Packet Loss / Latency every evening in same window

[DaveCS01]

Hi all,

Hoping someone here might have some ideas - I've put this in gaming support as it's gaming that I notice the impact, but I'm getting consistent packet loss / latency warnings on all games between the 20:30-22:30 window every evening for the past 10-12 months. I would've logged a ticket before but couldn't find any way to do so via the website?

Running Gig1 via a SH4, the computer is hardwired directly to the SH4. Different cables have been tested, different ethernet ports have been tested on both the SH4 and different motherboards in the PC. We've also tried a completely different PC and got the same result.

There is no "drop" as such, just consistent loss. If you were using your phone or watching Netflix etc you wouldn't notice anything, but on gaming it's obviously quite a significant issue. 

I've had the thinkbroadband monitor running for a while now if any data from that would be useful, but you can see from tonight's example exactly where the issues begin from the increase in average and maximum latency shortly after 9pm.

I've seen a few people posting downstream / upstream / network logs so I've copied these in the post below (hit the character limit) - taken just now from the hub. Hopefully someone can spot something obvious I might be able to try here. For info - we have factory reset the router a couple of times. We had the same issue on the SH3 we had previously as well, so doesn't appear to be a router specific thing?

Any ideas at all appreciated - thanks in advance!

[DaveCS01]

3.0 Downstream channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

20	290750000	6.8	40.4	QAM256	20
18	274750000	7.3	40.4	QAM256	18
19	282750000	7	40.4	QAM256	19
21	298750000	7.1	40.4	QAM256	21
22	306750000	7.3	40.9	QAM256	22
23	314750000	7.5	40.4	QAM256	23
24	322750000	6.5	40.4	QAM256	24
25	330750000	7.1	40.4	QAM256	25
26	338750000	7.1	40.4	QAM256	26
27	346750000	7.5	40.4	QAM256	27
28	354750000	7.2	40.4	QAM256	28
29	362750000	6.9	40.4	QAM256	29
30	370750000	6.8	40.4	QAM256	30
31	378750000	5.9	38.6	QAM256	31
1	138750000	8.5	40.9	QAM256	1
2	146750000	8.6	40.9	QAM256	2
3	154750000	8.7	40.9	QAM256	3
4	162750000	8.4	40.4	QAM256	4
5	170750000	7.9	40.4	QAM256	5
6	178750000	7.4	40.4	QAM256	6
7	186750000	7.1	40.9	QAM256	7
8	194750000	7.2	40.4	QAM256	8
9	202750000	7.3	40.9	QAM256	9
10	210750000	7.4	40.4	QAM256	10
11	218750000	7.5	40.4	QAM256	11
12	226750000	7.5	40.9	QAM256	12
13	234750000	7.3	40.4	QAM256	13
14	242750000	7	40.9	QAM256	14
15	250750000	6.8	40.4	QAM256	15
16	258750000	7.1	40.4	QAM256	16
17	266750000	7	40.4	QAM256	17

3.0 Downstream channels

Channel Lock Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

20	Locked	40.366287	0	0
18	Locked	40.366287	1	0
19	Locked	40.366287	0	0
21	Locked	40.366287	0	0
22	Locked	40.946209	0	0
23	Locked	40.366287	0	0
24	Locked	40.366287	0	0
25	Locked	40.366287	1	0
26	Locked	40.366287	1	0
27	Locked	40.366287	0	0
28	Locked	40.366287	1	0
29	Locked	40.366287	0	0
30	Locked	40.366287	1	0
31	Locked	38.605377	2	0
1	Locked	40.946209	0	0
2	Locked	40.946209	0	0
3	Locked	40.946209	0	0
4	Locked	40.366287	0	0
5	Locked	40.366287	0	0
6	Locked	40.366287	0	0
7	Locked	40.946209	0	0
8	Locked	40.366287	0	0
9	Locked	40.946209	0	0
10	Locked	40.366287	0	0
11	Locked	40.366287	0	0
12	Locked	40.946209	0	0
13	Locked	40.366287	0	0
14	Locked	40.946209	0	0
15	Locked	40.366287	1	0
16	Locked	40.366287	0	0
17	Locked	40.366287	1	0

