[SOLVED] Help! Quality line lost (ADSL modem)

[Jet Boot Jack]

Hello

Up untill two days ago eveything was fine when, with no apparent reason, I started getting those terrible, frequent, long lags in my online gaming (mainly TF2 these days), and sudden disconnections when Im merely surfing.
The lags could be packets loss,- the frame freeze and shake for a short while or sometimes everything in-game halts, I cant move but I can still look around with the mouse.
Pings are ok.
Line quality test indicates packets loss and I failed in some parameters I dont recall now. Same test, a week earlier showed that eveything is swell.
I really didnt change anything in my comp prior to it and the only thing I downloaded that day was a game demo.

I contacted my net provider, they say the line looks good from their end.

Already tried- malware scan (a-squard), virus scan (AVG), system restore to a "good" day, drivers update, lowering settings in-game, TCPoptimizer.

This is so very frustrating, help would be much appreciated.

[johnwill]

Well, the fact that you see dropped packets indicates it probably is the ISP, even though they swear it's not.

Let's see this, use one of your game servers IP addresses as the Target URL

Start, Run, CMD to open a command prompt:

Type the following command:

PATHPING Target URL

Right click in the command window and choose Select All, then hit Enter.
Paste the results in a message here.

If you are on a machine with no network connection, use a floppy, USB disk, or a CD-RW disk to transfer a text file with the information to allow pasting it here.

[Jet Boot Jack]

Hi johnwill

The line today looks much much better which only validates your point about it being the provider's fault cos I havent changed a thing. That really pisses me off- they made me do a system restore, something which I dont like to do, and they even went as far as suggesting a new windows install.

Even though the line looks good now (no disconnections, no monstrous lags, just a few spikes) I thought Ill post what you asked for in any case. So here it is and thanks for the reply.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Danny>PATHPING TF2.Vgames.co.il

Tracing route to TF2.Vgames.co.il [213.8.254.132]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 home-fcb52bb74d [212.179.109.160]
1 bzq-179-109-1.static.bezeqint.net [212.179.109.1]
2 * * *
Computing statistics for 50 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 home-fcb52bb74d [212.179.109.160]

0/ 100 = 0% |
1 11ms 0/ 100 = 0% 0/ 100 = 0% bzq-179-109-1.static.bezeqint.net
[212.179.109.1]
100/ 100 =100% |
2 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% home-fcb52bb74d [0.0.0.0]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Danny>

[johnwill]

WOW, that's a short pathping!

[Jet Boot Jack]

It is in the same country- and a small country it is (Israel), would this test be better if I ping a european server?

[Jet Boot Jack]

Ok- I had one good day but it ended. Now, though, its a bit different- my pings are skyrocketing in mid game and when I disconnect from the server it seem like I cant reach the master server.

I did the path pinging again immidetly after:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Danny>PATHPING TF2.Vgames.co.il

Tracing route to TF2.Vgames.co.il [213.8.254.132]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
0 home-fcb52bb74d [212.179.108.226]
1 bzq-179-108-1.static.bezeqint.net [212.179.108.1]
2 * * *
Computing statistics for 50 seconds...
Source to Here This Node/Link
Hop RTT Lost/Sent = Pct Lost/Sent = Pct Address
0 home-fcb52bb74d [212.179.108.226]

4/ 100 = 4% |
1 510ms 4/ 100 = 4% 0/ 100 = 0% bzq-179-108-1.static.bezeqint.net
[212.179.108.1]
96/ 100 = 96% |
2 --- 100/ 100 =100% 0/ 100 = 0% home-fcb52bb74d [0.0.0.0]

Trace complete.

C:\Documents and Settings\Danny>

[johnwill]

I'm guessing this is the ISP, don't know how to pin them down. Without their cooperation, there's little you can do.

[Jet Boot Jack]

You are right- it was the ISP. After 5 days and 10 tech support guys Ive reached one that knows his job.
It turns they were upgrading some relay stations near me and I had to get a new modem, so all is swell now (meanwhile).

Sorry I wasted your time and I guess you can mark this as solved, though I cant think of how it can be of any use so you might as well delete it.

Thanks again, john.

[johnwill]

Never a waste of time, I'm glad we could point you to the place to get the issue solved.