Broadband Quality Monitor

[Ray]

I'm just trying out this BB Quality Monitor at Thinkbroadband, looks as though it could be useful if you have ping/packet loss problems, further details available here Broadband quality monitoring

[Rik]

Interesting, Ray.

[Glenn]

I've had it running for a while now, but had no problems (off to find some real wood to touch), no doubt Bill can give a little insight to it.

[Bill]

no doubt Bill can give a little insight to it.

Not much to say really, it does what it says on the tin- tbb ping your IP once a second and graph the results. One of mine from a few days ago:

My Broadband Ping

You can see the red spike of lost packets on the left where I lost PPP for a while (an indication to investigate further), and what happens when I download a few gigs from iTunes!

edit- you can also see the increase in packet loss when my exchange gets busier just on midnight, when all the off-peak downloading starts!

[zappaDPJ]

I've started monitoring my connection and I'm beginning to wish I hadn't. It's not a pretty sight especially considering I'm doing nothing but browsing a couple of local websites. I'll wait until I've got 24 hours worth of data and then post a link.

[Bill]

I can think of a few reasons why it very often isn't as bad as it looks, but I'll wait until you post a link in case it is as bad as it looks!

[Ray]

This is mine for the 20th of August.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[zappaDPJ]

I can think of a few reasons why it very often isn't as bad as it looks, but I'll wait until you post a link in case it is as bad as it looks!

Well it doesn't look much like Ray's that's for sure

[pctech]

Just set mine up so nothing to see yet

[Bill]

Well it doesn't look much like Ray's that's for sure

Don't panic!!!

Even during the fairly solid yellow part on the one I linked to earlier (attached) I didn't notice much difference in ordinary use, and that's the important thing- how your connection actually behaves.

An important point to remember is that a ping packet is low priority, so if your router (or those others that your data is going through) happens to be busy, responding to the ping will be delayed. That's what I meant when I said it often looks worse than it is.

@Ray- yours is not dissimilar to mine, but somewhat less busy. That's fair enough, I usually have around a dozen or so tabs open, many of which are auto-updating at various intervals. Not to mention other apps (eg Mail) which are doing the same thing.

I always find it mildly amusing that you can tell when I shut the browser (not the computer) down and go to bed

[attachment deleted by admin]

[zappaDPJ]

On a positive note I'm seeing very little packet loss at all.

[Steve]

Mines seems pretty stable until MobileMe decides to do a sync BTW have we had this link before http://www.robertos.me.uk/index.html ? I'm sure most people in this thread will recognise the name.

[Bill]

On a positive note I'm seeing very little packet loss at all.

Significant packet loss would be a worry... it usually means a highly congested exchange so there's not much you can do about it

I usually see a steady few percent loss starting at midnight, then it tails off over the next few hours as all the off-peak downloads finish.

[Bill]

BTW have we had this link before http://www.robertos.me.uk/index.html ? I'm sure most people in this thread will recognise the name.

I think Bob hoped that his website would mean he spent less time on the forums... not sure it worked that way

I haven't gone through it in much detail, but the response on tbb seems to be generally favourable.

[zappaDPJ]

My Broadband Ping

Interesting. My results are exemplary when my PC is turned off but start to look a bit of mess when it's on, even if it's unattended. This is in keeping with another test I used to run that plotted my ping over time. While individual pings were very low, every 20 seconds or so I'd get a massive spike which pushed my average ping quite high. At the time I did try a different network card to no avail. I do wonder if I have a faulty motherboard.

[EDIT] I should point out that I sync at 7584 kbps.

I've done nothing over the last 24 hours but browse forums. I'll try another 24 hour test later in the week using a different PC and see what that shows.

[Rik]

What caused that great slab of packet loss at the start, Zap?

[Bill]

That looks like the router was turned off, or possibly a loss of connection but I can't see any complaints

Another thought- Zappa forgot to enable ping responses from the WAN when he created the monitor

The rest doesn't look too good... seems as though something on the PC is keeping the router busy, but I've no idea what it might be or where to look. Does (his version of) Windows have a process monitor? Might be a bit of "unauthorised" software.

[Rik]

That looks like the router was turned off, or possibly a loss of connection but I can't see any complaints

Another thought- Zappa forgot to enable ping responses from the WAN when he created the monitor

I figured ping response off, Bill, but I'm curious to know.

[pctech]

Just been checking my graph, latency not bad and no packet loss.

I'm wondering whether to ask Zen to switch off interleaving as I'm seeing latency of around 25ms between my router and Zen's gateway.

[Bill]

You really need to look at your error rate- if it's high (and don't ask me to define that!) then turning interleave off will improve your pings but could well reduce your speed as more packets will need to be re-sent.

Depends whether you have gaming or downloading as a priority, my line is "better" with interleave on.

[pctech]

I'm intending to use Xbox Live so lower latency would be better.

I shall probably talk it over with tech support to see what readings they are getting from their LNS.

[Glenn]

This is My Broadband Ping The block is online gaming with iRacing.

[pctech]

iRacing?

I'm surprised Apple haven't trademarked that.

[Glenn]

http://www.iracing.com/ Mitch

[pctech]

I'm joking of course.

That looks very interesting, am a bit of a fan of racing sims.

