high latency and packet loss

[LukmanChowdhury]

Hi, 

I am seeing high latency and packet loss, both wired and wireless connections. Frequently wireless devices drop their connection and then fail to reconnect (something about an IP config error). 

I was a part of the virgin pod trials but i have turned the power off on my pod (as it was causing ssid issues and router updates / hangs)

the log on my router presently has frequent errors like the ones below:

13/06/2021 22:29:37 Warning! RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

13/06/2021 21:03:39 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

a ping test from the router settings screen to google.com returned:

PING google.com (142.250.187.206): 64 data bytes
72 bytes from 142.250.187.206: seq=0 ttl=117 time=20.000 ms
72 bytes from 142.250.187.206: seq=1 ttl=117 time=10.000 ms
72 bytes from 142.250.187.206: seq=2 ttl=117 time=6010.000 ms
72 bytes from 142.250.187.206: seq=3 ttl=117 time=13560.000 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 60% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 10.000/4900.000/13560.000 ms

Virgin's automatic checks don't find ay issues and though my area seems to frequently have issues (status page says there's issues in my area about an hour after issues occur) there are presently no errors in my postcode area. 

The ping results are from the router - i've been having issues with both wired and wireless connections (dropped / slow connections) so am leaning towards this being a virgin side / router side issue as opposed to an issue with my devices - speed tests frequently hang around the 1mbps mark though most of the time they hover at 100mbps (which is what I pay for) and often wifi hovers at 50mbps, not ideal but i understand wifi isn't always the best of connections. 

I do have a network switch in the mix for some of my connections. 

I called Virgin's technical support up and they suggested that as the router only has 4 ethernet ports any usage involving a switch is expected to have packet losses 

now i don't know much about network setups but has any got any suggestions? I do have a high number of devices (not all connected simultaneously but i do have smart devices so there's around 20 devices that would be pinging the router - and i do have two of the ethernet ports constantly active (one to a network switch and another to a powerline adapter)

would putting the router into modem mode and using a third party router make any difference in theory? if so, does anyone have suggestions for a router (ideally one that takes a SIM card as a backup) or would the hub's limitation still be an underlying issue?

Thank you 

lukman 

[LukmanChowdhury]

just to add, with the ping test being on the router itself, i'd have thought that would rule out any issues with the ethernet ports (though not necessarily with total device numbers). 

[jbrennand]

Can we see the full picture - do this...
____________________________

Log in and copy/paste as “Formatted Text” (not images) 3 FULL sets of data onto here – 2 pages from the Downstream, 2 from the Upstream, & the Network Logs page. Don't worry too much about the formatting it can be easily read & DON’T include personal data or MAC addresses - blank them out - if you copy/paste the data, the board software will do this for you (you may need to click the "submit" button again.

Also, in the meantime... If you haven’t already, set up a free and secure “Broadband Quality Monitor” to continually monitor the state of your connection and record any true network dropouts , latency issues, packet drops, etc - it will thus allow you to differentiate between those and simple wifi dropouts. It does it 24/7/365 and it keeps a visual record of any/all of your network disconnections, useful data to have to match to the Network logs (in your Hub settings) and also in discussions with VM - note it will take a few hours to start seeing a sensible picture - post up the “link” to the “share live graph” (as per instructions on the TB website) when it starts to develop.

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

[LukmanChowdhury]

Thank you. Will do later this evening. 

I've set up the broadband monitor, on that the packet loss looked very rare but there were frequent spikes in latency - will include that later too. 

Thanks for the prompt response.  

[LukmanChowdhury]

Hi @jbrennand, thank you again for the detailed instructions. 

Here's the information you requested:

Downstream bonded channels
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID
1 363000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 29
2 251000000 -0.5 38 256 qam 15
3 259000000 -1 38 256 qam 16
4 267000000 -1.5 37 256 qam 17
5 275000000 -1.5 38 256 qam 18
6 283000000 -1.9 38 256 qam 19
7 291000000 -2.2 38 256 qam 20
8 299000000 -1.5 38 256 qam 21
9 307000000 -1.7 38 256 qam 22
10 315000000 -1.7 38 256 qam 23
11 323000000 -0.9 38 256 qam 24
12 331000000 -0.4 38 256 qam 25
13 339000000 0 38 256 qam 26
14 347000000 0 38 256 qam 27
15 355000000 0 38 256 qam 28
16 371000000 -0.4 38 256 qam 30
17 379000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 31
18 387000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 32
19 395000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 33
20 403000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 34
21 411000000 -0.2 38 256 qam 35
22 419000000 -0.5 38 256 qam 36
23 427000000 -0.9 38 256 qam 37
24 435000000 -1 38 256 qam 38

