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Hoopla's avatar
Hoopla
New Contributor
8 months ago

New Packet Loss Over the Last Month

This has been the most maddening internet issue I've ever dealt with. I wanna get some input from y'all if there is something that I haven't tried or something I haven't looked at.

Here is the issue: Recently (last several weeks), I have had very high and unstable packet loss out of no where. I'm connected via ethernet, and have all wifi-options turned off. I have tried everything I can think of and tried everything that I have found online to try to diagnose and/or fix the issue but nothing has helped. For example, today playing online my packet loss on hop 2 of PingPlotter goes from 3% to 8+% often. Sometimes it stays at high levels for several seconds or minutes, and sometimes it goes right back down to 1-2% for a little bit. It never really goes under 1.5 % when playing online. These fluctuations can happen as often as every few seconds or every few minutes. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason as far as timing or time of day or anything. Sometimes it'll play fine for hours then get bad and unplayable for hours. I have noticed that it always begins on hop 2, which is the first hop outside of my network so I'm convinced its on Cox's side.

So here is what I've tried:

  • Got a new modem. Mine was a few years old, and my Cox said it was the modem. Fair enough. Got a new modem. No change whatsoever in packet loss. Same spikes, same packet loss.

  • Updated network drivers

  • Changed out ethernet cables

  • Did a reset on my computer

I even had Cox send a tech out and they said everything looked good on their end and all the connections looked good.

I have been monitoring my network using PingPlotter and the packet loss always starts on Hop 2 so I'm convinced that the issues are on Cox's end. Pinging my IP address using CMD never results in any dropped frames or slow times. Even plugging my PC straight into the Modem results in packet loss. Using PingPlotter on other PCs in the house have the same results, usually 2-10+% on Hop 2 and higher after.

**Edited for clarity.

3 Replies

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    Esteemed Contributor

    Can you post the pingplotter data? File > Share > Create share page. Also, can you post your signal levels? 192.168.0.1. > login > Connection > Cox Network assuming you have a Panoramic gateway. If you don't what model modem and router do you have?

    • Hoopla's avatar
      Hoopla
      New Contributor

      I can add an updated pingplotter data link when it gets bad later this evening.

    • Hoopla's avatar
      Hoopla
      New Contributor

      https://share.pingplotter.com/7pEQMBnGiRa

      It is not bad right now, it seems to only show a lot of packet loss when I am doing something that is semi-internet intensive like gaming or streaming shows.

      For example, there is a section on there from when the pingplotter test started it started to about 7:30 pm yesterday that was awful.

      I have a new modem: Arris Surfboard SB6190
      Router: Netgear R6020 (updated firmware)