This topic

Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:52:25 GMT

Hello all,

I have been having problems with my internet since the beginning of the year. Obviously this has become much more of an issue when I have been trying to work from home. I have attached examples of the test results when this happens.

I have had an "installation engineer" out around four times now and their solutions have been to give me a new router, tell me there is an issue with the line and they shall contact open reach. I have called BT again in the hope of them sending an openreach engineer but their systems do not show an issue so I now have an installation engineer coming once again.

I have a fibre package, which is fibre over copper connection (fibre to the exchange, copper to the property). The results shown below are from my laptop connected directly to the router using an ethernet cable, this connection issue is experienced by every device. I can have steady internet for a few hours at best and then I have latency spikes every 5/10 minutes before settling down and the process repeats it self.

Has anyone had similar issues, any idea how I can fix this? I have had a private company come in and check internal wiring in the house and they suspect this is down to line damage coming to the property, or a routing issue with BT, are there any mods that could check this out for me?

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:59:11 GMT

@itstomd

Welcome to this user forum.

Is there any noise on your phone calls? Dial 17070 and select option 2, there should be no noise between the announcements.

Do the lights on the home hub keep changing colour?

Your speed seems very low.

Enter your phone number into this form and display the results here, but edit out your phone number before you post the results.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:24:59 GMT

Hello @Keith_Beddoe

Thanks for the speedy reply and welcome.

I have conducted the phone test and the line doesn't have any noise.

See attached the test results from the link you had sent. I have also done another speed test immediately afterwards.

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:37:33 GMT

Your speed is way below what is expected. You will have to wait for a visit from Openreach, as its probably a faulty phone line. The connection speed on the 18th Dec was just above the bottom end of range A.

What does your master phone socket look like?

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

imjolly — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:37:01 GMT

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information .

Can you post results using speedtest.net
Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:51:10 GMT

Hello,

@Keith_Beddoe

As mentioned it is intermittent I can get speeds with low latency for around an hour or even at times a few hours without interruption, but typically these are the results I am encountering all too often.

The master socket is the same as "7"

Kind regards,

Rory

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 17:59:05 GMT

Hello @imjolly

Thanks for getting in touch I appreciate it.

See attached the information requested, if you need anything more please let me know!

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 19:16:03 GMT

@itstomd wrote:

Hello,

@Keith_Beddoe

As mentioned it is intermittent I can get speeds with low latency for around an hour or even at times a few hours without interruption, but typically these are the results I am encountering all too often.

The master socket is the same as "7"

Kind regards,

Rory

That socket has a high fault rate and causes disconnects due to poor connection between the front and back sections because of poor alignment.

Connect things up as shown below, and leave it like that for a few days and see if the problem stops.

NTE 5C Test socket check

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 21:24:40 GMT

Hello @Keith_Beddoe

That's me connected up as you have shown below. Currently no change as shown below -

I have been trying to get results with speedtest.net as you had asked but it seems to come up with an error when the disconnections occur.

Any other ideas or things I could try? I really appreciate the help here from everyone!

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

Keith_Beddoe — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 21:49:48 GMT

I think you are going to have to wait for an Openreach visit, as something is not right, it could be due to a high error rate.

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 11:44:43 GMT

Hi @Keith_Beddoe

Yes I also suspect it is an issue with equipment somewhere. As mentioned previously I have had an "installation engineer" out four times this year, I have another one coming on the 9th of January. Is there any way to get an openreach engineer out instead?

From what I understand the solution so far has been to swap my connection with another users at the exchange and see if the problem goes away, so far this has not worked. Forgive me if I am wrong but this was what was roughly explained to me during one of the visits.

Another thing I have seen recommended on forums is getting a static IP as this has different routing across the BT network, is this some thing we could try?

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 17:37:34 GMT

Hello,

So had the Installation Engineer out today. Within a few seconds of plugging in his laptop he confirmed its an issue on the line. It is down to interference, line damage or an issue in the exchange box.

By chance it was the same installation engineer we have had out the previous three times out of five. A bit downbeat as he had said it's the same issue he submits to the Openreach Engineers but they don't seem to be tackling the issue for some reason.

Does anyone know if switching provider has any chance of fixing this? Do all providers use the same line/exchange? We have been given a 4G dongle from BT to use in the meantime but I live in the Highlands of Scotland and the signal is very poor.

@Keith_Beddoe @imjolly

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

imjolly — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 10:18:34 GMT

you will use the same connection whichever ISP you select apart from virgin and more than likely would get the same openreach engineer for your fault

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 17:55:17 GMT

Hello @imjolly

Thanks for your reply.

So am I correct in thinking Virgin will use an entirely separate box?

We had the openreach engineer out a couple of weeks ago, and the fault was said to have been rectified. We had great speeds of around 30mbs and latency sticking around 20/30ms. Unfortunately this didn't last, however I think this means I can rule out the physical line to the house out and put the fault down to the box/exchange. I called the support team once again and they have said they can try once again. They have also said they will void any cancellation fees which is nice of them.

Kind regards,

Tom

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

pippincp — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 19:02:55 GMT

Virgin Media has it's own network totally independent and separate to Openreach.

Re: Intermittent High Latency, Packet Loss & Speed Drops

itstomd — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 20:06:02 GMT

Hello @pippincp

Thanks for clarifying that. Unfortunately after checking it seems virgin is not available in my area.

I'm really stuck as to how to approach this now, I'm currently on hold again to the support team but this will be the 6th Engineer visit I'm organising. I really don't know what to say that will encourage them to fix the line.

Kind regards,

Tom