Ping Ups & Downs, Mostly Downs :\

[Stephen C]

Having alot of trouble with our internet connection lately, the ping's coming back anywhere from 26 to 980. I've tried calling our provider numerous times and they don't seem to know the cause of the problem.

This was 18:21:


This is now:


It just keeps jumping from 26 to 980, any idea what would cause this?
Things I've tried are turning off all machines, redoing the cabling, rebooting the router, changing filters, using the master socket, hours upon hours on the phone to customer support going through every imaginable tweak and all to no avail.

It's only started jumping all over the shop during the last week.

[Jay]

ping your gateway to see if your pings are ok, ping the bbc website or jolt to see if your pings are still bad if so then its you ISP.

[Stephen C]

Gateway is 26-28 but BBC is fluctuating from 144-386 currently.

[Jay]

you are pinging your internal IP gateway and getting 26 to 28ms?

[Stephen C]

you are pinging your internal IP gateway and getting 26 to 28ms?

The first hop being my own router is <1ms, the second hop is 26-28ms.

Latest speedtest:

[Jay]

its your ISP then, I would give them a call.

[Steve]

Run a traceroute to, say news.bbc.co.uk and see at what point the ping goes up - that should tell you exactly where the problem is. E.g.

 1  my.router (192.168.1.1)  0.585 ms  0.716 ms  0.853 ms
 2  * * *
 3  * * *
 4  * * *
 5  bbc-gw1-linx.prt0.thdoe.bbc.co.uk (195.66.226.103)  20.630 ms  21.066 ms  21.473 ms
 6  212.58.238.149 (212.58.238.149)  23.804 ms  15.394 ms  15.801 ms
 7  te12-1.hsw1.cwwtf.bbc.co.uk (212.58.239.234)  16.181 ms  15.134 ms  15.581 ms
 8  212.58.255.12 (212.58.255.12)  16.998 ms  15.953 ms  16.010 ms
 9  news.bbc.co.uk (212.58.246.82)  15.991 ms  15.916 ms  15.589 ms

Aside from the hops that refuse to reply to my ICMPs, I see no problems along my route. (Phew)

You might need to run it a few times if the problem is intermittent, in order to isolate the true source.

[Stephen C]

Jumps to 180+ on the 3rd hop and continues down the list.

[Steve]

Ring your ISP and tell them that, give them the IP. If the person you're speaking to doesn't understand what you're on about, insist on speaking to somebody who does.

[Stephen C]

Took a few tries, first person didn't know what a ping was, second person promptly hung up on me when I said "trace route". Finally through to someone with a bit of knowledge, just on hold while he checks out the exchange.

Edit: They've opened a ticket to check the exchange and will get back to me within a coupple of days.

[Jay]

tracert doesn't really tell you too much as the routers on the way may not be prioritising ICMP packets so directly pinging the router will show a high ping.

[Steve]

Yes, and that's true of ping anyway if it's passing through a router that lowers its priority.

However, if you combine it with a laggy internet connection in general usage, then you at least have an indication of a possible source of the issue.

[Biscuit]

Sorry for a mini hijack but, can anyone suggest why traceroot isnt working for me when everything works fine during general browsing :/

[Steve]

ICMP packets are often deprioritised, or even dropped

[Biscuit]

by my ISP gateway?

[Jay]

by one of the routers along the way.