Xbox Live Dropping

[TechieSooner]

Still struggling with this.

I can continually ping both an internal location and external location at the same time. I've left this running overnight, outputting to a file. Next morning here's what I observe:
Pinging 192.168.1.1 (my router), I get 0% loss.
Pinging my ISP's (Suddenlink) website server IP, I get 7% loss. Looking through it, sometimes the delay goes up (300ms+), and sometimes it just hard drops and has several "request timed out" in a row.

Naturally, sometimes Xbox Live lags. Sometimes obviously it'll just drop me.

It's enough to notice web browsing, a couple times as well. Click on a link and the darn thing will time out.


Now, my pinging scenario seems to prove in my head it's NOTHING internally. Am I wrong or could I be missing something here?
I've called the ISP and they've done two things. They sent a tech out which increased the signal a bit (near I can tell he just replaced my 1-4 adapter with two 1-2 adapters), and on a seperate occasion they told me the modem wasn't registered on their network, so they did that.

But I'm still having these issues. Could I be missing something here? Problem is I've dealt with these problems for a good year or more. I even bought a new network switch thinking the switch the Xbox runs through before it gets to the router was at fault, but no improvement.

 

[mattjw916]

It sounds like the problem is all on the ISP's side. Make them fix it until you get acceptable and stable latency or change ISPs IMO.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

A couple of things I'd try. I'm assuming it's cable internet..since you said went through a few splitters.

FYI, Suddenlinks reviews over at DSL reports..a lot of people don't like them. Many unhappy customers.

Anyways...the coax comes in from the street. Put a brand new quality 1==>2 splitter on there. From split 1...run the cable to your cable modem. From split 2...run a cable to another splitter...whatever size you need to split that cable into your TV runs. Basically you want your cable modem at the top split..and on a 1==>2 splitter, not a 4 way or something like that.

Cable modem not registered on their network? That doesn't make sense...you shouldn't be able to get online in the first place unless your cable modem is provisioned in the first place.

Try plugging a computer directly into the modem..and run a long online ping test. Obviously button this computer down tightly since you'll be on a direct public IP address instead of being protected behind your NAT router. See if you still get your 7% or so loss. Give it plenty of long length pint -t tests. Can help isolate to see if your router simply doesn't get along with your modem or the router is iffy.

 

[TechieSooner]

Anyways...the coax comes in from the street. Put a brand new quality 1==>2 splitter on there. From split 1...run the cable to your cable modem. From split 2...run a cable to another splitter...whatever size you need to split that cable into your TV runs. Basically you want your cable modem at the top split..and on a 1==>2 splitter, not a 4 way or something like that.

That's what the tech ended up doing...

Cable modem not registered on their network? That doesn't make sense...you shouldn't be able to get online in the first place unless your cable modem is provisioned in the first place.

I know. I'm just telling you what they said...

Try plugging a computer directly into the modem..and run a long online ping test. Obviously button this computer down tightly since you'll be on a direct public IP address instead of being protected behind your NAT router. See if you still get your 7% or so loss. Give it plenty of long length pint -t tests. Can help isolate to see if your router simply doesn't get along with your modem or the router is iffy.

I've thought about that, but wasn't wanting to take everything offline again.

I guess I could call and complain again, but where do you guys think the problem is? I doubt the neighbors use the internet enough to tell if theirs drops out as well, so I'm sure they wouldn't have any idea if it's a neighborhod thing or what the deal would be.

Since it doesn't appear it's local, just not sure what the problem would be. I guess the ISP could figure it out but obviously, if I'm the only guy complaining, they probably aren't going to dig up the coax in the street to troubleshoot it.

 

[gimp]

does your router have any kind of logging in it?
are there any entries that might show the WAN connection dropping?

Just because there is no packet loss to the internal side of the router, doesn't necessarily mean it isn't the router, as it could be dropping the WAN connection for some unknown reason (granted it's not very likely, but it is still possible).

