Trying not to get a technician fee charge! Broadband lag/disconnection

[Andymac61]

Howdy guys,

Hoping that someone can advise me on a problem that has been making me lose my mind on a regular basis! I cant go another round of phone calls to virgins broadband "help line"

I have been having laggy/disconnection problems with my Xbox for quite a while and have been trying to narrow down the problems that might be causing this:

- Checked that router is set up correctly and attached my xbox directly to the modem...still same problem exists. (router not guilty)

- Checked my friends xbox with my internet connection, same problem happens when playing a game on his xbox (my xbox not guilty)

- The servers i normally use are the EA servers (FIFA 10), yet although these are generally renowned for being pretty bad, why would my settings have poor connection to them when others have a fine connection? I actually checked my xbox on my friends ISP (sky 8mb) and the connection was smooth to the EA servers.

I have been on the phone to Virgins UK tech team and as usual I seem to have the upload and downstream speed that I should be getting and from their end they cant seem to find a problem.

I'm now left to think whether i should risk getting a technician out to see if there is a fault with the cabling (chance of a charge if he thinks its fine) or if the modem hardware is possible faulty?

Feel like I have tried every avenue to sort out this problem but can seem to find any resolution.....your help would be much appreciated!

[pip08456]

Check your PM's

[Andymac61]

How would I do that?

[joglynne]

Scroll to the top of this page and if you have received a PM(private message) it should be showing in the small box directly above your "log out" option. Clicking on "Private Messages" will take you directly to the message.

[haydnwalker]

Howdy guys,

Hoping that someone can advise me on a problem that has been making me lose my mind on a regular basis! I cant go another round of phone calls to virgins broadband "help line"

I have been having laggy/disconnection problems with my Xbox for quite a while and have been trying to narrow down the problems that might be causing this:

- Checked that router is set up correctly and attached my xbox directly to the modem...still same problem exists. (router not guilty)

- Checked my friends xbox with my internet connection, same problem happens when playing a game on his xbox (my xbox not guilty)

- The servers i normally use are the EA servers (FIFA 10), yet although these are generally renowned for being pretty bad, why would my settings have poor connection to them when others have a fine connection? I actually checked my xbox on my friends ISP (sky 8mb) and the connection was smooth to the EA servers.

I have been on the phone to Virgins UK tech team and as usual I seem to have the upload and downstream speed that I should be getting and from their end they cant seem to find a problem.

I'm now left to think whether i should risk getting a technician out to see if there is a fault with the cabling (chance of a charge if he thinks its fine) or if the modem hardware is possible faulty?

Feel like I have tried every avenue to sort out this problem but can seem to find any resolution.....your help would be much appreciated!

Sounds a bit like a routing issue... Are the Servers US Based? (I'm guessing they are because it will be XBOX Live you're using).

Though I don't play FIFA 10 I do play Forza 3 and a bit of MW2 online and my route seems ok...no lag etc.

[Andymac61]

This is an update on the problem i'm still having, any idea's guys? :

Howdy,


Just off the phone with the 43rd person I have spoken to at Virgin Broadband, this time with a Tech guy from Liverpool 2nd line team.....finally got to a top guy!


To summarise, I seem to have a fault with my connection when playing Xbox live, which is either a constant lag or complete disconnection.


I have tried everything to see why I have this, checked DMZ, UPnP and port forwarding on my router, connected without my router, checked my friends xbox on my isp (still lag problem), checked my xbox on his sky isp (no problem, smooth playing) and then contacted the main server I use (EA) to see why i have these problems, especially as other do not.


They asked me to send them details of a trace route to their server and poll this with pings to see why i'm having this fault, when discussing this tarce route with an EA technician he said the fault lay with my isp. My trace route is this:


Host Name IP Address Hop Ping Time Ping Avg % Loss Pkts r/s Ping best/worst
* Unknown Host * 10.232.0.1 1 33ms 100% 0 / 10
renf-cam-1b-v112.network.virginmedia.net 80.4.64.157 2 8ms 24ms 0% 10 / 10 8ms / 38ms
renf-core-1b-ae2-0.network.virginmedia.net 195.182.176.181 3 36ms 20ms 0% 10 / 10 6ms / 39ms
leed-bb-1b-as3-0.network.virginmedia.net 213.105.175.225 4 28ms 20ms 0% 10 / 10 13ms / 47ms
* Unknown Host * 62.252.224.238 5 27ms 100% 0 / 10
xe-11-1-0-xcr1.lnd.cw.net 195.2.10.249 6 71ms 38ms 0% 10 / 10 28ms / 71ms
xe-5-3-0-xcr1.nyk.cw.net 195.2.25.197 7 89ms 105ms 0% 10 / 10 89ms / 121ms
xe-7-3-0-xcr1.ash.cw.net 195.2.21.138 8 96ms 112ms 0% 10 / 10 95ms / 129ms
Eth1-7.edge03.abn-iad.ea.com 206.223.115.55 9 123ms 100% 0 / 10
* Unknown Host * 159.153.224.222 10 98ms 105ms 0% 10 / 10 98ms / 124ms
fert07-eqx-iad.ea.com 159.153.224.230 11 128ms 107ms 0% 10 / 10 93ms / 131ms
meav5-pub.pt.iad.ea.com 159.153.226.105 12 100ms 110ms 0% 10 / 10 98ms / 148ms

