Packet Loss and poor signal at peak times

[Mrzaysanders]

So I recently switched ISP about 2 months ago to fibre internet and boosted my speeds up to a gig up and download. Everything was great for the first month. After I updated my XR500 a few weeks back I noticed bad lag at night while gaming on my Xbox series X. I ran some tests on multiple devices and some were great and some were really bad. I ran a packet loss test and noticed I was losing a lot. My first guess was my ISP. So I plugged into the modem and no packet losses.

During the day I have more devices on my network active cause both my wife and I work from home. My gaming and connections are perfect. But during peak times it gets bad. I’ve got a wifi analyzer that lets me see nearby connections and channels to help with interference. There’s a ton more people connecting later in my area obviously during peak times. Something I noticed was my signal levels also drop during that time with the packet losses as well. I’ve always used Qos, I’ve changed channels, I’ve switched to 2.4 for better signal. Nothing helps. I’ve even dug into more advanced settings that will give better signal without errors like long and short preamble.

 

The speeds and solid connection is there, but it’s like it’s struggling to put it out to all of my devices at certain times. Some get great speeds with the packet loss and then some get about 75% worse speeds with the packet loss as well. Anyone have any idea what this could be or how to fix? I wanted to blame my ISP. But that can’t be it after hard wiring into the modem and debunking that. It’s weird when I run my test through dumaos it’s giving very inaccurate speed results (like 800mbps off on download) then giving me A+ on everything else.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I haven’t been able to game after work since this issue. It’s unplayable at the moment.

[Newfie]

Many use PingPlotter which is a great tool to start with. There’s a free version to try.

How many devices are connected, feel free to post a photo of device manager and your QoS page.

Wifi interference is never easy. When you check on a client that client does not have the range or sensitivity of the router so you may not see all neighbouring channels and then you have those that pop in and out ie. Car WiFi and so on.

it could be that during peak times your isp service is to blame but PingPlotter will show that up. Best to have a wired connection when running PingPlotter ie. Pc wire to router.

 

[Mrzaysanders]

So when I run the test on Pingplotter do I need to just enter my ipaddress to get a breakdown of everything? When I do that about 7 different addresses come up. Or do I need to put something else in to determine the problem as my ISP or my router?

[Netduma Fraser]

This guide will show you what to do: http://support.netduma.com/en/support/solutions/articles/16000074717-how-to-test-your-internet-ping

For WiFi, a few suggestions you may not have tried but can make a big difference:

1. Ensure the router is in an elevated position - not on a metal surface
2. Ensure there aren't any electrical / wireless devices e.g headphones etc within close proxity (~3 feet) if possible
3. Set the antennae to this position _ | | _

[Mrzaysanders]

Sorry for the delayed response as I was away on vacation but this problem is still present. Pingplotter isn’t showing really any packet loss at all. Latency did go higher in peak times tonight, much higher then I’m used to, but I reset router and modem and everything is fine with the latency after.

But all my devices are still showing packet loss, especially my Xbox on wifi. Both PCs show packet loss while on wifi, as well as my phone.

This seems weird to me. The time it happens suggests it’s an ISP issue. But wouldn’t pingplotter show the packet loss somewhere if it was that?

[Netduma Liam]

7 hours ago, Mrzaysanders said:

Sorry for the delayed response as I was away on vacation but this problem is still present. Pingplotter isn’t showing really any packet loss at all. Latency did go higher in peak times tonight, much higher then I’m used to, but I reset router and modem and everything is fine with the latency after.

But all my devices are still showing packet loss, especially my Xbox on wifi. Both PCs show packet loss while on wifi, as well as my phone.

This seems weird to me. The time it happens suggests it’s an ISP issue. But wouldn’t pingplotter show the packet loss somewhere if it was that?

When you tested directly to the modem, you were connecting to it via ethernet, is that right? However with the XR, you're testing over wireless?

Are you able to connect directly to the XR via wired and check if the problem remains? If it doesn't at least we then know that it's definitely Wi-Fi that's the problem and not necessarily the manner in which the XR is handling traffic.

[Mrzaysanders]

I also tested via Ethernet to my router and didn’t experience the problem. The problem does seem to be mostly on wifi. Which sadly I have to run a lot of my games on plus my PC for work because of the structure of my house.

Not sure if this is an issue or not but a few weeks back I changed the SSID on both 2.4 and 5 but for some reason all my devices are still picking up the old SSIDs like there’s still a connection from them. So now my router looks to be putting out 4 signals which I don’t think is even possible. Not sure if that’s causing some kind of interference or not.

Could other traffic around me outside of my house cause wifi interference? During the day my personal network is much more congested due to my wife and I working from home and there’s never really an issue.

Thanks for the replies and help, I appreciate it!

[Netduma Liam]

2 hours ago, Mrzaysanders said:

I also tested via Ethernet to my router and didn’t experience the problem. The problem does seem to be mostly on wifi. Which sadly I have to run a lot of my games on plus my PC for work because of the structure of my house.

Not sure if this is an issue or not but a few weeks back I changed the SSID on both 2.4 and 5 but for some reason all my devices are still picking up the old SSIDs like there’s still a connection from them. So now my router looks to be putting out 4 signals which I don’t think is even possible. Not sure if that’s causing some kind of interference or not.

Could other traffic around me outside of my house cause wifi interference? During the day my personal network is much more congested due to my wife and I working from home and there’s never really an issue.

Thanks for the replies and help, I appreciate it!

Hmm, that's a bit odd. On any random device of your choice, can you forget all four networks, then reconnect it to the correct network. Does it still seem to see all four? If so, have you rebooted the router since changing the Wi-Fi details? That would be worth doing if you haven't already.

[Mrzaysanders]

Some have came back after being forgotten, others haven't. I scratched that off as more of a devices issue. With the packet loss and lag spike issues I'm guessing it's an ISP issue. The time frame it keeps happening at to me screams network congestion. This company just installed Fibre lines in my area only a year ago so their servers probably aren't ready for all the traffic yet. It's just weird how Pingplotter isn't finding the packet loss but all the devices are getting it.

[Netduma Liam]

11 hours ago, Mrzaysanders said:

Some have came back after being forgotten, others haven't. I scratched that off as more of a devices issue. With the packet loss and lag spike issues I'm guessing it's an ISP issue. The time frame it keeps happening at to me screams network congestion. This company just installed Fibre lines in my area only a year ago so their servers probably aren't ready for all the traffic yet. It's just weird how Pingplotter isn't finding the packet loss but all the devices are getting it.

OK, perhaps it's worth reaching out to the ISP and asking, they may already be aware of such issues as others should've reported it. It's not unheard of for ISPs to limit service during peak times, unfortunately.