlink: We measured your downlink's receiving bandwidth at >20 Mbit/s. This level of bandwidth works well for many users.

 

Network bandwidth (?): Upload 8.6 Mbit/s, Download >20 Mbit/s +

 

Network buffer measurements (?): Uplink 120 ms, Downlink 50 ms +

We estimate your uplink as having 120 ms of buffering. This level may serve well for maximizing speed while minimizing the impact of large transfers on other traffic.

We were not able to produce enough traffic to load the downlink buffer, or the downlink buffer is particularly small. You probably have excellent behavior when downloading files and attempting to do other tasks.

 

Network buffer measurements (?): Uplink 120 ms, Downlink is good +

• Certain TCP protocols are blocked in outbound traffic
• Not all DNS types were correctly processed
• Certain TCP protocols are blocked in outbound traffic
• The path between our system and your network does not appear to handle fragmented IPv6 traffic properly

 

Your system is configured to use 1 DNS resolver(s).

The resolver at 192.168.1.1 could not process the following tested types:

• Large (~3000B) TXT records fetched with EDNS0

Requests from this resolver come from 69.252.244.129. This resolver requires 75 ms to fetch a result from our server and 0 ms to return a result from its cache. It validates DNSSEC. It provides DNSSEC records upon request. It does not wildcard NXDOMAIN errors. The resolver reports a number of additional properties.Show them.

 

IPv6 Path MTU (?): Warning –

Your system can send and receive fragmented traffic with IPv6. The path between our system and your network does not appear to handle fragmented IPv6 traffic properly.

 

 

 

 

[Windows7ge]

Do you have any other active devices on the network? Sometimes things can go wrong with devices either a driver issue, application issue, or infected with viruses and any of these could spam your network with useless data packets. The only way to accurately verify this would be to go into the router and check each devices resource utilization...but most consumer routers don't support this. The other option is to simply shutdown EVERY end device (including phones, IP security cameras, computers, gaming consoles, TVs with Wi-Fi, and any other IOT device except the computer in question. If performance normalizes then something on your network is bogging down your connection. You could also run Wireshark (a network analyzing utility) and see what devices are spamming the network most if any).

 

Other possibilities like if this is purely a wireless issue could be what channel you're using. Most common channels for 2.4GHz are 1,6,11. You can view what wireless channels are most used in your area by using any wireless analysing software like Acrylic Wi-Fi Home. Then using the least used channel.

 

Do any of your network cables run parallel with power wires? The electromagnetic field put off by power wires can disrupt sensitive low voltage Ethernet communications. In the typical home this isn't a common issue but it's possible. If you do have this try moving the Ethernet cables 1' or more away from the power cables.

 

Those are the only ideas I have right now. I'm willing to bet none are the correct answer to the problem, ha.

[2ot]

25 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Do you have any other active devices on the network? Sometimes things can go wrong with devices either a driver issue, application issue, or infected with viruses and any of these could spam your network with useless data packets. The only way to accurately verify this would be to go into the router and check each devices resource utilization...but most consumer routers don't support this. The other option is to simply shutdown EVERY end device (including phones, IP security cameras, computers, gaming consoles, TVs with Wi-Fi, and any other IOT device except the computer in question. If performance normalizes then something on your network is bogging down your connection. You could also run Wireshark (a network analyzing utility) and see what devices are spamming the network most if any).

 

Other possibilities like if this is purely a wireless issue could be what channel you're using. Most common channels for 2.4GHz are 1,6,11. You can view what wireless channels are most used in your area by using any wireless analysing software like Acrylic Wi-Fi Home. Then using the least used channel.

 

Do any of your network cables run parallel with power wires? The electromagnetic field put off by power wires can disrupt sensitive low voltage Ethernet communications. In the typical home this isn't a common issue but it's possible. If you do have this try moving the Ethernet cables 1' or more away from the power cables.

 

Those are the only ideas I have right now. I'm willing to bet none are the correct answer to the problem, ha.

I can see the resource usage on my router and everything is as expected really. Nothing that looks like it's bogging down the network just some wireless usage, less than 4 gigs on the day and the downloads I did today. None the less i'll run some virus cleaners through everyone's devices and try a period where no devices are connected to make sure. I'll double check the cable thing, only time I can think this might happen is to my room where my main pc is located. I also don't use wireless to game. Could this be a problem with my router just not efficiently handling packets or something along the sort? Would new firmware like openwrt solve a problem like that?

