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Having Packet Loss Recently, What can I do to prevent it.

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dstorrow

Registered
Joined
Oct 12, 2002
Location
Indiana University
Well, first of all I do not know much about networking and such and just know the basics.

Anyway, I play online computer games and have been getting quite a bit of PL recently sometimes 1 sometimes it goes to 9. This can really ruin your game. The Internet connection is an Indiana University connection. I am pretty sure they use fiber optics to connect to the backbone, however I am connected to this via 10mb LAN.

I may have somehow changed some connection settings in windows, but I do now know how as I havent messed around with that part of the control panel since I put the OS on and configed my Internet.

I have tried the repair button in the network connection box, but it does nothing as far as I can tell. Are there settings or test or anything that will get rid of this PL or may it just be that the network is having trouble. BTW, this happens at all times of the day/night 4 in the morning 8 in evening, midnight, noon, etc.

Thanks for help,
DragonSlayer
 
For a first stab you might try the following:

1) do a tracert from your command prompt to your game server. This will show you the major hops between you and the server. Keep the ip addresses of each of these hops.

2) do a hundred pings to each of these ip addresses. (ping 198.133.219.25 -n 100). After the ping command completes it will show you if it has any lost packets.

Using this method you may be able to find the offending link.
 
Huckleberry said:
For a first stab you might try the following:

1) do a tracert from your command prompt to your game server. This will show you the major hops between you and the server. Keep the ip addresses of each of these hops.

2) do a hundred pings to each of these ip addresses. (ping 198.133.219.25 -n 100). After the ping command completes it will show you if it has any lost packets.

Using this method you may be able to find the offending link.

Thanks for your reply

But it says that the -n is not valid. There is no option that I can find to ping it 100 times.
 
Sorry, I should have asked for your OS and version.

This command, executed at the MSDOS command prompt, is valid on at least W2K, 98ed2 and NT. What is your OS? The "ping -?" command will show you your options, assuming you're running some variant of Windows.
 
not a problem it is xp pro, yes it did show a list of options but none of them included a charachter for pinging x amount of times. I will just try doing it a couple times in a row and get an average.

-DragonSlayer

BTW, someone told me that maybe somehow my RWIN (not sure if that is right) settings were changed. Would a change in those settings cause packet loss??
 
According to that traceroute you posted, there is no major problem. Yes there is a bit of latency on hop 12 replying to your ping, but there is no packet loss anywhere. A routers first job is to forward packets, pings/traceroutes directed to a specific router take a back seat to that. I'm sure verio knows if there is a problem with that router or not and will fix it if it needs to be.

According to hop 14, pings are getting to your server's ip with no problem or latency, which is all that matters really.

How/with what are you measuring this 'packet loss' anyway?
 
I dont if you play Unreal Tournament 2, but there is a way to view the net stats from within the game. yes I am positive it is PL not lag (it happens with all pings 30-100+). The walls of a map will start to shake or sometimes the whole level, if I get near a person, wall, object, pillar etc. The whole screen will start to shake. Also, sometimes my gun will not fire its projectile/ammo, or sometimes, there is warping, or my guns automatically start switching or zooming in by themselves.

For about a week now, I have been getting this packet loss, it usually is either a constant PL losting 1-2 packets every few secs w/ the occasional spike up to about 14-15. Or it is sporatic packet loss that happen about every 10 secs or so and is always varying in the amount usually it is limited to about 8 or 9 though.

Like I said, I don't know how to interpret what the tracert gave me, so thanks for that. But could the PL be due to these RWIN settings I was told about? And yes I do have the appropriate network type selected in the game (lan/t1).

-DragonSlayer
 
RWIN is a TCP setting. UT2k3(as well as 99% of other online games) use UDP as the transport method, so your rwin change isn't the problem. UDP is NOT guaranteed transport, and if the packet along those 14 hops to your server gets dropped for one of many reasons, it may show up as loss. This is normal for all UDP applications(games, some streaming video, etc).

This packet loss is normal for pretty much all online games and does not affect the playing experience unless the loss is very heavy.
 
alrox said:
RWIN is a TCP setting. UT2k3(as well as 99% of other online games) use UDP as the transport method, so your rwin change isn't the problem. UDP is NOT guaranteed transport, and if the packet along those 14 hops to your server gets dropped for one of many reasons, it may show up as loss. This is normal for all UDP applications(games, some streaming video, etc).

This packet loss is normal for pretty much all online games and does not affect the playing experience unless the loss is very heavy.

Well for me the constant 1or2 PL, it makes the enitre screen jitter constantly. When I get near objects and the the it shakes the PL is usually at 4. When guns arent working it is usually between 4-7, the warping and other extreme stuff happen at the 14-15 so what your saying does make sense. The rproblem is none of this happened for the 5-6 months I played it before now. I guess the network must be having its period.

-DragonSlayer
 
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