# Help diagnose connection issue



## Eliomiller (Sep 1, 2017)

Hello here.I've been hit by a connection issue that look impossible to solve and that for months now. Maybe I can get some answers over here.
I use my connection normally. Surf the Web. YouTube. Download's. Then suddenly my connection drop(it still show that it's connected but it doesn't work) for hours. I try to restart the router. Sometimes it work but for 90% of the time it don't. Then as suddenly as the connection dropped out it also get back. I decided to try to find the reason of this issue. My connection speed is 2Mbps which is around 256kbps after converting and it's the most I can get in my region. For some factors there's like 7 users in the house using the connection... but when this issue strike it's usually when most of the users are not home. I took two tests with a mobile app. One when its actually working. One when its not. I noticed that my ip adress is not the same when it works and when it doesn't. When it works it end with 102 when it's not it end with 103 . The test is from the same location away from the router. I got a single antenna 2.4ghz router.
The router is plugged into a ups.
The RSSI when it's working shows -71 dBm when it's not shows -83 dBm. I made sure that no other router in the area is using the channel 2 (2417Mhz). The router is old though my isp say it's not an issue. Link speed when it's working is between 48mbps and 54mbps and when it's not working is between 1mbps and 11mbps. Link speed vary a lot. The connection itself is not bad when it work(showing a ping of 120ms which is good locally). I got a pc plugged over ethernet and during a steam download the connection vary between 400kbps and 30kbps. (That's when it works) and when its not  working I get an upload bar showing a few kbs and nothing on the download bar (using a monitoring widget from the ASUS motherboard CD   ) on pc it shows at this moment a limited connection icon on the start bar. I really don't know the reason why this is happening.please help diagnose this issue as my mind is blown.


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## jsfitz54 (Sep 1, 2017)

Old router:  open case and look for bad capacitor, example:  https://www.bing.com/images/search?...itrs&qpvt=Pictures+of+bad+capacitrs&FORM=IGRE

I think it may be a bad power issue.


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## remixedcat (Sep 1, 2017)

Don't use 2! Use 1,6, or 11! Those are the only 3 channels that are non-overlapping! Also set channel width to 20Mhz for 2.4 if there's a ton bc the 2nd channel bonds with an overlapper! 

Also do a wireshark to see if stuff's fishy...

One other thing is to see if alt.fw is avalible.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 1, 2017)

jsfitz54 said:


> Old router: open case and look for bad capacitor, example: https://www.bing.com/images/search?...itrs&qpvt=Pictures+of+bad+capacitrs&FORM=IGRE


Do you have access to another modem/router so you can Test by elimination



Eliomiller said:


> One when its not. I noticed that my ip adress is not the same when it works and when it doesn't. When it works it end with 102 when it's not it end with 103 .


IP address are usualy dynamicly assigned by  DHCP unless you tie them/lock them down in your modem /router Settings


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## Eliomiller (Sep 1, 2017)

I can't try other modem and router because it would require the ISP to come over and do it(he rarely answer the phone). Will try to recontact him and see if he can perform the following actions. Can I open the router myself and look for bad capacitor without affecting the setting? Of the settings are lost it will be a bad time because he won't come back go reset them


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## remixedcat (Sep 1, 2017)

What? Opening the router is gonna possibly get you in trouble with your ISP. Just run it as a "dumb bridge" and get your own. Some people have beaten up ISP routers and got hundreds of dollars of charges. Be careful with rented stuff! 

Easier to just buy a new one and make sure it's decent.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 1, 2017)

remixedcat said:


> Easier to just buy a new one and make sure it's decent.



Note Some ISP's Mac lock their supplied Equipment to their ISP
Another modem/router may not register and work ( unless it has the Capability to spoof the mac Address )


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## Eliomiller (Sep 1, 2017)

I don't rent the material.bought it during the initial setup. But the guy (a.k.a my ISP who is a guy ) setup the router with some sort of password. Just scared of opening the router and reseting this password. This guy doesn't show up a lot. Bought a new cheap router from tp link (he wanted to daisy chain it to the other one but also didn't show up to set the password.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 1, 2017)

2MB and dropping, you could be too far from the CO or crossbox, bad card at co/crossbox. have a bridgetap/metallicfault on the line going from co/crossbox to the residence, home wiring might be failing. Modem might be bad too.

@Kursah what do you think bro?


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## Kursah (Sep 2, 2017)

I think the OP should look into other ISP options available in their area. Sounds like an issue between signal quality locally and possibly on the WAN side as well. But if it is a pain to get service from a place you're paying for service, I'd be dropping them like a bad habit unless there's no other options. 

A couple things I would do is to run a constant ping against the router's IP address and something like Google.