3.1 Downstream channels

Channel Channel Width (MHz) FFT Type Number of Active Subcarriers Modulation (Active Profile) First Active Subcarrier (Hz)

159

96

4K

1880

QAM4096

759

3.1 Downstream channels

Channel ID Lock Status RxMER Data (dB) PLC Power (dBmV) Correcteds (Active Profile) Uncorrectables (Active Profile)

159

Locked

40

4.8

962443041

36961

[DaveCS01]

3.0 Upstream channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	60300000	47	5120 KSym/sec	64QAM	1
2	39400000	47.8	5120 KSym/sec	64QAM	4
3	46200000	47.3	5120 KSym/sec	64QAM	3
4	53700000	47.8	5120 KSym/sec	64QAM	2

3.0 Upstream channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	US_TYPE_STDMA	0	0	35	0
2	US_TYPE_STDMA	0	0	64	19
3	US_TYPE_STDMA	0	0	61	19
4	US_TYPE_STDMA	0	0	38	0

[Adduxi]

Far too many T3 and T4 errors on the Upstream and your BQM is indicative of the area being oversubscribed.  Not much you can do if that is the case.  

A VM Mod should pick this up in a day or two and check your circuit from their end.

[DaveCS01]

Ah that's what it means - thank you that does make sense. Appreciate the response. Hopefully one of the mods is able to check the circuit anyway as you say

[Natalie_L]

Hi DaveCS01, 

Thank you for reaching out to us here on the Community. 

I am very sorry to hear you have been experiencing issues with your broadband service when gaming.

We appreciate you providing the data from the Hub and BQM and we would like to take a look at things from our side. 

To do this, I will just need to confirm a few details from our side. I will pop you over a private message now.

Thank you, 

[Natalie_L]

Thank you providing the details via private message DaveCS01.

I have ran a check from our side and can confirm there are no area issues and the Hub appears to be running within specification. 

We have detected that the Hub has been powered on for a long period of time so we would recommend rebooting the equipment.

Once this is done, can you please let us know if you see any improvements? 

Thank you, 

[DaveCS01]

Hi Natalie,

Unfortunately I hadn't had time to complete the reboot over the past few days - however as mentioned before, we have had multiple routers (SuperHub 3 and now SuperHub 4) over the last few years as we left for a while before returning to Virgin and these issues have been consistent. Just lately they have become so much worse that I needed to reach out for support.

Tonight the performance hit a new low, it became impossible to do anything online to the point where I was unable to use Microsoft Teams for an audio call due to the latency. I rebooted the router approx 30 minutes ago, and performance remains extremely poor. As you can see from today's BQM, the spikes in average and maximum latency are significant - particularly around the 8pm window. You can see at approx 21:30 when I rebooted the router (dip in the minimum latency and lost packet peak), and immediate high spikes on both average and maxium latency as soon as the connection re-established.

Tonight the connection is completely unusable for anything that requires a consistent stream of network activity. I appreciate you're not seeing any issues in the area at the moment but the quality of the service is just not where it needs to be right now. I'd appreciate any support you may be able to offer as I'm struggling to find a way forward on my end at the moment.

[Adduxi]

Your BQM is still showing classic over utilisation in the area, and there is no quick fix.   VM do have a threshold for this, but as it costs a substantial amount of money to install more equipment, I would imagine it's pretty high.

If you cannot can get an Openreach based ISP, or another Altnet, I'm afraid your options are limited.

[John_GS]

Hi @DaveCS01

Thanks for coming back to us. I can confirm there is no congestion issues in your area 🙂 everything looks fine our side. The latency did spike on Wednesday from the tests ran but is back to normal now 🙂

Best,