Need help with my Network - disconnects, latency spikes, poor streaming, and so on

[Pachuca]

Hi,

 

We recently switched to a new ISP and I've been experiencing problems with them ever since. Their customer support was useless, so I'm turning to this community for some help. I'm not an IT person, but I know some of the basics. I can't figure out what the issue is and I can only give the symptoms. For starters when we try using our smart tv (it's connected by cat6 cable for internet) and try to watch something on Netflix often there's a message about Netflix being unable to load what I'm trying to access or in the case of YouTube it will say check your connection etc. When that happens there's nothing we can do other than try playing it again and usually after a few tries the internet starts working and we can watch a show. On to the wifi, so basically I get almost the same thing except I have no problem stream stuff with netflix on my desktop. The issue happens when I'm gaming. I play overwatch and I have it setup so I can see the latency during the game. Under normal conditions I'm getting about 60ms, but very often when the game starts to lag for me I see that it spikes upwards to 350ms or more. This happens sporadically and I have no idea how to figure out what's causing this issue. The ISP we switched to is actually using the same exact lines our previous ISP used, we had no issues with the other guys as far as service goes (but the price was too high). The only thing they switched was their own routers, it's still being connected on the same fiberoptic cables as before. Lastly when I'm downloading torrents I've noticed that I could be getting 25mb download speeds one minute then everything just crashes and even though windows is showing that I'm connected to the wifi there's just no download going. After a few seconds it will pick back up again and it does this often. It's always the same cycle in all use cases. It's working fine then we get these spikes for a few seconds that just ruins everything. I haven't timed how often this occurs, but it would seem about every 10-15 min so it's pretty noticeable and annoying. Has anyone had similar experience or knows what I'm talking about? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm running out of options. Thank you in advance everyone.

[Windows7ge]

Did you try using a different DNS server? Perhaps your new ISP's isn't the greatest. If what you're doing requires a lot of DNS queries then a slow or unreliable DNS server would show as a bunch of spikes in latency.

[Pachuca]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

Did you try using a different DNS server? Perhaps your new ISP's isn't the greatest. If what you're doing requires a lot of DNS queries then a slow or unreliable DNS server would show as a bunch of spikes in latency.

how do i do that and which server should I use?

[Windows7ge]

Just now, Pachuca said:

how do i do that and which server should I use?

Well firstly I'm not certain this is a fix. Just something we can try. First you have to identify what DNS servers your ISP is using. It'll list them in your router somewhere near or under DHCP.

[Pachuca]

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Well firstly I'm not certain this is a fix. Just something we can try. First you have to identify what DNS servers your ISP is using. It'll list them in your router somewhere near or under DHCP.

is this it?

[Mr Technician]

7 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

is this it?

Yes. Personally I would recommend Cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.01) or Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)

[Pachuca]

4 minutes ago, ThatFlashCat said:

Yes. Personally I would recommend Cloudflare's DNS (1.1.1.1 and 1.0.01) or Google's DNS (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)

Brilliant, I used google's DNS. I'll test tomorrow and update with results.

[Mr Technician]

1 minute ago, Pachuca said:

Brilliant, I used google's DNS. I'll test tomorrow and update with results.

Ok good. You can double check in a windows command prompt if you want (ipconfig /all) and look for the DNS Servers field:

[Pachuca]

24 minutes ago, ThatFlashCat said:

Ok good. You can double check in a windows command prompt if you want (ipconfig /all) and look for the DNS Servers field:

mine doesn't have that, is this ok?

 

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Pachuca said:

Hi,

 

We recently switched to a new ISP and I've been experiencing problems with them ever since. Their customer support was useless, so I'm turning to this community for some help. I'm not an IT person, but I know some of the basics. I can't figure out what the issue is and I can only give the symptoms. For starters when we try using our smart tv (it's connected by cat6 cable for internet) and try to watch something on Netflix often there's a message about Netflix being unable to load what I'm trying to access or in the case of YouTube it will say check your connection etc. When that happens there's nothing we can do other than try playing it again and usually after a few tries the internet starts working and we can watch a show. On to the wifi, so basically I get almost the same thing except I have no problem stream stuff with netflix on my desktop. The issue happens when I'm gaming. I play overwatch and I have it setup so I can see the latency during the game. Under normal conditions I'm getting about 60ms, but very often when the game starts to lag for me I see that it spikes upwards to 350ms or more. This happens sporadically and I have no idea how to figure out what's causing this issue. The ISP we switched to is actually using the same exact lines our previous ISP used, we had no issues with the other guys as far as service goes (but the price was too high). The only thing they switched was their own routers, it's still being connected on the same fiberoptic cables as before. Lastly when I'm downloading torrents I've noticed that I could be getting 25mb download speeds one minute then everything just crashes and even though windows is showing that I'm connected to the wifi there's just no download going. After a few seconds it will pick back up again and it does this often. It's always the same cycle in all use cases. It's working fine then we get these spikes for a few seconds that just ruins everything. I haven't timed how often this occurs, but it would seem about every 10-15 min so it's pretty noticeable and annoying. Has anyone had similar experience or knows what I'm talking about? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm running out of options. Thank you in advance everyone.