Click start
Type CMD
Type *ipconfig ,* document the default gateway as that is the IP address for your router. Common ones are 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1, 192.168.2.1. There are others, but I see those three the most as defaults for home-grade routers.
Type *Ping -t 192.168.0.1* (or whatever your router's IP address is)
Open another CMD console (repeat first two steps)
Type *Ping -t google.com*

Now keep an eye on the ms responses, try to do this at a time when things are good and a time when things are not good. If they're both all over the place its likely a router issue. If just Google is all over the place it is more likely to be your ISP's issue. 

A lot of home-grade wireless routers will struggle with more than 5 simultaneous users, but you state that the issues occur when most folks are gone. That leads me to believe that there could be a couple of things happening here. But let me ask a few questions and see where we go. Sorry I have a lot to ask and am very curious about this situation, and hopefully these will help give us direction to getting your issues solved.

What kind of internet service do you have? 

Cable? DSL? Line-of-sight wireless? Satellite?...most homebrew ISP's are the Line-of-sight so I'm assuming that's what it is for now. 

LoS ISP's can have more outages leading to lower reliability, and they usually have lower quality help with some issues..especially if they're stretched thin over their area. We have a lot of local guys, they all start promising...every one of them ends up being subpar and assholes to deal with .​
Do these issues occur at the same time of day or is it more random?

You mention a 120ms ping, how are you measuring this?

You also say locally to 120ms, which would be pretty bad actually for a small LAN. You should see 1-10ms in most cases. Can you clarify this?

What are you most frequently doing when the network has these issues? Downloading? Browsing?

I ask the above because viewing and downloading certain content can be detected and filtered by ISP's at which point they will throttle your service...so if it is illegal, then that's getting flagged. Not saying you are, but throwing that out there because it happens. Though in many cases, at least in my area, you'll also receive a warning letter in the mail.​
As suggested above you could also try another router hooking it up to the LAN port that you had your other PC connected to.

Also as suggested above, you could run Wireshark. Though I have a feeling with the wireless signal issues, something else is at play here.

Does the modem/router reboot frequently as well?

Can you provide us with the make/model of the modem/router please?

Where are you measuring your wireless network's dB signal rating? 

Have you tried *Acrylic*?

Would you and post a screenshot here after say 10 minutes?

If I had to just shoot from the hip and just guess, I'd go with a failing router. With all the wireless network variability issues, the dropouts even on LAN... but line/signal quality from the ISP infrastructure/devices also sounds like a possibility.

Hopefully we'll get ya sorted! A lot of good suggestions that I've seen so far and hopefully we can help you pinpoint what the issue is and where to go from here.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 2, 2017)

Kursah said:


> I think the OP should look into other ISP options available in their area. Sounds like an issue between signal quality locally and possibly on the WAN side as well. But if it is a pain to get service from a place you're paying for service, I'd be dropping them like a bad habit unless there's no other options.
> 
> A couple things I would do is to run a constant ping against the router's IP address and something like Google.
> 
> ...



Only other thing is to drop the profile speed, sounds like training and dropping, unless he is getting sync no service condition


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## Eliomiller (Sep 2, 2017)

Sorry for the long reply time. Thanks for all of you helping me.
I will try to explain and answer the question's with my basic knowledge. I don't know what the connection type I have is named but I know that the router is connected to a box routerboard on my rooftop with an antenna.
Othe ISP in the area are fishy. Talked with a couple and all the time the man on the phone didn't  understand what ping means.
I see my ping while gaming:because I do play Dota 2 frequently. 120ms to Europe from my location though it never drops lower than around 93 to 87.
Will run those commands on the PC asap and get back with the information.
I would say I though they were random... but I do watch a livestream on instagram each wednesday at a specific time and at around this time my connection drops bellow 30kbps. Although it happens frequently and the dropout can vary between 2h to 7h and during the time I reboot the router and it doesn't fix it. Until at some point I go back and reboot the router then it works.
Will try go get a line to my house for dsl which will take me months in this area.
The issue happens randomly. Sometime I would be sending a message. Sometime playing a Dota 2 game or even browsing  (on PC the dropout time is between a few secs to hours )
What is wireshark? If that's what I'm thinking about there's a fishy neighbour who have some sort of over Internet voice communication cabinet of something and it's crowded. He already connected to my Internet before...until I set it to hidden.
What is acrylic? If it's something for PC I will run it along the cmd later when I am at reach if my PC.
Thanks again for all your suggestions


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## remixedcat (Sep 2, 2017)

Wow if you work for an ISP you should at least have A+ and Net+, that is sooooo fail! If I ran an ISP I'd REQUIRE IT! 
Wireshark is a packet sniffer/protocol analyzer and is free. You can use it to make sure malware isn't bogging down your connection or if the NSA or others aren't mucking about. 
Acrylic is a wifi analyzer that will display channel utilization, signal str., etc.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 2, 2017)

Being wirelessly connected the way you are, satellite i presume, you will have such issues until you switch to an isp that uses coax or telephony utp.

I'd call the isp and tell them you are having quality of service issues, the service drops out at random times and resetting the box doesn't fix it.


