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I have a cable connection to my router, so it's directly connected. It's a DSL connection, I'm using PPPoE as my protocol. Almost every day there's at least a few minutes of unstable internet, extreme jitters, packet loss, everything I do nearly disconnects or disconnects completely. There's really no telling how long the internet is unstable for - it usually ranges from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes or a complete loss which requires a reboot to properly fix.

Every time I ask for help from my internet provider, their technical team checks to see if there are any issues on their end and there are none, and they sent technicians in the past and nothing really came out of it. I have checked my computer for any malicious software taking up internet and there wasn't anything found. Through the chats, they asked me to get data on what my issues are since they 'don't see any', I'm trying to gather up some evidence, tools, that hopefully monitor and log information that I can present them.

netbox.home should be my router connected through cable. Am I supposed to expect 0% loss and >1ms every time? This is an updated screenshot of WinMTR running in Windows 10, and it seems to only get worse!

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All that aside, here are my questions:

  1. Given the fact I have a direct connection, should pinging my browser always have a <1ms or =1ms response time? Every now and then I get 3ms, 4ms, 7ms, etc out of nowhere. Usually momentarily - does this point towards a problem?

  2. Are there any tools to diagnose issues and monitor my network? I want to perhaps keep open these tools @ night that will keep track of jitter, packet loss, latency spikes, disconnections and so on.

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  • Are all your connections affected when it happens? Does the ping time to the router change at that time? Did you try running traceroute (tracert in Windows) or mtr (improved traceroute)? Are your router lights flashing a lot when it happens?
    – Julie Pelletier
    May 22, 2016 at 4:52
  • Hey Julie. I didn't try anything yet not mentioned yet because I'm not too tech savvy. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to see with my router. I'm not sure all my connections respond the same way but I will test it out next time I have issues. What am I to do from here?
    – Mark Fanter
    May 22, 2016 at 4:57
  • Download mtr (WinMTR for Windows) and run it on a site that usually responds well (like google.com). Then check to see where the issue appears in its report, and take a look at the router lights which give a good impression whether it has a lot of activity or not.
    – Julie Pelletier
    May 22, 2016 at 5:05
  • i.imgur.com/pG0L7Zw.png I don't quite understand what I'm reading here, but this is generally what it looks like.
    – Mark Fanter
    May 22, 2016 at 5:13
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    The only reasonable tool to check your dsl line is a field strength meter. Such should be part of the dsl slammer at central which your ISP can operate from their office. They can monitor your line for a week and walk though the data to see if the field strength drops under minimum for a connection to be stable. This is what's called link budget and your relevant question to your ISP is this: How many dB (deebee) is my line above what is needed for a stable connection. Anything less than 10 dB demand instability, specially if you sit on a 200 pair cable with more than 50 other dsl custummers.
    – Frank Sixteen
    May 22, 2016 at 5:38

1 Answer 1

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Demand of your ISP to run a 24 hour test of field strength on your DSL line. This should consist of a sampling for each second and the data should be in dB. Then ask them to send the result by email. Then both parties have hard evidence for how good the line is and further error searching can begin if the data is too poor for some time during the day. Always a good thing to exclude the radio of being the weakest point before wasting time checking all sort of other irrelevant things. This measurement should have been done at the time of installation and with a responsible ISP such tests are running around the clock. If an ISP got twenty thousand customer, one computer can harvest data from all the lines, 24/7, including analyzing the data and send alarms if there is trouble with some lines. Only half of all ISPs are run by responsible people and you can teach the rest to get there. It is not you as a customer who should know the status of your dsl line. Go easy on them and you may be the person to upgrade their way of doing things. If they are of the old school, they may think the correct way of running a net is to wait for complaints. The modern way is to be proactive. Only such companies will survive.

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  • My ISP said they don't have such a thing as a test for 24 hours of the field strength, they also said there isn't any test they do for 24 hours. This was repeated even when I talked to a senior manager. They tested for packet loss on their side and found none, and also pinged from my router to my computer and had no packet loss, but the response time was a little low. They're basically sending a technician to replace the router as this problem occurs with multiple PCs and until then there's nothing that could be done. They also said that 7dB is needed for a stable connection, not 10.
    – Mark Fanter
    May 22, 2016 at 9:23
  • Then you know your ISP doesn't consist of responsible people. A company unable to run 24 hours tests can really not know what they are doing. They will never be able to detect errors that come and goes. Anyways, if this is the only way to get online you should be as polite as possible to receive the best service they are able to give. If you hear about fiber being rolled out in your neighborhood you should go for it without hesitation. It brings you from 1% downtime to 0.001%. The reason why they say 7 dB link margin is enough is because they have too many customers in the same tele-cable.
    – Frank Sixteen
    May 22, 2016 at 14:54
  • Well, that's a shame because they're one of the biggest companies around here. Either way, I disconnected my internet and connected through wifi with TP LINK and I'm still experiencing 8-10% packet loss pinging my router. Anything I should demand the technician to do once he replaces the router?
    – Mark Fanter
    May 22, 2016 at 16:08
  • The information you have given about the company so far suggest that their technicians can't do anything else but unwrapping a packet like a house wife and plug the box inside into the wall stick. Make sure to ping the box (default gateway) and google's dns server 8.8.8.8 while he's there so he can see for himself if there is packet loss.
    – Frank Sixteen
    May 22, 2016 at 16:14
  • This reminds me that the manager told me pinging google doesn't really count because they block certain packets. I tried explaining to him that the problem seems to be between my computer and the router, before it gets to google. His response was that my packet loss 'analysis' cannot be used because it's skewd from the start, then he gave me a different source to ping and the result was exactly the same. Should I be leaving this company? I'm not sure about it anymore - but I want to thank everyone that commented here and helped me with your own time.
    – Mark Fanter
    May 22, 2016 at 16:37

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