[mynameisjuan]

6 hours ago, 2ot said:

Nothing that looks like it's bogging down the network just some wireless usage

Well if you have any wireless device connected that has low signal or has packetloss because of it will begin to tank the performance for every other device. Most the time these ping spikes are due to bandwidth usage that people dont realize is happening. PC updates, phone app updates,...etc.

[alexicon]

Hiya, there's a pretty simple test here. We want to step through the network to identify the issue. Run these three speed tests and you should have a better idea:

 

-From your network during normal conditions.

-From your network while all other devices are disconnected

-Directly connected to your modem (Laptop to modem, no router in between)

 

If you have a modem/router combo you should be able to configure it in pass-through or bridge mode to simulate this last test however please check the manual or check with your ISP how you can change this back from pass-through mode afterwards as this can sometimes be hard. Sometimes you need to factory reset it.

[Mikensan]

How do you know that it is packet loss? What symptoms exactly are you experiencing in game, high ping rate / missing frames / jumping around? What games are you experiencing the issue in? Counter Strike for example, can be hosted by any person and as such they could be the issue.

 

Unless your modem/router/firewall is actively monitoring packet loss, it is hard to say if that is really your issue. Personally I use pfSense which does monitor packet loss, and in the past when I saw really high packet loss (upwards of 30%) I called comcast and it ended up being as simple as replacing a coupler outside my apartment. However it took 3 visits for a knowledgeable tech to figure it out. At another company I worked at we used a T1 line (yes yes, I know) and everytime it rained we experienced total loss or severe packet loss, turned out the old ass lines underground used paper as an insulator and I guess enough was exposed to cause an issue.

 

So first verify that it is undoubtedly packet loss. Line congestion can be an issue but won't cause packet loss, so as another pointed out see if this issue on occurs during certain times of the day.

[Windows7ge]

On 3/2/2018 at 1:41 AM, 2ot said:

I can see the resource usage on my router and everything is as expected really. Nothing that looks like it's bogging down the network just some wireless usage, less than 4 gigs on the day and the downloads I did today. None the less i'll run some virus cleaners through everyone's devices and try a period where no devices are connected to make sure. I'll double check the cable thing, only time I can think this might happen is to my room where my main pc is located. I also don't use wireless to game. Could this be a problem with my router just not efficiently handling packets or something along the sort? Would new firmware like openwrt solve a problem like that?

Unless you're running like 200 devices on your network I don't think it'd be an inefficiency with the router. You said you already replaced it once. Shouldn't be the source of the problem.

[2ot]

23 hours ago, alexicon said:

Hiya, there's a pretty simple test here. We want to step through the network to identify the issue. Run these three speed tests and you should have a better idea:

 

-From your network during normal conditions.

-From your network while all other devices are disconnected

-Directly connected to your modem (Laptop to modem, no router in between)

 

If you have a modem/router combo you should be able to configure it in pass-through or bridge mode to simulate this last test however please check the manual or check with your ISP how you can change this back from pass-through mode afterwards as this can sometimes be hard. Sometimes you need to factory reset it.

Just tested with all the conditions, the network logs for League look the same and the test results are the same, the only difference is that the resolver issue from the Netalyzr test goes away without the router, understandably. I am starting to think that this modem swap might be a hoax because I swapped a shitty modem for a puma 6 modem which is notorious for latency, jitter, and packet loss.

[2ot]

1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

How do you know that it is packet loss? What symptoms exactly are you experiencing in game, high ping rate / missing frames / jumping around? What games are you experiencing the issue in? Counter Strike for example, can be hosted by any person and as such they could be the issue.

 

Unless your modem/router/firewall is actively monitoring packet loss, it is hard to say if that is really your issue. Personally I use pfSense which does monitor packet loss, and in the past when I saw really high packet loss (upwards of 30%) I called comcast and it ended up being as simple as replacing a coupler outside my apartment. However it took 3 visits for a knowledgeable tech to figure it out. At another company I worked at we used a T1 line (yes yes, I know) and everytime it rained we experienced total loss or severe packet loss, turned out the old ass lines underground used paper as an insulator and I guess enough was exposed to cause an issue.

 

So first verify that it is undoubtedly packet loss. Line congestion can be an issue but won't cause packet loss, so as another pointed out see if this issue on occurs during certain times of the day.

League of Legends has a very handy network log analyzer, in that I have random spikes in packet loss but nothing insanely high (4-5%). Enough to be noticeable in-game however. It also shows me that my jitter is at best 8ms and at worst 14ms. One of the latest tests I did, with just the modem, showed a small period where the jitter and packet loss were both at zero for maybe 1 minute. Could this be a puma 6 chipset issue and I just swapped a bad modem for bad?