Need Help from you Networking peoples

[Cain]

I got my new RR Extreme connection...

DosCIS 3.0 30 down 5 up...

Here comes the question, every server I ping, poll and trace using Ping Plotter shows massive packet loss on almost every hop in the middle. There seems to be no way I am losing that many packets on eny and every server I poll.

If I use pingtest, it says I have 0 PL and so does UO Trace...

Is it possible that my newer faster much higher upload connection is saturating these intermediate routers to the point they think they are being flooded and start dropping my ICMP packets??

I'm stumped here everything but Ping Plotter tells me the connection, and routing is fine. Ping plotter says I am getting 30-50% PL on 70% of the intermediate routers on any server I poll...

thoughts ??

How else can I check to see if my PL is real, or a problem with ping plotter??

[Cain]

[Savage_Hobo]

Does Ping Plotter ping each individual host in the middle?

Not all hosts will reply to ICMP pings. If you just ping the actual endpoint and not the intermediate hosts do you see the packet loss?

[Cain]

Good questions...

Yes it polls and pings every single hop in between two points...

It is the intermediate points showing the PL... However Ping Plotter with the same computer never showed this much PL with my old connection...

the old connection was .5 up, this one is 5 megs up, is it possible I am saturating those intermediate routers with ICMP packets and they say "Whoah there hoss" and start dropping the packets??


Question how can I ping and poll just my endpoint?? And I want to ping and poll it longer than one or two round trips of packets...

[mapes]

I got my new RR Extreme connection...

DosCIS 3.0 30 down 5 up...

Here comes the question, every server I ping, poll and trace using Ping Plotter shows massive packet loss on almost every hop in the middle. There seems to be no way I am losing that many packets on eny and every server I poll.

If I use pingtest, it says I have 0 PL and so does UO Trace...

Is it possible that my newer faster much higher upload connection is saturating these intermediate routers to the point they think they are being flooded and start dropping my ICMP packets??

I'm stumped here everything but Ping Plotter tells me the connection, and routing is fine. Ping plotter says I am getting 30-50% PL on 70% of the intermediate routers on any server I poll...

thoughts ??

How else can I check to see if my PL is real, or a problem with ping plotter??

I doubt it. You by your self could never generate enough ICMP traffic to be a threat to anyone. It is possible that a router will low prioritize your ICMP traffic if it's under load but, really I don't think that is happening. To be honest these windows tools kinda crack me up. Don't use a speed test site either as crap like Comcast "Speedboost" which is really just caching affect the result.

The best way to test any connection is large file transfers. In any of the normal ways like FTP, SCP or HTTP which all use TCP. TCP requires more overhead (because the connection state is tracked). I was gonna suggest downloading Wireshark but, the learning curve is steep. Instead what I'd do is in a CMD shell type netstat -e -s 4. then start a large file transfer. Netstat is going to display Ethernet and TCP/IP statisitcs and update that every 4 seconds. You might want to increase the buffer to the max in the properties for the cmd shell so you can scroll back (sadley you cannot log a MS CMD shell to a file). Look for any stat this is increasing. Of course other than just packets TX or RX.

[mapes]

Good questions...

Yes it polls and pings every single hop in between two points...

It is the intermediate points showing the PL... However Ping Plotter with the same computer never showed this much PL with my old connection...

the old connection was .5 up, this one is 5 megs up, is it possible I am saturating those intermediate routers with ICMP packets and they say "Whoah there hoss" and start dropping the packets??


Question how can I ping and poll just my endpoint?? And I want to ping and poll it longer than one or two round trips of packets...

ping -t host

[Cain]

I doubt it. You by your self could never generate enough ICMP traffic to be a threat to anyone. It is possible that a router will low prioritize your ICMP traffic if it's under load but, really I don't think that is happening. To be honest these windows tools kinda crack me up. Don't use a speed test site either as crap like Comcast "Speedboost" which is really just caching affect the result.

The best way to test any connection is large file transfers. In any of the normal ways like FTP, SCP or HTTP which all use TCP. TCP requires more overhead (because the connection state is tracked). I was gonna suggest downloading Wireshark but, the learning curve is steep. Instead what I'd do is in a CMD shell type netstat -e -s 4. then start a large file transfer. Netstat is going to display Ethernet and TCP/IP statisitcs and update that every 4 seconds. You might want to increase the buffer to the max in the properties for the cmd shell so you can scroll back (sadley you cannot log a MS CMD shell to a file). Look for any stat this is increasing. Of course other than just packets TX or RX.

Could I send or download a file from one of my Logicsouth boxes??

the Level 3 cable guy just sent a ton of date to and from my modem and said he saw 0 PL.

OK, so as it stands now....


UO Trace says I'm good
Pingtest.net says I'm good
Time Warner says I'm good...

Ping Plotter says I am losing 25-50% of all my packets on 80% of the hops to any server !!

[mapes]

Cain this is the problem with GUI frontend network tools. You don't know really what they're doing. I did some research on ping plotter ...from they're site.

Can do traceroute using either Windows-standard ICMP echo requests, Unix-standard UDP requests, or TCP requests (ie: HTTP, FTP, etc). Some ISPs block one, and not the other - this gives you more opportunities to be able to collect performance data - even if your ISP doesn't want you to.

Try using the the different modes.

Also a good way to look for packet loss is by TCP retransmits using netstat -s. So what I would do is

1. Get a session on your logicsouth box.
2. Run netstat -s and record the value of Segments Retransmitted under TCP stats
3. Transfer a file from your logicsouth box to you home system.
4. Rerun netstat -s and check the value of the retransmits.

Some retransmits are fine, a ton that indicates a problem. Other stats you could also check is

Under IPv4 stats
Datagrams Failing Fragmentation
Reassembly Failures

Fragmentation is when a link on a router cannot handle packets above a certain size. So the router breaks up the packets into smaller chunks and sets a bit that says

A. This is a fragment
B. This fragment is number 2 out of 100

So either the router is messing up the fragmentation process or the router is messing up the defrag process

Also there is the Errors statistic under the ICMP heading. Try your ping test and check on your home system and the logicsouth box that

A The ICMP request/reply stats rise and
B. There are no Errors being reported.

Lastly run netstat -e

Look for either Errors or Discards increasing. This would indicate an issue with the local link. Like a faulty cable or improper auto negotiation