Perhaps you could try running a traceroute to the IP of the server. Then, with that information returned from the trace route, start pinging the closest hop with about 100 pings using 512-byte packets and then continue to the next hop, etc until you start to see packet loss. Maybe, this could help to identify where the bottleneck is. Good luck.
Amazon Web Services servers don't return ping requests due to them blocking ICMP packets to prevent DDoS attacks, so that testing is unreliable. COX denies that this is their problem because there is no packet loss up to the point of the Phoenix server, 68.1.1.14. The packet loss occurs somewhere after that point. But this happens to so many COX customers in the Southwest, and has been happening to me for nearly a year. From my limited knowledge, I have to say that the "routing tables," or whatever controls the path our connections take to these AWS servers, is completely messed up.
Yes, I wouldn't be at all surprised that ICMP requests are blocked from the AWS Servers for the very reason you mentioned. However, that doesn't negate the validity of isolating the point of network congestion which likely occurs en route to the servers (i.e. Level 3 backbone). Hence, my suggestion for performing a traceroute, then perform pings to the visible hops seems feasible in trying to get a handle on where the packet loss seems to be occurring. Would you not agree?
With enough people performing this type of testing, a consensus could likely be formed as to the point(s) of failure. For example, is the bottleneck between the Cox backbone and the Internet backbone or is the problem somewhere out on the Internet backbone (i.e. Level 3)? I hope I'm making sense.
Going to be honest, not really sure what you guys are talking about since I am not a networking genius but I have tried I feel like everything in the book. Here is a tracert to Amazon AWS servers though (Fortnite) - https://imgur.com/0h1rSqE
The last COX technician I had out suggested that I get in contact with Amazon Web Services after replacing my line had no effect on the packet loss. I paid AWS $30 to access their tech support, but they ended up being no help either and said that my ping tests didn't show where the problem was occuring. Here is a PingPlotter test from today, https://imgur.com/a/0zZasP3 . Taking it at face value, I thought something was happening before hop 9, 54.239.42.118. When I told that to AWS support, they said that they couldn't help me any further.
Based on the traceroutes and ping results, both of you provided, it appears that Cox is peering directly with Amazon. Therefore, the issue likely lies with Cox and/or Amazon.
silverapple42, are you indicating that you have enough speed through your T-Mobile hotspot to play these online games without issue? If so, would you share the traceroute when using the hotspot?
I also have T-Mobile and when I use a hotspot there is no packet loss. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of higher ping. The route is completely different https://imgur.com/a/CUeH8tG .
boopacketloss, are you able to play the online games without issue using the T-Mobile hotspot?
Further testing with various packet sizes showed the breaking point to be between 128-byte packets and 256-byte packets on their 54.239 subnet at this particular point in time.
This is my test with 512 bytes, https://imgur.com/a/oqLHrg2 . Packets are dropping at 52.239.42.118 again. What do you mean by the breaking point?
What I'm trying to convey by "breaking point" is that, at this particular point in time, I don't see packet loss with 128-byte packets, but I do with 256-byte packets. Now, I'm quite curious to see what the results are with 512-byte packets over your hotspot, boopacketloss.
This is beginning to feel like a possible QoS issue on the AWS 54.239 subnet based on source IP addresses from the Cox network. That could explain why the packet loss isn't reportedly experienced, as you mentioned earlier, when connecting through a VPN from the Cox network, because Amazon sees the proxy IP as the source IP, not Cox. The same, of course, applies when using the T-Mobile hotspot.
For whatever it's worth, I probably should have referred to their 54.239 subnet as their 54.239 network since they were apparently assigned the 54.239.0.0 - 54.239.255.255 address block.
So, Amazon Web Services tech support told me that they are unable to help with addressing any of that, they were useless just like COX tech support. Epic Games support never responds to networking questions either, LOL. NO ONE CARES ABOUT THIS PROBLEM.
Honestly pretty confused and this is kinda over my head lol, Rob do you have discord by any chance so I can message you?