Firstly whos your provider? That sometimes narrows down troubleshooting.

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Pachuca said:

mine doesn't have that, is this ok?

 

I recognize those DNS IPs they're used by Spectrum(TWC). As for your CMD output it's suppose to show you the public addresses of the servers. It seems DHCP set your DNS to be your Default Gateway in both IPv4 & IPv6.

 

This feature makes no sense to me. Why have clients send DNS requests to the router IP then leave the router to attach the actual DNS IP and send it out? Just have the client attach the DNS IP and forward it to the router. Cut out the middleman.

 

After you input your choice of DNS servers you can restart your computer OR use the "ipconfig /release" & "ipconfig /renew" commands (in that order) it'll ditch the old configuration and query your router for a new IP & DNS servers. Then run "ipconfig /all" to verify that it lists the servers you chose.

[Pachuca]

47 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I recognize those DNS IPs they're used by Spectrum(TWC). As for your CMD output it's suppose to show you the public addresses of the servers. It seems DHCP set your DNS to be your Default Gateway in both IPv4 & IPv6.

 

This feature makes no sense to me. Why have clients send DNS requests to the router IP then leave the router to attach the actual DNS IP and send it out? Just have the client attach the DNS IP and forward it to the router. Cut out the middleman.

 

After you input your choice of DNS servers you can restart your computer OR use the "ipconfig /release" & "ipconfig /renew" commands (in that order) it'll ditch the old configuration and query your router for a new IP & DNS servers. Then run "ipconfig /all" to verify that it lists the servers you chose.

This is what I have in the router now.

 

 

and

 

 

but when I do ipconfig /all i get the same thing

 

 

also I rebooted the router and pc after making the changes, but it's still showing the same thing.

[Windows7ge]

Well, it should be fine. It just seems like an unnecessary step. See if this changes anything. If you still have the same lag spike issues we'll setup static DNS servers on your computer. This should force your router to stop acting as your DNS server when you make requests. Might lower latency a bit.

[Mr Technician]

9 hours ago, Pachuca said:

This is what I have in the router now.

 

 

and

 

 

but when I do ipconfig /all i get the same thing

 

 

also I rebooted the router and pc after making the changes, but it's still showing the same thing.

Your computer is sending requests to your router which then forwards them to the DNS server specified above. Is it possible your router has multiple places to specify DNS servers? Mine lets me set it under both my DHCP settings and the WAN settings. Off the top of my head, the DHCP one will give those addresses directly to your computer when it requests them and the WAN section will set the addresses the router uses when it receives a request DNS request.

 

11 hours ago, Pachuca said:

mine doesn't have that, is this ok?

 

Yep! Those are just my DNS servers so it's fine if yours are different. My setup is a bit confusing because I run my own DNS server on a raspberry pi.

[mynameisjuan]

12 hours ago, Pachuca said:

Hi,

 

We recently switched to a new ISP and I've been experiencing problems with them ever since. Their customer support was useless, so I'm turning to this community for some help. I'm not an IT person, but I know some of the basics. I can't figure out what the issue is and I can only give the symptoms. For starters when we try using our smart tv (it's connected by cat6 cable for internet) and try to watch something on Netflix often there's a message about Netflix being unable to load what I'm trying to access or in the case of YouTube it will say check your connection etc. When that happens there's nothing we can do other than try playing it again and usually after a few tries the internet starts working and we can watch a show. On to the wifi, so basically I get almost the same thing except I have no problem stream stuff with netflix on my desktop. The issue happens when I'm gaming. I play overwatch and I have it setup so I can see the latency during the game. Under normal conditions I'm getting about 60ms, but very often when the game starts to lag for me I see that it spikes upwards to 350ms or more. This happens sporadically and I have no idea how to figure out what's causing this issue. The ISP we switched to is actually using the same exact lines our previous ISP used, we had no issues with the other guys as far as service goes (but the price was too high). The only thing they switched was their own routers, it's still being connected on the same fiberoptic cables as before. Lastly when I'm downloading torrents I've noticed that I could be getting 25mb download speeds one minute then everything just crashes and even though windows is showing that I'm connected to the wifi there's just no download going. After a few seconds it will pick back up again and it does this often. It's always the same cycle in all use cases. It's working fine then we get these spikes for a few seconds that just ruins everything. I haven't timed how often this occurs, but it would seem about every 10-15 min so it's pretty noticeable and annoying. Has anyone had similar experience or knows what I'm talking about? Any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm running out of options. Thank you in advance everyone.

