Migrated last night - still having problems :S

[TimEdwards]

Hi, I migrated early yesterday but could only log on and connect once I got home at 5.30pm. I immediately did a few ping tests so I could see if my connection deteriated throught the evening as usual. Everything looked nice and low and I was happy.

At about 7:30pm when my connection is usually terrible and pinging at about 250ms I ran a ping test to a website I use often and set it to ping 1500 times. I was surprised that my pings were pretty constant to this site at 78ms but I had a fair bit of packet loss though 2% (which worked out at 30 packets lost in 1500). I also noticed about the same amount of pings/packets were high (350+). The lost packets were not grouped together, they were spread pretty evenly through the 1500.

While playing my usual night of World of Warcraft I was happy to see that I had no real lag to speak of, a vast improvement over the previous month but I still had the same number of disconnects and lag spikes. The spikes were more noticable than before as it was running perfectly when not spiking/disconnecting.

Thinking this was the game I tried lowering graphics settings, sound settings one by 1 to see if I could isolate why. Nothing made any difference. At one point between 8:30 and 9:30 I was disconnecting from the game every 20-30seconds and became obviously unplayable. Thinking this was just the game I tried logging on to Xbox Live to test to see if it was something wrong with my computer and started playing on Gears of War. The lag was also gone here but I still recieved disconnects approximately every 8-10minutes. World of Warcraft must be much more sensitive to spikes as there is much more going on with 40 people all playing together.

The strange thing is my pings are all nice and low since moving but im getting packet loss/disconnects. My network is giving a constant full strength wireless signal.

What can I do?

[Nerval]

Seems a choice between a dodgy router or a dodgy line.

Once you have ruled out the router, IDNet may be able to help get your line looked at if you ring them as it then doesn't sound like it's within your control.

[BassoProfundo]

My network is giving a constant full strength wireless signal.

Does this imply that you're playing your games over your Wirelss LAN ?

If the answer is "yes", then what level of encryption are you using on your Wireless LAN?

If the answer is "WPA or WPA2" then try switching to "WEP" and see if it still happens. Better still, can you try connecting your games box or PC to your router via an Ethernet cable?

The reason I am a little suspicious is that, if you're seeing a regular time period between your disconnects, this could possibly coincide with the periodic regeneration of keys by the WPA protocol. I had this problem once with an old Wireless Access Point.

[TimEdwards]

Im pretty sure its not my network as the disconnects only happen at peak times. earlier on 6-7pm and 10pm-1am I didnt have a single disconnect or problem.

The encryption is WEP

[Nerval]

It would be a good idea to try a wired router if you can just to rule that out.

And I suppose the other thing if the problems are  linked to a time, is interference from some electrical system/device, causing your line to drop - things as diverse as central heating, street lights, neighbours' outside lights and Christmas tree lights have all been known to do this.

[BassoProfundo]

Im pretty sure its not my network

Well, IMO, you need to turn "pretty sure" into a certainty. I really would recommend that you try a straightforward wired connection to see if the problems go away. If they don't then it eliminates your wireless network as a possible cause.

The WEP authentication rules out the key-changing period seen in WPA, but even so, Nervals suggestions of external causes for an interruption in wireless connectivity also need to be ruled out. And it is a real possibility too. My wireless network will occasionally drop for no accountable reason.

[TimEdwards]

Ill try and make sure its not my wireless connection thats causing it but it which means moving my pc downstairs.

I dont think its that though as its time specfic and not completley random. Could it jsut be the running in period because ive just migrated?

[Nerval]

Could it just be the running in period because ive just migrated?

That's one thing it definitely can't be.  Running in/training in Max doesn't involve multiple disconnects.

[Inactive]

Mine is showing 23+ hours and I am new here as well, yesterday, no problems at all.

Fastest speeds I have ever achieved as well.. 

[Rik]

Ill try and make sure its not my wireless connection thats causing it but it which means moving my pc downstairs.

A single segment of ethernet cable can be 100m long, so it might be easier to pop down to Maplin or somewhere similar and get a long enough cable.

[TimEdwards]

Seems to be ok now, I tweaked the settings on the router so that its running on a different channel, and messed with the signal strength settings so that it decreased the range but increased another setting, cant remember which.

Only noticed a couple of connection drops around 8:30-9 that im trying to iron out. The internet connection isnt dropping but it might be losing a chain of packets, or something drops on the network, not sure which at the moment.

Does anyone have a link to that exchange site with the green and red lights? Ive lost it and want to see if anything was done after the planned upgrade to it.

[RJM]

This is the one I have got:-


http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/


Regards - Robin