Intermittent Packet Loss

[#1]

I feel like I'm going crazy, so if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it. I had FTTP900 installed in September and since it's been installed I've seen intermittent packet loss and latency spikes.

It isn't every day, and can go days without it but every so often I'll have a day or two where packet loss is continuous throughout the day.

I setup a BQM and f8lue to test my suspicions and I see packet loss almost daily. I sometimes see increased latency when the packet loss happens too. Now the days where there's "a little bit of packet loss" aren't the end of the world (although I wouldn't really expect to see packet loss at all) but the days where it's happening throughout the day are much more annoying

I raised a support ticket after going through basic trouble shooting steps like resetting the plusnet hub, using a different router, disconnecting devices from the network, changing out my switch, switching out ethernet cables etc but the only advice I've had so far is move the router as they've tested the line and can't see an issue and that speeds seem fine (I did try and explain the speeds aren't the issue).

The packet loss means that on days when I'm working from home, online meetings are difficult and if I want to play online games with my friends games are often unplayable. Nearly all of my devices (eg my Xbox and computer, and laptop when I WFH) are connected through ethernet so it isn't a wifi issue

I've attached some screenshots of recent days on BQM, but if anyone can point me in the right direction to try and get this sorted I'd really appreciate it.

[#2]

What is your network doing when you observe the packet loss?

These monitors are throwing pings at the router, which is it is busy (you are gaming / cloud storage upload & download / streaming TV etc) if YOUR router is very busy the pings WILL be treated as low priority traffic and discarded.

[#3]

 Most of the days, I'm at work so basically nothing. I WFH Monday and Friday, during the day the house is empty and nothing is running.

Also Xbox has a packet loss indicator when gaming, and it aligns with what I see. The other night it was showing up to 20% packet loss

[#4]

Hey cam

I suspect this is what I am also experiencing.  I too have done all the trouble shooting and had lots of conversations with plusnet but ultimately get told they see no problem in the line.  What have they said in response to your packet loss evidence?

Would you be able to walk me through what to do to gather the same for myself?

Currently is driving me crazy as weoften can't have video calls etc that go unbroken which makes it hard to work

[#5]

Any updates regarding this? Is it fixed? Still ongoing?

[#6]

Still ongoing .no change.

Multiple calls to support and nonsense where they said they'd monitor the line over time but then didn't. 

Finally just got a engineer sent out who said they were from talk talk or ee (i forget) .

First they told me it was a wifi problem even though my wifi is turned off 🙃 then they told me it's impossible to plug our own router directly into the ont box (it isn't - we use orbi router in this way and btw still get the issues w network that we get when using their router instead)

Next he told me plusnet is rubbish customer service and technology and we should switch  to his network.  I pointed out that his network uses the exact same infrastructure as plusnet and I'm not using the router anyway most of the time these days so ta new one is no incentive. 😬 

He then wrapped up by telling me he will get plusnet to send me a new router 🙄 and I have to use that for at least 48 hours before I can call back again🙃 and they will then send out an actual openreach engineer who can reinstall the ont box which he thinks may be behind the issue but he's not allowed to touch as he isn't openreach 🤔

[#7]

@Mejisan Plusnet send out (or ask for) two types of 'engineer' - one who is only allowed to examine/inspect any equipment in front of the master socket faceplate - i.e. any of your own connections/equipment in front of the test socket, and is not allowed to touch anything behind the test socket, or a qualified Openreach engineer, who can and should examine the Openreach infrastructure.

It sounds like you got the first category - usually from a firm called 'Qube' - and with all due respect to them, they are usually as much use as a chocolate teapot.

[#8]

@Mejisan 

Do you have a current Broadband Quality Monitor to show the distribution of the packet loss?

Plusnet can deliver a very low loss and low latency network. 

Your router does, however, have to be capable of responding to the BQM ping at all times.

[#9]

Hi Mark

I'm afraid  I don't - how do I set this up?

We have the problem with intermittent complete drop outs whatever router we use - ours or plusnets

[#10]

I’m not having problems anymore. Initially I was using Eero directly into the ONT through PPPoE but a lot of people mentioned about it not having enough CPU to process PPPoE effectively.

I swapped back to the Plusnet Hub and that made very little difference, so I ended up going full DIY and putting OpenWRT on a Raspberry Pi and using the Eero in bridge mode.

Since using the raspberry pi as a router, I have had exactly 0 issues.

So I’m not sure if it was that, or potentially someone noticing the forum thread and doing something in the background.

[#11]

@Mejisan 

It sounds like starting your own therad would be a good idea.

As for setting up a monitor

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality

The key point is that you need to set the Plusnet Hub (or other router) to respond to a ping. 

On the Hub 2 I believe this can be done via the Hub Manager (http://192.168.1.254), navigate to Advanced > Firewall > Configuration, and then enable the "allow incoming pings" toggle,

[#12]

@camchalmers 

It does sound like it was primarily a router throughput issue.

We do seem to have reached a point where the typical domestic router is a limiting factor on broadband connections. It was much less of a constraint with VDSL.

[#13]

This sounds interesting could you give the set up that worked in layman's terms for me?

Some of this stuff is new to me

[#14]

@camchalmers