FTTP - Packet loss when using full speed

Hi, I've had a PlusNet 500mb fttp for a few months. When the full 500mb is being used the connection suffers 5-6% packet loss.

I've tried multiple different routers the PlusNet one and an openwrt one. I've even tried a dial up pppoe connection from a pc and all suffer the same. MJ quinn did the install and struggled to splice the connection at the CSP. Would a poor splice cause these sort of issues?

At light usage the connection is fine and speeds are fine. But any time critcial stuff suffers such as voip and gaming, i'd expect latency issuess when downoading etc but over 5% packet loss doesnt seem right.

A few pics of the issue showing packet loss when downloading at 500mb.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...


https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

Ive had alt net provider at my old house and never saw these issues.

Any ideas?

Would a poor splice cause these sort of issues?

I seriously doubt it.?

Try this packet loss site https://packetlosstest.com/

Make sure to select the server in the UK

So I started an update on battle.net (Call of duty) on 1 of the pcs. It's hard wired direct to the router. Once the update starts downloading at 60-64MB/s any device starts getting packet loss to outside. You ping the router no issues with no drops.

Just did a Packetlosstest.com test and it shows 6.9% packet loss over a 60 second test.

Think broadband monitor also shows this loss.

BTW all tests are done hard wired.

Edited by LIGHTFAST (Wed 23-Oct-24 13:32:04)

Who was the old alt net? curious if it was pppoe or ipoe(dhcp).

BT wholesale will apply a rate limit as they dont like buffer bloat on their network. If that gets hit, then you have indiscriminate dropped packets.

It sounds like you are getting packet loss on other devices when you are fully utilising the bandwidth on the game download, if that is the case it is exactly what you would expect. You can't get more data through the connection when it's already saturated, so loss of data will happen.

In reply to a post by LIGHTFAST:

Just did a Packetlosstest.com test and it shows 6.9% packet loss over a 60 second test.

Did you do the Packetlosstest.com test while nothing else was using your broadband connection?

the old alt net was brsk (wan was dhcp) and was very good.

At idle I get no packet loss. I would expect latency not packet loss though on the connection when downloading?

If anyone else can try start an update on battlenet or epic games then ping 8.8.8.8 and see if get issues. I had a temp 30mb Sogea line for a while and even that managed better without packet loss just latency.

Possibly simply that the router is not a very high spec. Under heavy download routers that are pinged remotely can just drop the ping rather than respond to it.

You can often see this when doing tracerts, the entries that have an asterisk instead of a response time but do have valid time entries on the same line. Meaning the router concerned had more important things to do.

Edited by pluralist (Wed 23-Oct-24 15:04:39)

The buffer bloat sounds possible after googling it.

Its like anything above a certain latency gets dropped. The cap seems to be very low.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/...

My usual router is a belkin RT1800 running openwrt, i've also tried a decent gaming pc as a dial up PPPOE connection with the same result. I'm currently on the plusnet router again, they want to send one of their engineers to check it out (not openreach)

It would be great if someone could test epic or battle.net downloading at full speed to see if they have similar results.