Can anyone see why i'm having this fault, whats to blame and how i go about rectifying this?


Thank you!

[Andymac61]

anyone?

[Kymmy]

How can the fault lie with your ISP with those tracert results, by the look of it you have roughly a 150ms ping to the states which is normal for most UK traffic

[Andymac61]

The 100% packet lose that I have at the start of the trace (i.p 10.232.0.1) is that normal? I can see that it loses 100% packets at the 4th last hop but cant seem to find a way to rectify this problem?

[horseman]

The 100% packet lose that I have at the start of the trace (i.p 10.232.0.1) is that normal?

On your (and some other) specific CM/uBR dropping ICMP by default- So in context, yes it's normal.


I can see that it loses 100% packets at the 4th last hop but cant seem to find a way to rectify this problem?

SPI/filtering on Entertainment Arts Edge router will similarly drop ICMP

If you try using a network analyser with higher priority UDP or say TCPtraceroute you can see for yourself...

Other than that the only problems you typically encounter is host domain blackholing your IP CIDR range due to malevolent activity originating from your part of VM network("guilt by association") or actual VM routing metrics(choosing perhaps more cost effective but less optimal routing path).

[Andymac61]

Realistically then i'm not going to get the problem sorted and if I stay with virgin it will be kept as it is? They are totally unwilling to do anything about it when I speak to their technical support

[horseman]

Realistically then i'm not going to get the problem sorted and if I stay with virgin it will be kept as it is? They are totally unwilling to do anything about it when I speak to their technical support
I certainly didn't wish to imply that negative spin, nor equally to engage in semantics - however I suspect (with the one stated exception) you've only experienced Level 1 TS via callcentre's?

Particularly if you've encountered VM's off-shore call centre then they do not represent "realistically competent technical support" for the potential routing problem you are experiencing!

It is far outside their limited scope/abilities and the only way to progress is to provide sufficient diagnostics/traces in order to engage Level 2 Network support via Help & Support Forum who can then re-test the scenario via your uBR to provide a reproducible failure test case that is sufficient to escalate to Level 3 INMC who can eventually resolve the problem.

While you appear to have least attempted the obvious by removing both router and your specific Xbox from the equation there is no obvious indications from the limited traceroute you have then provided to point to any obvious problems?

I would suggest (if you haven't done so already) then providing:
1. Full CM data inc error logs (redacting any MAC/SERIAL NO in the info)
2. Some indication of the frequency and date/time of disconnects.
3. Again depending on the failure frequency some extended pings (try 1000) and submitting just the summary at bottom of trace.
4. Checking your postcode(first part) and more specifically your uBR/CMTS (use "Connection" in forum header ensuring your customer no is redacted) against known utilisation/snr probs already raised on H&S website.

If you can eventually reproduce a failure trace via PC/XBOX diagnostic and/or correlate specific times/frequency such that CMTS/ubr stats can be checked then you stand more of a chance of progressing the problem.
I certainly wouldn't unilaterally demand an engineer visit but let Level 2 on H&S website suggest this if they consider it warranted based on your submission to avoid possibility of a NFF charge?

[Andymac61]

Thank you for the detailed response. I have spoken a few times to the level 2 techs in Liverpool but alas they couldnt see a problem and also stated "they dont really care if I leave virgin". Despite the fact that i have a constant lag and comple disconnection from mostly EA related games (now getting it with COD), they state they do not support the Xbox and from their end there is no problem.

Phoned virgin and stated i was leaving the broadband and telephone service, at which point i have been referred to a Broadband "genius" who apparently will be able to resolve any problems I have. This is the last resort and as gutted as I will be in leaving a cable connection, i fail to find a reason to stay when I cant use my broadband for the things i most want to.

If anyone in the renfrew, south glasgow area have similiar problems with disconnect and in particular xbox live, please reply.

Thanks again for the advice mate.