First is it sounds like there might be an issue with the cable for your TV or literally just a loose connection. 

 

Second is what type of service is it? You mentioned fiber but I want to make sure because Fiber cables ARE NOT shared between ISPs. It cannot be the same cable. Period. The experience you are explaining sounds like DSL.

 

Third is the spikes you are getting are due to wireless or if DSL just saturation and EC of the line. 

 

More info will help solve this. Changing your DNS server as in the above comments will not help at all.

[Pachuca]

4 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Well, it should be fine. It just seems like an unnecessary step. See if this changes anything. If you still have the same lag spike issues we'll setup static DNS servers on your computer. This should force your router to stop acting as your DNS server when you make requests. Might lower latency a bit.

I'm still getting a little bit of lag, but it definitely helped a lot because when I do get lag I don't even have time to notice it lol. I might have to do a static IP on it because I'm also having problems with the printer. For some reason we have to reboot the printer every time we want to print from it. I read online that other people had a similar issue with the Brother DCW-L2540 and they changed it to a static IP in printer properties. I checked mine and it was already setup as static IP, but for some reason when we don't use the printer for a few days and try printing from it then it won't work. Is there any advantage to having a static IP? Would it impact my vpn in anyway?

[Pachuca]

4 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

First is it sounds like there might be an issue with the cable for your TV or literally just a loose connection. 

 

Second is what type of service is it? You mentioned fiber but I want to make sure because Fiber cables ARE NOT shared between ISPs. It cannot be the same cable. Period. The experience you are explaining sounds like DSL.

 

Third is the spikes you are getting are due to wireless or if DSL just saturation and EC of the line. 

 

More info will help solve this. Changing your DNS server as in the above comments will not help at all.

as mentioned in previous post the ISP is Spectrum. We don't have DSL it's fiber going into a coaxial modem. The issue is happening on both WiFi and Ethernet cable. Changing the DNS did help a lot, but I'm still getting some minor lag instead of the major lag/disconnects I had earlier. Not sure what else to do at this point other than try static IP as @Windows7ge suggested

[mynameisjuan]

11 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

checked mine and it was already setup as static IP, but for some reason when we don't use the printer for a few days and try printing from it then it won't work.

If its setup as a static make sure its high enough in the pool to not take another devices IP. It sounds like an IP conflict. 

 

11 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

Is there any advantage to having a static IP?

There is for many purposes including printers. Just make sure its higher in the pool. I am talking about the LAN side by the way.

11 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

Would it impact my vpn in anyway?

Not at all. Static IP of the printer and VPN are not related at all. 

[mynameisjuan]

35 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

it's fiber going into a coaxial modem

Those are two different technologies. If its a coax modem you have cable, not fiber. 

 

35 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

The issue is happening on both WiFi and Ethernet cable. Changing the DNS did help a lot, but I'm still getting some minor lag instead of the major lag/disconnects I had earlier. Not sure what else to do at this point other than try static IP as @Windows7ge suggested

First is a static will not work unless you call Spectrum and pay for one ( or even setting a static on your PC). I am sorry but that is a stupid answer to this problem. 

 

Second is if this is happening over wired and its cable so its similar technology to the way DSL works. Now I am a DSL and Fiber engineer but I know a little about cable and its probably a bad line. 

 

Now if you could login to your modem and give me some of the statistics I could tell you.

[Donut417]

While Im not an ISP employee, Im a Comcast sub and their tech support is useless. So I learned a bit on how things work. Like @mynameisjuan stated above we need stats. Specifically from the signals page and Logs page from the Modem. You generally can get access by going to 192.168.100.1. Some ISP's dont allow access but some do. If the modem is running out of spec it could cause speed issues and disconnections. If you have poor signals then we can begin troubleshooting and seeing if the line is bad on the inside of the house (Your responsibility) or if its bad on the outside of the house (Generally the ISP's responsibility). As it could be a bad line or connector at your house. It could be a bad line on the ISP's end or it could be cause by bad wiring at one of your neighbors house. 

 

For the record Cable Co's like Spectrum are not fiber providers, or they do offer fiber for an exorbitant amount of money. They provide Fiber to the node, fiber does not extend to you house. The node at least on the Comcast network supports 100-300 homes generally. Each node is fed by Fiber, but how much bandwidth allocated differs location to location. Which in could be an issue, if your on an over loaded node. 

