Pluggers, I consider myself a pretty smarty guy when it comes to keeping a network up and running, but recently, I have been having a difficult time figuring out where the problems lie in my Internet connectivity problems. Need some other eye on this.
My first inclination is always to blame Comcast (my current ISP and the monopoly provider in my town). However, I am not yet convinced it is them. They currently provide me with a connection that is rated at "up to" 60Mbps down. (I know, not blazing fast.) - When I connect a machine directly to my modem (Arris SB6141), I get full speed (70+ down, 5+ up). - When I plug in my router (R7000), only one machine connected, also full speed. - When I turn on the wireless, 10 or so devices connect, nothing overly active (no streaming), also full speed. - I start adding in some of the wired devices (gaming machines, internet phone, media devices) I start seeing ping time jumping all over the place and even timing out. I would naturally expect some increases in latency as multiple machine come online and start using up some of the bandwidth, but ping times in excess of 1 second (sometimes even 3+ seconds) and even request timeouts, I do not expect. 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=480 ttl=53 time=40.792 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=481 ttl=53 time=38.482 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=482 ttl=53 time=39.145 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=483 ttl=53 time=253.197 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=484 ttl=53 time=396.841 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=485 ttl=53 time=564.304 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=486 ttl=53 time=827.045 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=487 ttl=53 time=975.489 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=488 ttl=53 time=990.361 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=489 ttl=53 time=994.714 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=490 ttl=53 time=991.633 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=491 ttl=53 time=991.545 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=492 ttl=53 time=955.479 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=493 ttl=53 time=951.906 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=494 ttl=53 time=772.042 ms Request timeout for icmp_seq 495 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=495 ttl=53 time=1021.809 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=496 ttl=53 time=1017.917 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=497 ttl=53 time=1021.218 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=498 ttl=53 time=289.421 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=499 ttl=53 time=41.352 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=500 ttl=53 time=372.632 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=501 ttl=53 time=363.949 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=502 ttl=53 time=313.215 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=503 ttl=53 time=435.189 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=504 ttl=53 time=93.229 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=505 ttl=53 time=323.441 ms When I get all my devices connected I start seeing ping responses like this: 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1079 ttl=53 time=43.187 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1080 ttl=53 time=41.130 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1081 ttl=53 time=38.914 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1082 ttl=53 time=40.470 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1083 ttl=53 time=38.809 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1084 ttl=53 time=39.203 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1085 ttl=53 time=40.279 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1086 ttl=53 time=46.982 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1087 ttl=53 time=52.701 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1088 ttl=53 time=883.421 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1089 ttl=53 time=58.761 ms Request timeout for icmp_seq 1091 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1092 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1093 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1094 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1095 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1096 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1097 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1090 ttl=53 time=8192.267 ms Request timeout for icmp_seq 1099 Request timeout for icmp_seq 1100 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1091 ttl=53 time=10303.713 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1092 ttl=53 time=10042.261 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1093 ttl=53 time=9691.866 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1094 ttl=53 time=9785.860 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1095 ttl=53 time=8787.444 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1096 ttl=53 time=8433.983 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1097 ttl=53 time=7907.556 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1098 ttl=53 time=7974.695 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1099 ttl=53 time=8286.394 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1100 ttl=53 time=7392.542 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1101 ttl=53 time=6397.529 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1102 ttl=53 time=5400.966 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1103 ttl=53 time=4856.724 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1104 ttl=53 time=4226.401 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1105 ttl=53 time=3349.851 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1106 ttl=53 time=2515.119 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1107 ttl=53 time=2432.672 ms 64 bytes from 172.217.164.110: icmp_seq=1108 ttl=53 time=3284.466 ms Thinking that perhaps my router is not handling thing very well, I swapped it out with two other (older) routers that I have to see if there was any difference. They both seemed to perform similarly. This makes me think that either the routers are old and cannot handle the load. I would be concerned about the lack of MU-MIMO on my router except that the majority of the heavy hitters on the network are all wired. Sadly, none of my routers give me a good idea of which devices are using the most bandwidth. It is possible that I have some bad actors on the network. At full usage, my Internet connections are useless. Speedtests refuse to run, or if they do the numbers are ridiculous. I have considered that perhaps the modem may be old and getting saturated. I am looking for someone who might have an extra DOCSIS 3+ compatible cable modem I could borrow to test on my network. It could just be that my own network and devices are fine and than my connection with Comcast is just not robust enough. Perhaps I need to bite the bullet and fork out the dough for higher bandwidth. I am open to any ideas or suggestions at this point. Thanks, Jonathan /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
