Packet loss and intermittent service disruptions
Hello. For a few years, especially in the summer months, I have been getting annoying packet loss. It amounts to about 5-8%, slightly higher during the day, and lower at night.
Last year, I had a technician out, who checked levels, re-crimped a couple of ends, and moved and reset the modem. The tech checks the levels and says it is fine. Based on the opposite of Murphy's law, when the tech is on site, a ping test works, and the internet is fine. It seemed to help a little, but not much. It is quite frustrating, and I didn't feel like complaining again, since it seems like all they want to do is send out a tech.
I set up a continual fping of: my router, another machine on the LAN, the modem's internal IP, the modem's external IP, the next 2 upstream routers at Cox, and Google DNS at 8.8.8.8. The upstream router at Cox is where I see the 7% loss from the upstream router through to Google. I get nearly zero loss to the other IP's from the modem down.
The packet loss is random, and may last from a few seconds to a few minutes, with most outages lasting only about 20 seconds. A few second outage is enough time to cause a problem on a VOIP call, Skype, FaceTime, bank site, WebEx, and more, thus making internet nearly useless for minutes to hours at a time.
When it works, if I do a speedtest, I get the full speed. It is never "slow" it is either working, or not.
The modem itself often shows that all of the downstream channels are connected, but one or more of the upstream channels may be not working.
The problem is most definitely with either the Cox-supplied modem I have or with the wire (but that doesn't seem likely due to the asymmetric channel connectivity I mentioned above), or with the modem on the other end.
