Packet Loss Woes

[Esura]

Or at least I think it's packet loss

So a few weeks ago I started lagging out in various online games and on Ventrilo. I originally thought that this was caused by my cable modem, as download speeds were slow too. I power cycled a few times, and although this fixed the download speeds, my network was still spiking. For about a minute it would be fine, then the internet would cut out for 5-10 seconds and come back, and just kept happening.

I plugged the modem straight into my computer (right now and when it was lagging for my brother and I) I was getting no packets lost while pinging my DNS servers about 50 times each. I plugged in the router and set back up the network and pinged, and was getting about 5-10% packet loss on each DNS server. This led me to believe my router was the culprit. I just purchased a new router, straight out of the box, set it up, and I am still getting the 5-10% packet loss. When I run netstat -s -t tcp I get many packets retransmitted, and I am out of ideas about how I am losing these packets.

I have called my ISP and they said everything looks fine, which makes sense because when I plug it directly into my computer there is no lag. I do not think it's my computer because my brother gets the exact same lag. I am very confused. Anyone have any similar problem or see anything else I can check?

 

[mdeezy]

you would get next to no lag when the modem is plugged straight into your computer. Once its plugged into the network again, there is bound to be a little loss that occurs due to the splitting the signal and it having more destinations to travel. Packet loss is never good but limiting but you almost always going to have packet loss.

at least its consistent since other pc's are getting about the same packet loss as your machine

 

[thehelo]

you would get next to no lag when the modem is plugged straight into your computer. Once its plugged into the network again, there is bound to be a little loss that occurs due to the splitting the signal and it having more destinations to travel. Packet loss is never good but limiting but you almost always going to have packet loss.

at least its consistent since other pc's are getting about the same packet loss as your machine

dont listen to this person. perhaps the most retarded thing i've ever heard. i would suggest trying it without the router again and not just pinging ****, but actually playing games and **** and giving it a few hours. I couldn't tell you for sure what the problem is.

 

[gamerk316]

Are you fine gaming when using no router? Also, were both routers from the same company?

 

[ninesunz]

Change your DNS on your router and test
You can try OpenDNS i forget the addresses but you can look it up on their site.

 

[novasynth]

You dont need to change the DNS on your router. Check your TCP/IP Settings on your computer and check to see if your primary DNS is set to your router's IP. If it is, then change it. Try using 8.8.8.8 as your primary and 8.8.4.4 as your secondary, those are google's public DNS servers. This way your router will not try to look up your websites, but rather just forward the standard lookup packets to google and their servers will do the work for you.

As for your packet loss, Make sure that if your using a wireless router that nobody else that you dont know is connected and possibly stealing your internet. You will see massive lag spikes when there is a heavy download or something going on in the background.

Try playing your games without ventrilo running, by yourself (without your brother or anyone else on your network) and see what the outcome is. If you see a significant increace in bandwidth its either 2 causes. 1) Someone else in your house / using your internet is doing something else other than just browsing the internet. 2) your router is limited in the amount of bandwidth that it can produce. If this is the case, then i recommend that you upgrade your router. Remember, new isn't always better.

Another possible cause could be that your connection to your ISP is being router through a really bad neighbourhood hub, and is being bottlenecked by all other connections on your street. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does theres really nothing that you can do about it, other than file a complaint to your town/city hall about replacing it with a newer model.