[Pachuca]

3 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Those are two different technologies. If its a coax modem you have cable, not fiber. 

 

First is a static will not work unless you call Spectrum and pay for one ( or even setting a static on your PC). I am sorry but that is a stupid answer to this problem. 

 

Second is if this is happening over wired and its cable so its similar technology to the way DSL works. Now I am a DSL and Fiber engineer but I know a little about cable and its probably a bad line. 

 

Now if you could login to your modem and give me some of the statistics I could tell you.

no, i mean it's fiber line outside and they run it into a box on the side of the house from there they run a copper cable into a coax modem. Around here I think all the ISPs do it like that. We had the same setup with verizon fios. Idk about paying for static ip, i guess it depends how much it costs. I'll have to get back to that option, but I appreciate the input. 

 

edit:

what statistics do you need me to find?

[Pachuca]

54 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

While Im not an ISP employee, Im a Comcast sub and their tech support is useless. So I learned a bit on how things work. Like @mynameisjuan stated above we need stats. Specifically from the signals page and Logs page from the Modem. You generally can get access by going to 192.168.100.1. Some ISP's dont allow access but some do. If the modem is running out of spec it could cause speed issues and disconnections. If you have poor signals then we can begin troubleshooting and seeing if the line is bad on the inside of the house (Your responsibility) or if its bad on the outside of the house (Generally the ISP's responsibility). As it could be a bad line or connector at your house. It could be a bad line on the ISP's end or it could be cause by bad wiring at one of your neighbors house. 

 

For the record Cable Co's like Spectrum are not fiber providers, or they do offer fiber for an exorbitant amount of money. They provide Fiber to the node, fiber does not extend to you house. The node at least on the Comcast network supports 100-300 homes generally. Each node is fed by Fiber, but how much bandwidth allocated differs location to location. Which in could be an issue, if your on an over loaded node. 

The tech explained to us that the outside line was fiber and they connect that to a box on the side of the home which then routs a coax cable into the modem/router. What do you need me to look up? I appreciate you guys helping me, thank you.

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Pachuca said:

The tech explained to us that the outside line was fiber and they connect that to a box on the side of the home which then routs a coax cable into the modem/router. What do you need me to look up? I appreciate you guys helping me, thank you.

A normal Cable modem has a spec it has to run at. https://www.dslreports.com/faq/5862 here is the spec. If it runs outside or close to outside it can cause disconnections and slow speeds. There is a diagnostic page, much like the firmware page on a router where you should be able to view all of this. Firstly dont trust techs most of them are fucking retarded contractors who dont give a fuck. If it is fiber it must be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_frequency_over_glass. If this is the case however, then most likely any line issue is inside your home and its your job to track it down. 

 

Just wondering how much do you pay and what speed tier you on? Comcast my ISP does offer Fiber if your with in a 1/3 of a mile of a Fiber fed node. They want $1000 to install and $299 a month for 2Gbps service. Which is why I doubt what you have is fiber. 

[mynameisjuan]

35 minutes ago, Pachuca said:

no, i mean it's fiber line outside and they run it into a box on the side of the house from there they run a copper cable into a coax modem. Around here I think all the ISPs do it like that. We had the same setup with verizon fios. Idk about paying for static ip, i guess it depends how much it costs. I'll have to get back to that option, but I appreciate the input. 

 

edit:

what statistics do you need me to find?

If there is a fiber that runs to the house then to a box, that box is called an ONT or ONU, its like a modem but for fiber. That would then got to an ethernet cable to your router. Like @Donut417 said, most large cable providers do have fiber but its usually for businesses or people with money to blow.  What I think is the case though it the coax runs along the fiber drop that fios had before, so fiber might be there but they just wrapped them together. Quite common actually especially when removing other ISPs dropped is frowned upon.

 

Ether way it sounds like you have cable. Cable and DSL suck...they just do. You were used to your fiber latency and now you feel the strain of cable and the interference spikes that cause this latency due to error corrections. 

 

Now if you login to your modem (some will let you) you can see a statistics page which will have some info, look for a page that has db values, that will let you know you are on the right page. Screen shot what you can (avoid public IP if its on the same page) and post it and we can take a look!

[Windows7ge]

For your printer a static IP would be recommended. Personally of no other devices have been setup with static IPs I'd set the printers IP to 192.168.1.254 and remove .254 from the DHCP pool. What might be happening is if it was given a static address that's very low then it's address may have been handed out to another device causing duplicate addresses. This can lead to all sorts of network issues like the printer disappearing from the network.