MattChapman

Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Unstable connection

Hi everyone, I apologise for writing this in English, my spoken Dutch is reasonable, but my written isn't quite good enough to talk about technical things.

 

For the last few months I have a 1Gbps/50Mbps connection from Ziggo in my apartment, and until now everything has been working fine - I get the full advertised connection speed. However, recently I have noticed that especially video calling becomes quite difficult, as my connection seems to experience severe packet loss at intervals, though it doesn't seem to follow any pattern. This happens even when I use a wired connection to my router - a Ubiquiti Dream Machine, connected directly to the Connectbox Giga.

 

I have tried the following:

 

  • Restarting both the Connectbox and my router - no effect, symptoms return in about a day
  • Removing the splitter - no effect
  • Replacing the coax cable (that came with an old Ziggo Connectbox) with a new one (that came with the Giga) - no effect
  • Using a wired connection instead of wifi for video calling - no effect
  • Factory resetting the Connectbox - no effect

I have attached screenshots from the Connectbox, showing the downstream & upstream status pages, and the log. This is 12 hours (approx) after a factory reset.

 

Any help or advice would be appreciated!

Oplossingen

Geaccepteerde oplossingen
MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Hi @Paul , @Alex ,

 

I had a text today to say the issue was resolved, and I'm happy to report that I think it really is resolved from my perspective!

 

DownstreamDownstream

UpstreamUpstream

 

Since about 13u on Friday, packet loss has been 0%, and jitter back to normal levels.

 

Thanks for all the effort you went to, to investigate this and follow up on a solution for me - I really appreciate it all the time you took to think through the problem with me and suggest actions.

 

Really happy that this is solved!

Bekijk in context

Paul
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 19178Posts
  • 1373Oplossingen
  • 7277Likes

@MattChapman  Thanks for sharing the results in regards to the connections. I'm glad that the problem has been resolved! 😉 It's good to read that you appreciate the given support via this Community. We hope you will use this channel the next time you have a question, we love to help you.
I wish you a very nice day Matt!

Bekijk in context

78 Reacties 78
MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

I also have the issue that the Connectbox stops responding to pings or browser requests after a while - which makes it impossible to access it until I power cycle it. I have attached a screenshot of ping times and packet loss to the Connectbox overnight.

 

I see also that is is commonly asked to provide a picture of the connection point in the home, so I have attached that here. It looks like mine is fairly (very?) old and should be replaced?

 

Thanks!

KBX458

Oud Community-lid
  • 8462Posts
  • 377Oplossingen
  • 2929Likes

The connection point indeed is an old one and has to be renewed for free by an engineer. I have called for a moderator to look into this matter and to make an appointment.

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Thanks very much, I'll wait for the moderator response 🙂

Sander
Community Developer
Community Developer
  • 2769Posts
  • 290Oplossingen
  • 2180Likes

@KBX458 Thanks for the heads up. @MattChapman, Thank you very much for the extensive explanation and data. This will probably be very helpfull for my colleague. I will bring it to their attention and they will look into it on Monday or Tuesday.  So they can decide a technician is required or think suggest another solution.

Lycke
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 14027Posts
  • 1177Oplossingen
  • 6122Likes

Hey @MattChapman !

I'd like to make an appointment with a technician to update your connection. Unfortunately, i see you haven't filled in your zipcode (postcode) and house number in your profile. So i have no idea who you are ;-). Can you please update your profile with the necessary information? Than we'll make an appointment right away!

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Oops, that should be filled in now. Thanks for the response!

Lycke
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 14027Posts
  • 1177Oplossingen
  • 6122Likes

Yes! Got it. 

Ive scheduled an appointment for next tuesday, the 16th between 08:00 and 13:00 now. If thats not a convenient time for you,  you're able to reschedule the appointment with the link you receive in the confirmation mail/text. 

 

Will you keep us updated? :-). 

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Perfect, thanks! I'll wait and see what happens on the visit, and update the thread 🙂

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

So, the engineer came today (really nice guy), and he swapped out the connection point for me, as well as a length of extension cable that was running to it from the outside. He tested the connection (he had some really cool kit with him) and verified that everything was good up until my connection point.

 

So far the connection has not been noticeably unstable (and the Connectbox itself hasn't crashed) but I think I'll need to monitor it for longer.

 

I still see tiny amounts of packet loss (less than 5% generally, but up to > 60%, see attached images) but seeing that it doesn't occur consistently (in terms of time or amount of packets) across all the domains I am running SmokePing against, suggests to me that this is more likely a downstream issue (congestion or something similar) as opposed to issues with my connection specifically.

