Router Errors

S

Soulcode

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I have a TP-LINK TD-W8950ND router and for weeks now I have been getting lag spikes and dropped packets on and off throughout the day/night. Telkom have done a line test and says my line is fine. Here are my router stats:

Statistics -- ADSL

Mode: G.DMT
Type: Fast
Line Coding: Trellis On
Status: No Defect
Link Power State: L0

Downstream Upstream
SNR Margin (dB): 22.1 14.0
Attenuation (dB): 27.0 15.0
Output Power (dBm): 10.1 8.3
Attainable Rate (Kbps): 10624 892
Rate (Kbps): 4096 512
K (number of bytes in DMT frame): 129 17
R (number of check bytes in RS code word): 0 0
S (RS code word size in DMT frame): 1 1
D (interleaver depth): 1 1
Delay (msec): 0 0

Super Frames: 706820 3915275
Super Frame Errors: 0 2
RS Words: 0 0
RS Correctable Errors: 0 0
RS Uncorrectable Errors: 0 N/A

HEC Errors: 0 0
OCD Errors: 0 0
LCD Errors: 0 0
Total Cells: 643014988 0
Data Cells: 106258475 0
Bit Errors: 0 0

Total ES: 28 0
Total SES: 0 0
Total UAS: 12 0
Click to expand...

Statistics -- LAN

Interface
Received

Transmitted
Bytes Pkts Errs Drops Bytes Pkts Errs Drops
Ethernet 311515343 872857 4621 0 721007521 923169 0 0
Click to expand...

AAL5 Interface Statistics
In Octets Out Octets In Ucast Pkts Out Ucast Pkts In Errors Out Errors In Discards Out Discards
713593382 311539434 907082 829814 5884 0 0 0

AAL5 VCC Statistics
VPI/VCI CRC Errors SAR Timeouts Oversized SDUs Short Packet Errors Length Errors
8/35 5884 0 0 0 0
Click to expand...

If that's hard to read, the errors are:
LAN Errors In - 4621
AAL5 Interface Statistics errors In - 5884
CRC Errors In - 5884

This has all been in a 3-4 hour period. Sometimes there are Super Frame down and HEC errors as well, but none since the last reset 3-4 hours ago.

What I want to know is do all these errors mean there is something wrong with my router or is the problem at the exchange? I have tried different ports on the router as well as different LAN cables, but the problem remains.
 
Also I don't have another router to test with, or this would have been simple :P
 
If you look at the amount of errors you receive versus the amount of packets received the ratio is quite low.

Lan:
311515343 vs 4621

ADSL Interface:
713593382 vs 5884

I doubt that low a ratio will noticeably affect your line performance.

Who is your ISP?

Also when you are experiencing problems do a trace route to www.mybb.co.za and paste the results here.

Edit: Your line stats also look very good and you'll easily get 10Mbps ADSL once Telkom upgrades your exchange to support it.
 
Thanks grim, but then why the dropped packets? My ISP is MWEB, but they don't seem to understand the problem. I logged a call with them on Thursday, and this morning a lady phoned me and told me that Telkom tested the line and it was fine... I know my line is fine! That's why I asked them to check the exchange and not my line.

Here is a pathping from a few minutes ago:

C:\Users\Werner>pathping -q 250 mweb.co.za

Tracing route to mweb.co.za [196.2.63.110]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 Werner-PC [192.168.1.107]
1 192.168.1.1
2 41-133-128-1.dsl.mweb.co.za [41.133.128.1]
3 197-80-4-70.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.4.70]
4 vl-92.vic-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.189.2]
5 tengig0-0-0-2.11.vic-p-2.mweb.co.za [196.22.169.226]
6 TenGigE0-0-0-0.cpt-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.4.34]
7 vlan11.cpt-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.28.178.99]
8 196.28.178.66
9 cte-core-sw2.vwol.net [196.41.144.35]
10 www.mweb.co.za [196.2.63.110]