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## jsfitz54 (Sep 2, 2017)

Eliomiller said:


> *The router is old* though my isp say it's not an issue. Link speed when it's working is between 48mbps and *54mbps*



I still say that the old ROUTER (not the modem) is cutting out due to a faulty capacitor.

It could also be the ISP.(Unclear)

Opening the case will not reset a password by magic. (Do disconnect from POWER, first.)



Eliomiller said:


> Bought a new cheap router from tp link



Does the NEW TP-Link still have the same issue?

@Eliomiller ,  Start including MODEL NUMBERS of equipment in your posts, and FIRMWARE VERSIONS.

Everyone who has responded to your post has given solid advice.  *BUT *there is no direction to a fix that is clear.


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## Eliomiller (Sep 3, 2017)

Alright so I did a few things yesterday.
Did the cmd test when it was working (ethernet). It gave me on the ip ping =1ms and on the Google ping something between 60 and 120ms.
Did the cmd test when it wasn't working: for the ip it also gave =1ms but also >1ms. On Google it said:request timed out.
I did some wireshark capture for around half a minute while it wasn't working. Will send the result when I get to my PC later on today; along with another test when it's working. 
I don't know which routerboard he use because it's a no name box. The old router is a 1 antenna tp link that I don't know the speed of. I know it's rated somewhere around 55mb but nothing else. I purshased a couple of TL-WR740N to replace it and install a new one as the apartment is big(still waiting this ISP to come to change them but knowing him he won't before a good month if not more). If I knew how to change it myself I would but he got some sort of password on his network that he set himself so I can't set it myself.
I did the cmd test over wi-fi on the PC it gave similar results for Google in both cases but for the ip ping it was 3 to 5ms (wirelessly) will put acrylic over my sister's laptop and test the wi-fi.
 For firmware all the equipment wasn't updated mainly due to the isp.


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## Nabarun (Sep 3, 2017)

Would be nice to know your location and ISP. May be I can help. But honestly, I do believe your ISP is the culprit. Shit does happen on shared bandwidth by shitty ISPs.


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## dorsetknob (Sep 3, 2017)

Nabarun said:


> Would be nice to know your location


if memory serves me well the Op is somewhere in the middle east (lebonon ?  remember him mentioning something like that in another thread about Earthing problems and earth Stakes  god need coffee yo help me wake up )

Edit  memory is good  still need coffee tho



Eliomiller said:


> Hi, I'm in a very tricky situation.as I may have posted in other posts I'm from lebanon


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## Eliomiller (Sep 3, 2017)

That''s true. Not going off topic but the earthing problem was solved by myself using all the technical information I received from this lovely community . but I feel like the issue is related to him. Me and my friend in another region are subscribed to the same ISP and those dropout happened at the same time which is a little bit suspicious. Will send the wireshark in a moment


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## Nabarun (Sep 3, 2017)

Hmmm I was thinking may be he was South Asian from his ping times. Well, @Eliomiller , do get a better ISP if you can. Try to find one with optical fiber connection, preferably up to the home. These are known as FTTH, literally (Fiber to the home). You may also try to use some VPN to seee if you can have lower latencies to the game servers. I suggest windscribe VPN. Sometimes the terrible routing can affect the ping times.


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## Eliomiller (Sep 3, 2017)

Fiber to the home Is still not available in Lebanon due to corruption. Will try windscribe.thanks again.


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## Nabarun (Sep 3, 2017)

Eliomiller said:


> Fiber to the home Is still not available in Lebanon due to corruption. Will try windscribe.thanks again.


Ahh, sorry to hear that. But surely there must be other ISPs in the vicinity, right? And yes, check out the vpn and try the ping using all the different servers available (in the vpn software's interface). It doesn't matter where the game server is.


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## Eliomiller (Sep 3, 2017)

the uploader didn't let me upload pcapng filetype. so I uploaded them to mediafire. if anyone have a better way to do it let me know.
connection issue:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/c8s7xctutrst0ad/no connection.pcapng

connection is fine
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9z96lso5di5e39s/working.pcapng


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## Nabarun (Sep 5, 2017)

Damn, my post appears to have been deleted when tpu was moving servers.

Anyway, here's the thing. Don't use anything except jpg for screenshots and use https://postimages.org to share them. Now test ping of the game server with and without vpn and share the info by taking screenshots of the cmd window.

Also, test the stability using this:

ping -t game_server_IP

Test a good 30mins or so. Check packet loss by pressing the pause_break key during that ping test.

Make sure nothing else is eating up the bandwidth by running this command:

netstat -n


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## Eliomiller (Dec 19, 2017)

Thread to be closed/archived. Thanks for your help guys. I simply switched my ISP now and it's much faster and more reliable.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 19, 2017)

Eliomiller said:


> Thread to be closed/archived. Thanks for your help guys. I simply switched my ISP now and it's much faster and more reliable.



Must of been a plant/card or co issue


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