 

[TechieSooner]

I had thought about that myself, actually... I'm using Tomato firmware, any idea how to log that?

I guess if I wanted to be VERY good I could plug in another network node to the WAN port of the router and do ping through the whole thing to see what it does, but like you said: I'd be skeptical the WAN port is bad.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

That's what the tech ended up doing....

Just making sure...because you didn't specify where the tech put it...you only said "(near I can tell he just replaced my 1-4 adapter with two 1-2 adapters),"....the modem could have been the last device on the chain for all that matters.

Are you 100% without a doubt positive that the coax coming into the house from the street is unmolested by other "old" splitters or cable hidden in a wall somewhere..before it fastens onto that first 1==>2 splitter?

 

[TechieSooner]

Are you 100% without a doubt positive that the coax coming into the house from the street is unmolested by other "old" splitters or cable hidden in a wall somewhere..before it fastens onto that first 1==>2 splitter?

Not 100% sure. Person bought the house from said they had all the coax replaced, so it can't be older than 6 years old I don't think.

 

[seanx]

What about logs on the cable modem itself?

Pull up 192.168.100.1 in your browser and you should get the modems internal webpage and youll find an event log there somewheres.

You probably wont find much useful here but you never know.

 

[PTNL]

Did you finally try out YeOldStonecat's suggestion of plugging the main incoming coax into the cable modem? I had a similar issue like you in this thread, and even when changing from the 4- to 2-way splitter, I still was getting unacceptable power levels.

Not sure what your cable modem is... but if it has a diagnostics url you can hit, it may yield some numbers worth complaining to the ISP about. Or at least something worthwhile to show the tech that comes onsite.


Edit: Looks like seanx just beat me to the suggestion

 

[TechieSooner]

What about logs on the cable modem itself?

Pull up 192.168.100.1 in your browser and you should get the modems internal webpage and youll find an event log there somewheres.

You probably wont find much useful here but you never know.

I'll have to check that out tonight.

Did you finally try out YeOldStonecat's suggestion of plugging the main incoming coax into the cable modem? I had a similar issue like you in this thread, and even when changing from the 4- to 2-way splitter, I still was getting unacceptable power levels.

Can't... The main cable actually ends up in the attic, from there it hits the modem and TVs.

 

[horndog]

The packet loss could be the router itself. If there is a way to ping FROM the router to the net, and if you do not get packet loss you can rule out the ISP and put in a bad router in play.

Do this:

Completely power down your cable modem, unplug it...

Let it sit for a few minutes.

Power the modem back up

Now try the ping test again, any improvement?

Also, one other thing, do you have telephone service running through the cable company?

If so, the modem could be not configured correctly for it as VOIP traffic has a lot of really small packets compared to data packets, which would create packet loss as the router cannot handle it.

 

[TechieSooner]

The packet loss could be the router itself. If there is a way to ping FROM the router to the net, and if you do not get packet loss you can rule out the ISP and put in a bad router in play.

If it was the router itself, wouldn't that still cause packet loss?

Do this:

Completely power down your cable modem, unplug it...

Let it sit for a few minutes.

Power the modem back up

Now try the ping test again, any improvement?

No, I do that routinely. Sometimes it'll drop hard (for whatever reason) and won't come back up. The modem's lights are all green, but I reset the modem, it boots up and the internet comes back on. That again suggests to me it's the ISP (I'm not rebooting the router, but the modem).

Also, one other thing, do you have telephone service running through the cable company?

Nope.
I've got QOS turned on (I've even turned it off to see if it was the culprit), it still drops Xbox Live.

 

[horndog]

No, there is two interfaces on the modem, a WAN side which is the carrier's side and the LAN side is the side you see.

Now, you may not be able to ping from the modem unless they gave you access to it.

The other option, is to assign a static IP to the xbox and put that IP in the DMZ

 

[TechieSooner]

192.168.100.1... It's the modem but the webpage redirects to a 404 the instant you load it... Anything to do with that is out.