What does zero ping mean and how do i fix this?

[innerchaos]

Hi,

I'm having this weird problem nowadays and it's really frustrating.

I randomly get disconnected from the online applications that I'm using.(Msn, skype, online games, etc.)

And I'm running this program in the background to check what's going on.

As you can see, everything is normal till I get 0 ping for a couple of times, then it immediately goes back to normal till it hits 0 ping again.

It's very random, it happens on the 345th hop or 789th etc.

The question is

What's causing this and how do I fix it?

I'm on a wi-fi connection but not using wireless modem.The cable's plugged to my computer.

 

[GhislainG]

Your pings take quite long and packets are being dropped. What type of network are you on?

Edit: Instead of pinging google.com, ping your own ISP to check if packets still are dropped.

 

[innerchaos]

hi, thanks for the reply

i just pinged my isp and ping was like

9-11-20-10-etc etc

then after 200 hops:

90-322-0-0-0-0-56-72-0-0

then it goes back to 9-10-8-12 etc

 

[innerchaos]

i'm on a wi-fi connection

the antenna's connected to my pc via a cable and i'm the only one who's using this connection.

i don't have a modem or a router

 

[GhislainG]

It looks like the Wi-Fi connection drops packets once in a while. This is normal if there's anything in the direct path between the antenna and the station. Only you (and probably your ISP) knows about your setup, the location of the station, etc.

 

[innerchaos]

o yeah that's a pretty good idea

i'll call my isp and get it checked

thanks

 

[GhislainG]

Pings to your ISP should stay relatively constant, even after hundreds of them. I downloaded HSLAB Ping and I disconnected my Internet connection to see what would happen. The time shot up to over 2 million as each ping timed out. My conclusion is that you're not dropping packets, but you get a reply back in no time and that isn't possible over a WAN connection.

What happens if you execute ping -t to your ISP? Are the results similar to what you've witnessed with HSLAB Ping?

 

[innerchaos]

hi, i just got home so i couldnt call 'em today

results of -t ping till i got bored :

sent:269 received:268

lost:1

lowest:8ms highest:541ms average:44ms

but i'm pinging their website, i'm not sure how else to ping my isp

should i try pathping getaway test?

 

[innerchaos]

tracert to their website:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1ms

2 13ms 12ms 17ms

3 20ms 19ms 10ms

4 38ms 15ms 34ms


trace complete


i'm guessing you're right about something randomly interfering with my signal

because it's impossible to get 500 ping when i ping my isp

under normal circumstances it is 13-20ish ms

 

[innerchaos]

i think there's a base station near my apartment. you think it could screw my signal? if so, placing my antenna somewhere else and facing it to a different direction could fix this?

 

[GhislainG]

hi, i just got home so i couldnt call 'em today

results of -t ping till i got bored :

sent:269 received:268

lost:1

lowest:8ms highest:541ms average:44ms

but i'm pinging their website, i'm not sure how else to ping my isp

should i try pathping getaway test?

You could use the second IP address returned by the tracert. That's the shortest path betwen your system and your ISP and packets shouldn't be dropped. That still doesn't explain why HSLAB Ping sometimes returns 0ms when pinging an Internet address. If I were you, I'd use the ping results when talking to my ISP (unless they're also interested in the HSLAB Ping results).

 

[innerchaos]

right, i just -t ping'd the second IP address

163 packets sent 157 received

3% loss

there's definitely something interfering with my signal

maybe HSLAB gives zero ping instead of saying timeout, idk

 

[GhislainG]

HSLAB doesn't give 0ms when a packet is lost. You can verify that by disconnecting the cable for a few seconds while it runs.

 

[innerchaos]

yeah, i just tried that

started pinging with HSLAB and plugged the cable off after a few secs

it immediately stopped pinging and said "unknown host google.com"

 

[GhislainG]

yeah, i just tried that

started pinging with HSLAB and plugged the cable off after a few secs

it immediately stopped pinging and said "unknown host google.com"

Instead of a host name, ping the second IP address returned by tracert. Losing .5 to 1% packets is acceptable because that type of traffic is not guaranteed. Your issue is caused by something else and I believe that the 0ms detected by HSLAB is not normal.

 

[Tom Tancredi]

Uhm... I think people are missing a bit part here "345th hop or 789th etc.". A hop is like a new street to drive down, so if you drive on 345 different streets or 789 different streets to get to the same destination, your too 'far away' and most likely going to take longer and longer (time out) before you 'drive' from your computer to the destination and back. Your problem is it is taking way to many hops to make the 'trip' to / from where your going to, and thus 0 Ping - dropped.

You said "I'm on a wi-fi connection but not using wireless modem.The cable's plugged to my computer" and "the antenna's connected to my pc via a cable and i'm the only one who's using this connection". Okay wi-fi means 802.11 standards, which includes Wi-MAX, not a 'antenna connected to my PC'. So your using a antenna to long distance shot (like a microwave / radio) to another spot a distance away? How far is it between you and that 'point' broadcasting the wireless connection? What physically sits LINE OF SIGHT (put your eyes behind the antenna and stare straight at the point your trying to reach) between the antenna and the 'distance point'? Trees? Power Lines? Water Towers? Buildings?

I had a microwave shot before on my travel trailer, which ran the cable down to my computer. We ran into a similiar problem, because the spot was overloaded with users, and then when it travelled internally to the ISP, it bounced around inside the network alot before 'out into the internet' to reach the destination. That all collectively created 'Latency' or the amount of 'lag' and 'time' it takes for signals to go to then back from point A to B and back to A.

 

[Kewlx25]

It's not showing hops on the x-axis, it's showing the sample number.