Computing statistics for 625 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 Werner-PC [192.168.1.107]
0/ 250 = 0% |
1 0ms 0/ 250 = 0% 0/ 250 = 0% 192.168.1.1
2/ 250 = 0% |
2 51ms 3/ 250 = 1% 1/ 250 = 0% 41-133-128-1.dsl.mweb.co.za [41.133.128.1]
0/ 250 = 0% |
3 54ms 6/ 250 = 2% 4/ 250 = 1% 197-80-4-70.jhb.mweb.co.za [197.80.4.70]
0/ 250 = 0% |
4 58ms 6/ 250 = 2% 4/ 250 = 1% vl-92.vic-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.22.189.2]
0/ 250 = 0% |
5 61ms 3/ 250 = 1% 1/ 250 = 0% tengig0-0-0-2.11.vic-p-2.mweb.co.za [196.22.169.226]
0/ 250 = 0% |
6 78ms 2/ 250 = 0% 0/ 250 = 0% TenGigE0-0-0-0.cpt-p-1.mweb.co.za [197.84.4.34]
2/ 250 = 0% |
7 75ms 6/ 250 = 2% 2/ 250 = 0% vlan11.cpt-hscore-1.mweb.co.za [196.28.178.99]
0/ 250 = 0% |
8 73ms 4/ 250 = 1% 0/ 250 = 0% 196.28.178.66
0/ 250 = 0% |
9 75ms 5/ 250 = 2% 1/ 250 = 0% cte-core-sw2.vwol.net [196.41.144.35]
0/ 250 = 0% |
10 99ms 4/ 250 = 1% 0/ 250 = 0% www.mweb.co.za [196.2.63.110]

Trace complete.
Click to expand...
 
grim said:
If you look at the amount of errors you receive versus the amount of packets received the ratio is quite low.

Lan:
311515343 vs 4621

ADSL Interface:
713593382 vs 5884

I doubt that low a ratio will noticeably affect your line performance.

Who is your ISP?

Also when you are experiencing problems do a trace route to www.mybb.co.za and paste the results here.

Edit: Your line stats also look very good and you'll easily get 10Mbps ADSL once Telkom upgrades your exchange to support it.
Click to expand...

Also the received vs dropped packets are actually: (It's really hard to read which numbers correspond to which heading with the forum formatting.)

LAN: 872857 vs 4621 = 0.53%
ADSL: 907082 vs 5884 = 0.65%

That seems way too high to me.
 
Soulcode said:
Also the received vs dropped packets are actually: (It's really hard to read which numbers correspond to which heading with the forum formatting.)

LAN: 872857 vs 4621 = 0.53%
ADSL: 907082 vs 5884 = 0.65%

That seems way too high to me.
Click to expand...

I've PM'd you account details for an Axxess prepaid account you can use to test with to see if the issue persists. If it does you'll have to get another router somewhere to test with.

Also try unplugging all other devices from your telephone line including the POTS filter.
 
grim said:
I've PM'd you account details for an Axxess prepaid account you can use to test with to see if the issue persists. If it does you'll have to get another router somewhere to test with.

Also try unplugging all other devices from your telephone line including the POTS filter.
Click to expand...

I appreciate the gesture very much, but I have already tried it with an Afrihost account I have as backup, and the problem stays the same. I went and bought another router and will try it tonight. Even if the problem isn't the router it never hurts to have a spare :P
I have previously tried unplugging the fax machine and filter etc. but it does not help either :(
 
Tried the new router and the problem persists. It's a Netgear and I don't see any place where you can see errors, but regardless the problem is not my router.
 
Hi There,
If you put a normal phone on the line without filters is the line clear? If it is not then I would place a voice fault with telkom and they will fix that quickly.
You say that you have tried replacing or removing the filter so that is not likely to be the problem.
Your attenuation and noise look fine and I presume on the netgear they gave similar results? On the Netgear where did you see the packets dropped? I looked on my netgear and I don't see a statistic like that.

Regards

Tim
 
The voice line sounds completely fine. The Netgear gave similair readings on the SNR and attenuation. The Netgear has no place to see errors that I could find. I got the error readings from the TP-Link router.
 
