New to Zen - couple of questions

I'm a new Zen customer (had my CityFibre FTTP installed last week) and I have a couple of questions.

I'm seeing packet drops and the occasional latency spike on the BQM so I've asked Zen Support to investigate this. Broadband speed seems okay though (paying for 100mbps and getting that) so is it normal to have packet drops and spikes on the connection?

I've had a look on the Fritzbox 7530 and I noticed these errors in the log...

22.11.23 16:04:34 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned) [5 messages since 22.11.23 16:00:23]
22.11.23 16:00:23 Could not establish IPv6 internet connection: No response from DHCPv6 server (SOL).
22.11.23 16:00:14 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned)

Does that indicate a configuration problem? Should I disable IPv6 or does it need altering slightly to stop the errors? (or does everyone get these errors?)

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I'm seeing packet drops and the occasional latency spike on the BQM so I've asked Zen Support to investigate this. Broadband speed seems okay though (paying for 100mbps and getting that) so is it normal to have packet drops and spikes on the connection?

BQM's for Zen customers using Fritzbox's are well known to show packet loss because of the Fritzbox prioritising other more important traffic and dropping the ping requests. If you change the router for something else it will probably go away.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 22-Nov-23 16:38:26)

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I've had a look on the Fritzbox 7530 and I noticed these errors in the log...

22.11.23 16:04:34 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned) [5 messages since 22.11.23 16:00:23]
22.11.23 16:00:23 Could not establish IPv6 internet connection: No response from DHCPv6 server (SOL).
22.11.23 16:00:14 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned)

Does that indicate a configuration problem? Should I disable IPv6 or does it need altering slightly to stop the errors? (or does everyone get these errors?)

Do you have IPv6 enabled on your service? at one time this had to be requested and then enabled by Zen support team.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 22-Nov-23 16:36:47)

I had similar problems but configured the router to forward pings to my Nas box and all the dripping blood disappeared. I doubt it’s anything to worry about. I wish the BQM had the ability to lower the ping rate which might improve the appearance of the plots.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I'm seeing packet drops and the occasional latency spike on the BQM so I've asked Zen Support to investigate this. Broadband speed seems okay though (paying for 100mbps and getting that) so is it normal to have packet drops and spikes on the connection?

BQM's for Zen customers using Fritzbox's are well known to show packet loss because of the Fritzbox prioritising other more important traffic and dropping the ping requests. If you change the router for something else it will probably go away.

That's a huge relief, thankyou. So it's nothing to worry about? I think I'll stick with the Fritzbox for now.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I've had a look on the Fritzbox 7530 and I noticed these errors in the log...

22.11.23 16:04:34 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned) [5 messages since 22.11.23 16:00:23]
22.11.23 16:00:23 Could not establish IPv6 internet connection: No response from DHCPv6 server (SOL).
22.11.23 16:00:14 Could not obtain IPv6 prefix. Reason for error: 6 (No prefixes have been assigned)

Does that indicate a configuration problem? Should I disable IPv6 or does it need altering slightly to stop the errors? (or does everyone get these errors?)

Do you have IPv6 enabled on your service? at one time this had to be requested and then enabled by Zen support team.

I'm new to Zen so I've no idea if this is something that comes with their service or needs to be requested. I did find a menu on the Fritzbox that lets me switch off IPv6 so I might try that instead.

I've got a ticket raised with their support team anyway so I'll ask about the IPv6 option (I don't have any IPv6 devices configured so I guess it's not really needed?)

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

That's a huge relief, thankyou. So it's nothing to worry about? I think I'll stick with the Fritzbox for now.

For your own piece of mind try this packet loss test site, don't forget to select the UK server in the dropdown left of the Start Test button. You can play with the test setting to make the test more aggressive if you want too.

https://packetlosstest.com/

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

That's a huge relief, thankyou. So it's nothing to worry about? I think I'll stick with the Fritzbox for now.

For your own piece of mind try this packet loss test site, don't forget to select the UK server in the dropdown left of the Start Test button. You can play with the test setting to make the test more aggressive if you want too.

https://packetlosstest.com/

I'm bookmarking that site, looks really useful, thanks.

I just gave it something thick to chew on ("1080p game stream") and the connection handled it without any drops so I think it's okay after all.

I've also disabled IPv6 for now, doesn't seem to make any difference whether it's on or off (apart from the errors in the event log when it's enabled).

Edited by Fmrl (Wed 22-Nov-23 17:21:10)

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I just gave it something thick to chew on ("1080p game stream") and the connection handled it without any drops so I think it's okay after all.

I've also disabled IPv6 for now, doesn't seem to make any difference whether it's on or off (apart from the errors in the event log when it's enabled).

Thats good news

In reply to a post by Fmrl:

I'm new to Zen so I've no idea if this is something that comes with their service or needs to be requested.

IPv6 is part of the service! You should have a login for your Zen account control panel / customer area at zen.co.uk. There you should be able to find both your IPv4 and IPv6 fixed IP addresses.