My internet has been so flaky these last couple of weeks and I have no idea why really. Always going down for seconds to minutes, high pings, and dropped packets probably. Any suggestions on good programs that I can run in the background that can alert me when a problem arises? My platform is so sensitive to connectivity issues it's been giving me lots of problems lately.
Thanks. great little program 100% packetloss to my quote server on one computer, about 50% on the other. WTF. Certain sites like google are fine though. Service guy coming in a couple of days to replace 5 year old modem. Hopefully that helps. Or else it's time to switch services. Edit: nvm, on the computer with 100% loss I had put a 4 instead of a 7 in the address -__- but still losing 20-50% of packets along the way
Just buy your own modem, they rip you on the rental. Comcast here uses Motorolla SB 5100, works well.
You'll find that some servers on the internet don't have ICMP enabled, so they won't answer pings. Usually it's not web servers (http) but data servers that are like this. So when you see 100% packet loss it doesn't *necessarily* mean that the server is down or that your connection to it is bad.
Thanks for the info. What about 10-50% along the way? It's not just one place, its multiple places. How does it affect the data I'm getting?
Also doesn't necessarily mean anything. It is a good indication that there might be a problem but nothing concrete. Almost every router that comprises major hops on the net will be configured to prioritize all other trafic over ICMP (ping) packets. This means that if a route gets "busy", it will ignore the ICMP packets. And unfortunately there isn't any standards to say that routers should only ignore ICMP at 80% load or whatever so its quite possible some paranoid sysadmin out there has it set to 25 or 50%. On the other hand, like I said initially, it might also mean something is wrong, so any good network tech will still investigate it as a posibility. -edit to add- Basicly, the answer to your original question is "Yes" software exists to accurately test the quality of a network connection. However, this software is very expensive and usually built into hardware devices. As a result, it is probably best to let your ISP handle such investigations. Unless you don't trust that they are giving you the service you are paying for at which point it is time to find another ISP. And don't let them get you to settle for something you aren't happy with. Don't let them tell you there is nothing they can do. There is always something they CAN do. If you are not happy, make sure you harass them until they tell you there is nothing they WILL do to help you. That is the point to decide if you can justify settling with what you have or want to look for something else.
The pingplotter online help and getting started guide http://www.pingplotter.com/gsg/ provides additional information on usage, limitations and real life examples. Good luck trying to get any national ISP's like Cox, Comcast, ATT, Verizon, Qwest, etc.... to take initiative troubleshooting your connection. Service issues come and go all the time. I would rather know about the problem asap versus the frustration of trying to get someone else to help in a timely manner. That is the reason why a program like this exists.
Very true. In my experience, once you have a tech come to your home and check out all of your connections ( replacing splitters with high quality ones, adding an amplifier, helping to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, etc. ) the only other thing that you can do is REPLACE THE MODEM. 9 times out of 10, it is the modem that is failing . . . They are literally like the VCR of yesteryear and need to be replaced after 1-1.5 years. I used to use Motorola modems via Comcast. After awhile, they would fail. Recently, I replaced a second RCA modem via Comcast, only to fail after about a year. Now they gave me a Motorola SB-5120. It's not the latest Motorola unit (SB5101) but it has worked pretty well the last couple of weeks. Remember, these modems from your carrier are "refurbished" units. Literally throwaways. The same can be said for Routers too. Hope this helps.