Hi Soulcode,
Thanks for the feedback.
I was hoping that you had found a way to find the packet loss on a Netgear because I could not find it.
I have checked a couple of sites and 1 packet dropped per 1000 .1% can be tolerated another site said the following Packet loss is almost always bad when it occurs at the final destination. Packet loss happens when a packet doesn't make it there and back again. Anything over 2% packet loss over a period of time is a strong indicator of problems. Most internet protocols can correct for some packet loss, so you really shouldn't expect to see a lot of impact from packet loss until that loss starts to approach 5% and higher. Anything less than this is showing a possible problem, but one that is probably not impacting your experience significantly at present (unless you're an online gamer or something similar that requires 'twitch' reflexes). Are you doing a lot of gaming? If so then you are going to suffer given you .5% loss.
One of the problems for dropping packets can be connection congestion at say the exchange.
It may be possible to get moved to another exchange but you may be just moving the problem.
 
Tim the Techxpert said:
Hi Soulcode,
Thanks for the feedback.
I was hoping that you had found a way to find the packet loss on a Netgear because I could not find it.
I have checked a couple of sites and 1 packet dropped per 1000 .1% can be tolerated another site said the following Packet loss is almost always bad when it occurs at the final destination. Packet loss happens when a packet doesn't make it there and back again. Anything over 2% packet loss over a period of time is a strong indicator of problems. Most internet protocols can correct for some packet loss, so you really shouldn't expect to see a lot of impact from packet loss until that loss starts to approach 5% and higher. Anything less than this is showing a possible problem, but one that is probably not impacting your experience significantly at present (unless you're an online gamer or something similar that requires 'twitch' reflexes). Are you doing a lot of gaming? If so then you are going to suffer given you .5% loss.
One of the problems for dropping packets can be connection congestion at say the exchange.
It may be possible to get moved to another exchange but you may be just moving the problem.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your help :) I use my connection mostly for online gaming, so I can really feel the loss :(
I live in a small town with only 1 exchange that I know of. I really can't see it being congestion, the town is just too small for the exchange to be congested. However the problem does seem to be worse during business hours. I really think the problem is exchange related and it does get worse with higher volumes of traffic, but it must be something other than congestion.
 
For reference: The CRC error rate from last night until 7 this morning was 0.002% and I really didn't feel any problems last night while gaming. The CRC error rate during business hours so far today is 0.75% That's why I say the problem gets worse with higher traffic volumes to the exchange.
 
Somebody from Telkom just phoned me and they are claiming it's congestion #@#$#$ He also said it would help if I drop my line speed down, but he couldn't explain to me how exactly that was gonna help with congestion. Sounds like bull**** to me.
Seems I am just out of luck until they upgrade the exchange one day :(
 
There are pretty much 3 options to deal with congestion:
1) move you to a DSLAM/exchange that isn't congested
2) downgrade everyone's max line speed so that there is sufficient bandwidth again
3) upgrade the bandwidth of the DSLAM/exchange that is congested, which is probably a lengthy & expensive process
 
I'm having this exact problem. I have tried everything except removing the POTS filter which I'm on my way to try now.

Webafrica and Axxess say it's Telkom and Telkom said downgrade from 4mb to 2mb - didn't help. The biggest issue is once you say the magic words "packet-loss" then the Telkom technician gets a blank stare. They come out, test the line, say everything is fine, I say packet-loss ... *crick-crick* ...

There must be someone out there who has the solution.
 
i am having the exact same problem with the exact same tp link router. so far the calls with MWEB and Telkom is fruitless. It seems that the term packet loss is something those guys don't seem to understand. my speeds are fine just packet loss is extremely frustrating!

no solution as yet i will try another modem tonight
 
Soulcode said:
Somebody from Telkom just phoned me and they are claiming it's congestion #@#$#$ He also said it would help if I drop my line speed down, but he couldn't explain to me how exactly that was gonna help with congestion. Sounds like bull**** to me.
Seems I am just out of luck until they upgrade the exchange one day :(
Click to expand...

I am just trying my luck here but did you ever get this issue resolved?
 
spacegeneral said:
I'm having this exact problem. I have tried everything except removing the POTS filter which I'm on my way to try now.

Webafrica and Axxess say it's Telkom and Telkom said downgrade from 4mb to 2mb - didn't help. The biggest issue is once you say the magic words "packet-loss" then the Telkom technician gets a blank stare. They come out, test the line, say everything is fine, I say packet-loss ... *crick-crick* ...

There must be someone out there who has the solution.
Click to expand...

The solution is to get hold of the Telkom Network Manager of your area thats how I got my packet loss fixed due to a cable fault 2 years back
 
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