Downstream bonded channels
Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors
1 Locked 38.6 837 423
2 Locked 38.6 1376 436
3 Locked 38.6 739 367
4 Locked 37.6 173 338
5 Locked 38.6 182 391
6 Locked 38.6 214 395
7 Locked 38.6 223 617
8 Locked 38.6 239 416
9 Locked 38.9 175 401
10 Locked 38.6 786 380
11 Locked 38.6 1472 398
12 Locked 38.9 1823 373
13 Locked 38.6 1029 351
14 Locked 38.9 171 575
15 Locked 38.9 160 374
16 Locked 38.9 506 394
17 Locked 38.6 156 342
18 Locked 38.9 140 411
19 Locked 38.6 146 414
20 Locked 38.9 111 530
21 Locked 38.9 142 386
22 Locked 38.6 100 431
23 Locked 38.9 127 448
24 Locked 38.9 203 313

Upstream bonded channels
Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID
1 46200000 47.5 5120 64 qam 3
2 39400000 47.5 5120 64 qam 4
3 53700000 47.8 5120 64 qam 2
4 60300000 48.8 5120 64 qam 1

Upstream bonded channels
Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts
1 ATDMA 0 0 10 0
2 ATDMA 0 0 5 0
3 ATDMA 0 0 18 0
4 ATDMA 0 0 3 0

Network Log
Time Priority Description
15/06/2021 12:05:51 notice LAN login Success;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
14/06/2021 08:31:13 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 22:29:37 Warning! RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 21:03:39 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 11:00:49 Warning! RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 10:07:42 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 04:51:21 notice DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg505-bbt057-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
13/06/2021 04:51:21 Error DHCP RENEW WARNING - Field invalid in response v4 option;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
12/06/2021 14:57:52 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
12/06/2021 08:43:29 Warning! RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
11/06/2021 17:21:16 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
11/06/2021 10:12:7 Warning! RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
11/06/2021 05:15:25 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
10/06/2021 12:43:51 notice LAN login Success;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
10/06/2021 12:34:55 Warning! LAN login FAILED : Incorrect Username / Password / ConnectionType;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
01/01/1970 00:06:27 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
01/01/1970 00:06:7 Error Service Add Response rejected - Invalid transaction ID;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
01/01/1970 00:05:55 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
01/01/1970 00:05:55 critical Unicast Ranging Received Abort Response - initializing MAC;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
01/01/1970 00:05:9 critical No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=***;CMTS-MAC=***;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/6862bdbd15b20ba1b335742f87d88b92b6...

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

Mmmm. Nothing jumps out - but there are RS errors and T3 timeouts - these might be historical accumulation so can you reset them as per below. BQM looks ok now but a bit iffy last eveneing - is this a pattern that repeats - trouble between 6-12pm?
___________________________________________

Switch the Hub off and unplug it for a few minutes and then start up. When done, check back in the settings and ensure that the RS error counts and T timeouts have all reset to 0. Then check every hour or two to see if they start reappearing - they shouldn't. If they do (particularly the postRS ones) you have a problem (noise) that only a Tech visit will sort

[LukmanChowdhury]

thanks again. Did the power cycle with cable out and errors and timeouts reset as you described - been almost an hour since powered back on and i've left a couple of streaming services running streams, single digit pre rs errors, no post rs errors and no timeouts - all looks rather promising on that side of things at least

the yellow spikes in the bqm (grouped around 6pm to 12pm) seem to correspond to when i tend to switch over to my laptop and phone and go online with both devices, sometimes streaming/browsing different services simultaneously - they seem to dull down when i'm working or away from home.

will keep an eye on those errors. 

[LukmanChowdhury]

just over three hours later post rs errors are ranging from 31 to 156. no T# timeouts. BQM shows similar spikes around 10pm to last night - similar time to switching onto virgin tv go on my laptop

[jbrennand]

BQM not showing any real issues - the latency "spikes" look excactly like mine do and I have no issues

You had a "cut out" at ~7.30pm - did you do a reboot or similar?

[LukmanChowdhury]

Thanks. reassuring to know that the BQM looks similar to yours. I'd checked out a few other peoples and they didn't seem to have as high spikes but didn't know what to make of that but my usage isn't necessarily the same as theirs. 

overnight, when i wasn't using the internet actively, only one T3 timeout on channel 4. No significant change in post RS errors. and BMQ looking healthy. 

the cut off yesterday evening was the power cycle you suggested (power off, cable out for a few mins) - so that red block was expected. 

thanks again. really do appreciate all the time you're putting in voluntarily.