 

Here is also an example mtr output:

 

MattChapman_1-1613490920942.png

 

 

which does seem to imply congestion or some other problem, at least from the second hop onwards when pinging zoom.us.

 

I do see that the connection status reported from the Connectbox does mention uncorrectable errors (screenshot also attached), but given the engineer gave my connection a clean bill of health, is this is anything worth monitoring or complaining about? It is hard to find useful advice on this kind of thing without ending up deep into DOCSIS 3.1 documentation from equipment manufacturers - which is way outside my area of expertise - so I'd appreciate the expert take 🙂

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

As of this morning my connection seems to actually be somewhat worse.

 

My Connectbox once again started dropping pings from the LAN and became (almost completely - I get in eventually if I mash the F5 key) unresponsive on 192.168.100.1 after a few hours (attached screenshot), and there is no improvement in the downstream errors on the 3.1 channel.

 

I also still have spotty packet loss to the first hop on the Ziggo network (also screenshot attached) and to other domains like bbc.co.uk (also screenshot attached).

 

I also ran a test overnight from the other way around (ICMP pings against my public IP) and found there was a large amount of variability in latency, and a surprising amount of packet loss there as well. The latency spikes I would expect if I was actively using the connection (ICMP packet priority, etc), but the test was run overnight. I would also expect to see almost 0 packet loss rather than consistent 1-2% with a spike to almost 20 (?!)

 

Audio calls for my first meetings of the day at work were also somewhat worse than before, with some stuttering experienced.

 

This is all being measured/experienced over a wired connection, via my router to the Connectbox in bridge mode, by the way. For now I'm going to power cycle the Connectbox again which gets me a few hours of stability.

KBX458

Oud Community-lid
  • 8462Posts
  • 377Oplossingen
  • 2929Likes

Could you attache the values up- and downstream, and the networkhistory.

Instructions can be found here.

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Unfortunately problems have occurred again 😞- I posted another update just before you pressed reply on this one 🙂

 

EDIT: Will add new screenshots of Connectbox statistics

Paul
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 19178Posts
  • 1373Oplossingen
  • 7277Likes

Good afternoon @MattChapman,

I'm very sorry that you're still having difficulties with you internetconnection! I've had a look at your connections and there still seems to be some interference
on the signal which may cause the problems in regards to your connection.

To resolve this i've planned an appointment with a network engineer on Thursday 18th of February between 12:00 and 18:00 o'clock. In case this doesn't suit you, you are able to reschedule the appointment via Mijn Ziggo > Mijn Gegegevens > Mijn Monteursafspraken. 

Please let us know what your findings are after the visit from our network engineer.

Kind regards,

Paul

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Hi Paul, thanks for the response. I tried to move the appointment to Monday, but now it is stuck on "Status: afspraak onbekend". I think I may have broken it 😬

 

Unfortunately I don't have power during Thursday (thanks Liander) and I'm not free Friday.

Paul
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 19178Posts
  • 1373Oplossingen
  • 7277Likes

Hi @MattChapman,

You're welcome! I'm sorry that you are unable to change the apppointment to a different date. I can change the appointment for you, on which date does the appointment 
with our engineer suits you the best?

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

@Paul Monday, 22 February 2021 08:00 – 13:00 would be ideal, thanks!

Paul
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 19178Posts
  • 1373Oplossingen
  • 7277Likes

@MattChapman Thank you very much for your reply! I've changed the appointment to Monday 22 February between 08:00-13:00 o'clock.
Please let us know what your findings are after the visit form the network engineer. 

I wish you a great day!
Kind regards,
Paul 

MattChapman
Topicstarter
Level 5
  • 48Posts
  • 1Oplossingen
  • 9Likes

Hi Paul, I received confirmation of the appointment, but it does not show up in Mijn Ziggo - there is one appointment for Monday the 22nd in the "previous appointments" section of the page, and it says it was cancelled. I think something may have gone a bit wrong?

 

MattChapman_0-1613591335111.png

I also want to ask, is it normal for the connectbox to stop responding to local network (ICMP and HTTP) traffic after 8 hours? It seems like clockwork that the web interface slows down and then stops entirely and I have to reboot it. Could noise on the cable connection cause something like that? Or do I have a bad unit?

Paul
Community Moderator
Community Moderator
  • 19178Posts
  • 1373Oplossingen
  • 7277Likes

Hi @MattCapman,

It seems that My Ziggo isn't showing you the right information. I can confirm that there will be a network engineer on the 22nd of February 2021 between 08:00 and 13:00 o'clock. 

Uitgelicht topic