Slow loading web pages and streaming dropouts

Hi,

I'm with Sky Unlimited and get a good connection:
DownStream Connection Speed 18945 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 1137 kbps

I am however getting pages loading slowly and dropouts in online streaming with iPlayer/YouTube etc.

Have changed filters, checked router in master socket etc etc

When I ping then tracert something, the first hop (after the router) of the tracert is always "request timed out" then it starts to resolve.
Each hop resolves in approx 30ms give or take the odd 50ms and some of the other hops time out but that could be general internet server busy stuff?

Why would the first hop always timeout and could that be a cause of my dropouts and slow loading web pages?
If so, how do I go about resolving it?

Many thanks

not all routers and servers respond to ping requests.

Pingplotter and WinMTR are useful ways to capture these things.

Does your router have error counters ? these may be worth posting along with the up time amd SNR margin numbers.

This is usually down to the wireless connection - even with it showing full bars the drivers can just be designed so that even a very average connection shows as full.

Have you tried via wired?

Thanks,

My connection to the router is wired.
Sky router has this:

System Up Time: 3:02:28
Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 1967598 1639613 0 2073361 161338 3:00:13
LAN Up 309216 197907 0 7964 2054 3:02:28
WLAN Up 4976 746 0 25 0 3:02:03
Broadband Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 19446 kbps 1137 kbps
Line Attenuation 20.0 dB 12.2 dB
Noise Margin 6.4 dB 8.3 dB

Drop your MTU to 1458.

Nick

The Sky router doesn't let you change MTU.

Will changing it on the PC make any difference?

If the sky router is at 1500 and the issue is Mtu then yes it will help

what's this then - Sky can't handle the standard MTU ??

Not with the same level of incidence as say talk talk and Tiscali used to have but might be an issue

Have tested ping for MTU and they all show it should be 1500:

C:\Windows\system32>ping www.thinkbroadband.com -f -l 1473

Pinging www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130] with 1473 bytes of data:
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.
Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set.

Ping statistics for 80.249.99.130:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\Windows\system32>ping www.thinkbroadband.com -f -l 1472

Pinging www.thinkbroadband.com [80.249.99.130] with 1472 bytes of data:
Reply from 80.249.99.130: bytes=1472 time=39ms TTL=59
Reply from 80.249.99.130: bytes=1472 time=39ms TTL=59
Reply from 80.249.99.130: bytes=1472 time=38ms TTL=59
Reply from 80.249.99.130: bytes=1472 time=38ms TTL=59

Ping statistics for 80.249.99.130:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 38ms, Maximum = 39ms, Average = 38ms

So 1472 + 28 = 1500