Random high latency and packet loss

[avi68]

Hi all,

I seem to be getting random high latency and packet loss. This initially happened last year just as lockdown started and then fixed itself but now Im experiencing the same issues again. Its been happening randomly for a few days but since yesterday it seems to have become worse. Now its happening multiple times a day. 

The whole network slows down, wired or wireless. I start running a ping to 8.8.8.8 (from my pc connected via ethernet) and the times go up to around 500-700ms for around a minute and then go back to normal. I called when it happened last year and I was told this would happen due to the lockdown. When I called yesterday to report the same issue, I was told everything from my hub looks fine but there is clearly an issue somewhere.

I use the hub 3 in modem mode and always have. Last year I was using an asus rt-ac86u and this year I'm using a pfsense router. 

I have set up a BQM graph: 

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/e3334e68ef2cc3f7fdc2b57a6e36bc18a390408a-18-06-2021

 The times where packet loss is shown on the graph relates to the error messages in pfsense:

Jun 18 12:06:46	dpinger	23410	WAN_DHCP 77.: Alarm latency 500727us stddev 132011us loss 15%
Jun 18 12:07:01	dpinger	23410	WAN_DHCP 77.: Clear latency 412299us stddev 223033us loss 11%

Jun 18 11:41:03	dpinger	23410	WAN_DHCP 77.: Alarm latency 505409us stddev 134426us loss 10%
Jun 18 11:41:19	dpinger	23410	WAN_DHCP 77.: Clear latency 410074us stddev 231002us loss 7%

[avi68]

Yeah you’re right. 

it seems to have settled today:

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/6ff27f23925c3eb577e60a7391261710fb1ed54d

[jbrennand]

That looks a lot better - better than mine in fact 🙂

[avi68]

Hahaha, I just hope it stays like that. 

And I haven’t changed anything my end. I do think it’s a virgin media issue somewhere but not local to my equipment/cables in the house. 

[Steven_L]

Hey @avi68,

Thanks for taking the time to post your issue on our forum pages.

I'm sorry to hear of the connection issues that you're having at the moment, I have been able to locate your account from your community profile and I can see that there is an SNR issue with your connection that needs a technician to visit to investigate further.

We will need to confirm a few details before we can get the appointment arranged, I will send a private message over now to ask for those details, please look out for this.

Regards,

Steven_L

[avi68]

Hi Steven,

Thank you for your reply. I have replied to your private message with the details you require.

I just wanted to let you know that the connection does seem to have improved over the last few days but Ive noticed that the upstream channels moved from 64qam to 32qam over the weekend and they've just moved back to 64qam (if that helps/means anything).

Thanks

[lotharmat]

Probable instability due to the SNR problem!

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @avi68

I have arranged for the appointment and you can find all the information that you need about your appointment on your online account and clicking My Account and Track Your Order.

Regards,

Steven_L

[avi68]

Thank you Steven

[S7771]

I see you are having similar issues  to me and are using a PFSENSE. Do your packet drops show up in the monitoring section of the PFSENSE web interface? I am also curious how you got VM to look further into this without you taking your SuperHub out of modem mode.
I’ve taken mine out of modem mode today and all I’ve seen so far is as increase in latency, that’s all. Still getting packet loss like in your case.

[avi68]

Hi,

I’ve just read through your post. It looks like we’re having similar issues but your bqm graph looks a lot worse, your getting more post rs errors and getting loads of errors in your logs, something which I don’t have. 

So I see the packet drops in pfsense by going to system log -> gateways. When my whole network slows down and my latency increases that’s when I check the log and it reports packet loss. So yes every time I have issues pfsense reports it in the log. 

 I called up last week (when I started to experience the fault) VM couldn’t see any issues on my line and they suggested that I move the hub into router mode. I declined as I knew there wasn’t an issue with my equipment as everything worked fine previously. I got fed up with calling in and getting the same suggestions, so I decided to create a post on here. 

I only recently changed over to pfsense, previously I’ve been using an asus router and had the exact same issues last year, but at that time when I called in i was told it is due to the lockdown (which is understandable) and the connection corrected itself. Now that this issue has appeared again, I knew it wasn’t my equipment as nothing has changed on my side.