[Bill]

This is My Broadband Ping The block is online gaming with iRacing.

Doesn't look much better than Zappa's...

@Zap- are you using a 2Wire router as well?

[Rik]

I'm joking of course.

That looks very interesting, am a bit of a fan of racing sims.

Would those be fast moving mobile phones?

[pctech]

 

[Rik]

 

[zappaDPJ]

That looks like the router was turned off, or possibly a loss of connection but I can't see any complaints

Another thought- Zappa forgot to enable ping responses from the WAN when he created the monitor

The rest doesn't look too good... seems as though something on the PC is keeping the router busy, but I've no idea what it might be or where to look. Does (his version of) Windows have a process monitor? Might be a bit of "unauthorised" software.

When I saw the red slab of doom I did indeed have to go hunting through my router settings to enable ping responses  

My PC is lock up tighter than a duck's rectum so I'm fairly confident I'm not contributing to a botnet or a similar nasty. In fact this PC has exhibited the same behaviour from day one which is why I've always been sold on the idea of a defective motherboard.

It looks like the time is about right to build a new and extraordinary fast and feature rich PC which is a great shame (It's OK, she that must be obeyed is currently not looking over my shoulder ).

[Steve]

This is mine

[zappaDPJ]

Doesn't look much better than Zappa's...

@Zap- are you using a 2Wire router as well?

I'm using a Netgear DG834Gv5 Bill. To be honest I don't really rate them, I've had 3 and they have all had differing issues.

[pctech]

Do your router logs show a lot of activity Zap?

[Rik]

My PC is lock up tighter than a duck's rectum

And you know this how? 

[zappaDPJ]

And you know this how? 

I plead the 5th Amendment 

Do your router logs show a lot of activity Zap?

My daughter's laptop creates a lot of [UPnP set event: Public_UPNP_C3] entries when it's switch on but other than that, nothing but me logging in.

[Rik]

I plead the 5th Amendment 

[Glenn]

We don't have one 

[Rik]

But it's a thought...

[Bill]

I'm using a Netgear DG834Gv5 Bill. To be honest I don't really rate them, I've had 3 and they have all had differing issues.

I've never been a fan of Netgear either, but haven't seen that problem reported before. Odd.

Might it be worth trying to have the PC switched on, but Windows not running? eg in sleep mode or leaving it at the login prompt, maybe.

If the graph looks then OK it's Windows, if it stays the same it's hardware. Probably

[pctech]

If what Bill says indicates a router problem might be worth a factory reset in case Gizmo and co have crept into the firmware.

I've seen Netgear firmware do some really strange stuff.

[faircot]

]

Here's mine. The half hour dropout this morning was because I had my DIY hat on and fused the whole house!

[pctech]

Dangerous hobby, DIY.

[zappaDPJ]

I shall try out some of your suggestions and report back, thanks.

[Rik]

Here's mine. The half hour dropout this morning was because I had my DIY hat on and fused the whole house!

Been there, the five minute job that takes two hours.

[zappaDPJ]

Nasty. This is the state of my connection from a few days ago. I've just opened up the new router to allow ICMP pings so we'll see what changes there are now I'm on FTTC.

My Broadband Ping

[Bill]

Mine was never as bad as yours, but it improved a lot when I went on to fibre.

From about ten days ago: My Broadband Ping

Today: My Broadband Ping

[Steve]

Have you used the computer to day at all Bill? 

[Bill]

Yup, fairly busy at times too

The worst one I've had: My Broadband Ping

[Steve]

There virtually no increases in latency at all.

[Bill]

There are some increases when you're shifting a lot of traffic, BQM pings went up to about 80mSec when I was uploading all those pics to the gallery (~8Mbps).

I haven't done a really hefty download yet to see what happens, but I'm sure I will soon

[Rik]

Nasty. This is the state of my connection from a few days ago. I've just opened up the new router to allow ICMP pings so we'll see what changes there are now I'm on FTTC.

My Broadband Ping

Any activity your end to explain the packet loss, Zap?

[zappaDPJ]

I know what I was doing during the two periods of worst loss, working on a forum installation which would mean virtually no traffic in either direction.

It looks a lot better than FTTC though and over night my ping has gone up three fold.

My Broadband Ping

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Users\zappaDPJ>ping bbc.co.uk

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=122
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=122
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=122
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=23ms TTL=122

Ping statistics for 212.58.224.138:
   Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
   Minimum = 23ms, Maximum = 23ms, Average = 23ms

C:\Users\zappaDPJ>

I'm not sure what to make of it all, things look fine on the BT test but all the other tests I'm doing show problems.

I'm very busy with work so I haven't had the time to take a really good look at it yet but there's certainly a problem somewhere because websites are often unreachable including this one.

[Rik]

Weird. I wonder if you've been affected by the BRAS failure? I don't know whether vDSL traffic routes through them or not.

[pctech]

I think so Rik as the BRAS manages the PPP tunnels as with ADSL.

[zappaDPJ]

I'll start looking at it properly over the weekend when I have more time. The periods of total pack loss seem to coincide with all my PCs being off which makes me suspect something is being misreported.

[Rik]

I think so Rik as the BRAS manages the PPP tunnels as with ADSL.

Thanks, Mitch, handy to know.