High pings & packet loss at cable modem

[apmonte]

I am having an issue with high pings and packet loss at my cable modem while gaming. I play a game called Tactical Ops that is a mod for Unreal Tournament. If I run PingPlotter while I am playing, I get results that look something like this:

http://members.home.com/apmonte/badping.jpg
(240k file)

(it's an older shot, but typical of what I am seeing)

Note the max ping time on the 2nd hop (10.96.128.1). I believe that is my cable modem. The first hop (192.168.0.1) is my D-link cable router. I have the same problem whether the router is installed or not. I have switched from a D-link NIC to a 3Com NIC and have just recently moved from W2k to XP. All cables have been swapped out. When I had this problem earlier, the cable company came out and even swapped out my Com21 modem for a 3Com HomeConnect modem, as well as several other components. It didn't seem to clear up all of my problems, but it was significantly better and I deemed it acceptable. About 3 weeks ago, the problem returned.

In the game Tactical Ops (or even in UT) you can set the "netspeed" to tailor the game to your internet connection. Netspeed is measured in bytes/sec. In the game, you can also measure net stats and see how many bytes are coming in/out and what % packet loss is occuring. If I keep my netspeed below 4000, the game is playable and I get very little packet loss or increased ping. If I set the netspeed to 10000 (recommended for cable connections) my ping might go from ~80 to ~450 with outging packet loss of 2-40%.

I'm just about out of ideas and could really use some help.

Any ideas?

[apmonte]

24 views and no responses?

Somebody throw me a bone here...

[tomsykes]

The second hop isn't the cable modem. It is the cable companie's headend equipment (known as the cable modem termination system, CMTS, or just cable router).

Call your isp

[apmonte]

D'oh! I suppose the .1 IP address should have been a clue.

I'm all over my cable company today!

Thanks Tom!

[kjboughton]

That IP right after your router is actually your Default Gateway (DGW) except that the address is a client-side IP only known as a UBR. High pings and latency problems (and packet loss) is usually a sign of traffic problems, overloaded nodes, or bad connections/signal problems (as in bad wiring). I would get with technical support on this one and have someone come out to your place to check all the hard-wiring for some clues. Something is definately not right.

-Kris

[apmonte]

Thanks Kris - I've got Insight Communications scheduled to come out tomorrow afternoon. I spent a bit of time Monday afternoon talking with a tech guy and he agreed that something looked very funny. I'll post back if they have anything interesting to say.

[Homicyde]

same thing happened to me, but the tech guys coming didnt FIX anything ..
I think the nodes are just TOO overloaded, others in my area have the same problems.

[JohnDoe]

I have the same problem, except for that i didnt have the problem before..

Before i had pings of 80-120 while gaming.

But suddenly i get pings of 3000+ but when in downloading its all good. even when i ping servers in dos i get ok pings..the problem only occurs when im actually in the game...

Anny comments/solutions?

John

[apmonte]

I had the cable guys out last week and they were no help. Previously I've had my cable modem replaced, a new tap put in, all new cables run, etc, etc.. Nothing has helped and they seem reluctant to investigate the node or any part of their network.

I guess it's time to call them again. Anybody else had this happen and know what fixed it?

[JohnDoe]

Prolly they just like some1 said put too many modems on a node to get mo money.....so there prolly aint nuthin to do about it.

so sue the focks!!!