Variable latency, packet loss and slow upload

[botpet]

Hello everybody,

This is my first post, and I am doing it because I am tired of complaining to customer support without any resolution to my problems. All they do is diagnose that from their end everything seems to be OK. Sometimes they send a techincian to measure signal levels (which are always OK) and once to replace my modem (no difference). 

I am on the gigabit plan, and currently have the CODA-4582 modem with two black dots, hardware version 1A and software version 2.0.10.24 running in gateway mode. All signal levels are OK. Here is a sample of one of the 32 downstream channels:

port            freq              mod          signal (dbmV)    chan ID        S/N (db)
 21     681000000      256QAM           7.600                 21           40.366

all other ports are within 15% of this one.

and here are the upstream channels:

port       freq                  mod                  signal (dbmV)    chan ID    bandwidth

1       38595687   ATDMA - 64QAM        38.250                 3            3200000

2       30596000   ATDMA - 64QAM        36.250                 1            6400000

3       23700000   ATDMA - 64QAM        35.250                 2            6400000

So, from the modem point of view everything is fine. I also get decent download speeds, usually between 900 and 940 Mbps - close enough to 1Gbps

Unfortunately, upload speeds are all over the place and very rarely they go up to the nominal 50 Mbps. Most of the time they hover around 10 Mbps, but in the evening they go down to around 5 Mbps.

Pings to the gateway vary between 4ms and 530ms and packet loss varies between 0 and 30%. Pinging sites on the internet shows similar results.

I am running smokeping to the gateway, google, yahoo and two VPSes I have with two different providers. All graphs show identical pattern. Here is the smokeping for my gateway for last 5 days:

This all points to some kind of congestion, most likely on the upstream path only, but I can't really say where. When I try to explain this to customer support, I get a feeling that they don't understand what I am talking about. They are nice and polite, but I am afraid that this is above their techincal level.

This situation bothers me because I need fast and reliable upload speed (my wife is a graphics designer and she uploads a lot of artwork), I cannot play anything online, and I frequently get disconnected from PSN and my Netflix stops in the middle of streaming. Couple of times I got disconnected from my bank while paying for my bills.

What can I do to escalate this problem to somebody who can actually do something about it?

Thanks for listening to my rant, any help will be apreciated.

Dejan

*Edited Labels*

[Datalink]

one of the moderators will have to approve the image so that its publicly available.  Can you post both the downstream and upstream signal levels.   I'd like to see if you have DOCSIS 3.1 running which can be seen in the OFDM channels. 

[botpet]

@Datalink Thanks for the quick reply. Here are the DOCSIS status page:

DOCSIS WAN

This menu displays both upstream and downstream signal parameters

DOCSIS Overview

Downstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Signal noise ratio (dB)
1	603000000	256QAM	6.800	9	40.366
2	561000000	256QAM	6.400	2	40.366
3	567000000	256QAM	6.300	3	40.366
4	573000000	256QAM	6.300	4	40.366
5	579000000	256QAM	6.800	5	40.366
6	585000000	256QAM	7.000	6	40.946
7	591000000	256QAM	6.600	7	40.366
8	597000000	256QAM	6.500	8	40.366
9	555000000	256QAM	6.000	1	40.366
10	609000000	256QAM	7.300	10	40.946
11	615000000	256QAM	7.300	11	40.946
12	621000000	256QAM	7.200	12	40.366
13	633000000	256QAM	7.600	13	40.946
14	639000000	256QAM	7.600	14	40.366
15	645000000	256QAM	7.600	15	40.366
16	651000000	256QAM	7.400	16	40.366
17	657000000	256QAM	7.600	17	40.946
18	663000000	256QAM	7.800	18	40.946
19	669000000	256QAM	8.000	19	40.366
20	675000000	256QAM	7.900	20	40.366
21	681000000	256QAM	7.600	21	40.366
22	687000000	256QAM	8.000	22	40.366
23	693000000	256QAM	8.300	23	40.946
24	699000000	256QAM	8.500	24	40.366
25	705000000	256QAM	8.200	25	40.366
26	711000000	256QAM	8.300	26	40.366
27	717000000	256QAM	8.900	27	40.946
28	723000000	256QAM	9.000	28	40.366
29	825000000	256QAM	8.300	29	40.366
30	831000000	256QAM	8.000	30	40.366
31	837000000	256QAM	7.500	31	38.983
32	843000000	256QAM	6.700	32	38.983

OFDM Downstream Overview

Receiver	FFT type	Subcarr 0 Frequency(MHz)	PLC locked	NCP locked	MDC1 locked	PLC power(dBmv)
0	NA	NA	NO	NO	NO	NA
1	4K	275600000	YES	YES	YES	3.599998

Upstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Bandwidth
1	38595687	ATDMA - 64QAM	38.250	3	3200000
2	30596000	ATDMA - 64QAM	36.250	1	6400000
3	23700000	ATDMA - 64QAM	35.250	2	6400000

OFDM/OFDMA Overview

Channel Index	State	lin Digital Att	Digital Att	BW (sc's*fft)	Report Power	Report Power1_6	FFT Size
0	DISABLED	0.5000	0.0000	0.0000	-inf	-1.0000	4K
1	DISABLED	0.5000	0.0000	0.0000	-inf	-1.0000	4K

[botpet]

I am still seeing the same problem. Here is the smokeping to my gateway

for the last 10 days:

Rogers support says that they don't see a problem after the investigation. They didn't want to look at my smokeping results. A technician is scheduled to visit my place today again, but I don't have any hope he would be able to solve anything. Everything is fine on my end.

Here is a graph from speedtest.net, upload history. Something changed between February 10 and 14 and I started experiencing this variable upload speeds. The last fairly consistent measurement at ~50Mbps I had on the 10th and then next time on the 14the I had 4.38Mbps. After that it's been all over the place and only occasionally close to ~50Mbps. Here is the graph:

Download has been pretty steady at around 940Mbps during the entire period.

How can I get somebody from Rogers to look at all this evidence?

[MTBGCA]

I have seen times when using the internet (facebook and online gaiming mostly) where the response in very slow. This has sent me down the path to look into ping. 

Here is my setup-

1. Hitron CGN3ROG router / modem

2. ethernet cable from computer to router / modem

3. running "Internet Condutivity Monitor" on Chrome

Normal pings are giving me in the 40's ms but also getting pings as high as 1,000 ms.

Any thoughts?

P.S. location is West London, Ontario

[gp-se]

@MTBGCA

what plan are you on? if you're on the Ignite 100u or higher you can swap to the new CODA modem. The CODA modem with the latest beta firmware is great for low latency/ping. However if you notice your latecny goes bad during peak hours then it could be that your area is congested. I would call tech support when you experience the issue and ask them to check your signal and others in your area.

[MTBGCA]

Thanks for the reply but I'm on Ignite 60 so can't get he better modem.

I have Ping Plotter Pro running and tracking www.google.com, www.rogers.com and www. pingplotter.com. What is constant is that the average at the router is around 7.5 but at the first hop it's in the mid 20's and final hop in the mid 20's for google and rogers but 51 for pingplotter. I also see some packet loss on each.

Thanks again

[gp-se]

@MTBGCA when this happens what time is it? during the day or in the afternoon. Congestion could be an issue, but can you log in to the modem and post your DOCSIS WAN signal stats. A weak signal could cause packets to be dropped.

[MTBGCA]

I tried posting this twice earlier in the day and didn't show up.

Time of doesn't appear to be a problem, somewhat the same at all times of the day.

Here's the router status as 13:13 today:

Downstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Signal noise ratio (dB)	Channel ID
1	609000000	256QAM	-0.100	40.366	10
2	603000000	256QAM	-0.400	38.983	9
3	615000000	256QAM	-0.100	38.983	11
4	621000000	256QAM	-0.500	38.983	12
5	633000000	256QAM	-0.500	38.983	13
6	639000000	256QAM	-0.700	40.366	14
7	645000000	256QAM	-0.800	38.983	15
8	651000000	256QAM	-0.700	38.983	16
9	657000000	256QAM	-0.300	38.983	17
10	663000000	256QAM	0.100	38.983	18
11	669000000	256QAM	0.500	38.983	19
12	675000000	256QAM	1.100	38.983	20
13	681000000	256QAM	1.500	38.983	21
14	687000000	256QAM	1.800	38.983	22
15	693000000	256QAM	2.300	38.983	23
16	699000000	256QAM	2.400	40.366	24
17	705000000	256QAM	2.300	40.946	25
18	711000000	256QAM	2.100	40.366	26
19	717000000	256QAM	1.900	40.366	27
20	723000000	256QAM	1.600	38.983	28
21	825000000	256QAM	1.200	38.983	29
22	831000000	256QAM	1.200	40.946	30
23	837000000	256QAM	1.000	38.605	31
24	843000000	256QAM	1.000	38.605	32

Upstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	BandWidth	Modulation Type	Signal Strength (dBmV)	Channel ID
1	38596000	3200000	ATDMA	42.750	6
2	30596000	6400000	ATDMA	41.250	4
3	23700000	6400000	ATDMA	41.000	5

[gp-se]

@MTBGCA signal levels look excellent, I would say this could be a Node issue.

You could try a hardware swap for a CGN3ACSMR, your plan should be eligible for that since you can't get a CODA.