Constant packet loss

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

Hey was wondering if anyone can help me. I've been constantly getting 20-40% packet loss on zombie escape. Now it's playable but annoying. I didn't have this problem a couple months ago. SO if anyone can help it will be much appreciated.

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

Hey, you'll need to run an MTR to the CS:GO Zombie Escape IP and you can provide it to me so I can take a look. Please read the following thread to do this and I use CS:GO ZE's IP in this example:

 

 

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

Okie here is what I screenshotted. I would like to say that your video explanation was very easy to follow.

Edited November 23, 2020 by Tunks37

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

12 hours ago, Tunks37 said:

Okie here is what I screenshotted. I would like to say that your video explanation was very easy to follow.

I'm glad it was easy to follow! Did you perform this MTR while having packet loss in-game?

 

The destination doesn't have any packet loss in the MTR you provided. I've seen it before where MTRs via ICMP don't show any packet loss, but players still receive heavy packet loss in-game. In these cases, the only things I can think of are:

 

1. Something is overloading your CPU or NIC to the point where it cannot process packets, so it drops them.
2. There's a program on your computer or something ISP-related that is rate-limiting UDP traffic.

 

It's hard to pinpoint these issues usually if you aren't getting any packet loss via MTRs, but are getting them in-game.

 

Another question I have is do you have heavy amounts of packet loss at lower amount of players on the server? CS:GO ZE is a very hectic game mode and some maps push a lot of bandwidth to our clients. You could try setting rate 30000 in the in-game console to see if this improves the packet loss at all (this'll limit you to 30000 bytes per second). Though, I need to check what the minimum rate is set to on the server.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

8 hours ago, Roy said:

I'm glad it was easy to follow! Did you perform this MTR while having packet loss in-game?

 

The destination doesn't have any packet loss in the MTR you provided. I've seen it before where MTRs via ICMP don't show any packet loss, but players still receive heavy packet loss in-game. In these cases, the only things I can think of are:

 

1. Something is overloading your CPU or NIC to the point where it cannot process packets, so it drops them.
2. There's a program on your computer or something ISP-related that is rate-limiting UDP traffic.

 

It's hard to pinpoint these issues usually if you aren't getting any packet loss via MTRs, but are getting them in-game.

 

Another question I have is do you have heavy amounts of packet loss at lower amount of players on the server? CS:GO ZE is a very hectic game mode and some maps push a lot of bandwidth to our clients. You could try setting rate 30000 in the in-game console to see if this improves the packet loss at all (this'll limit you to 30000 bytes per second). Though, I need to check what the minimum rate is set to on the server.

Ah I didn't know I had to run it while in game lol, I'll do that next time I'm on. I'll also try that console command. It sometimes spikes when everyone moves but like I said it's always a constant 20-40% loss.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

Alright so here is me running the MTR while in-game. Also I didn't really notice any difference when I put in the console command.

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

51 minutes ago, Tunks37 said:

Alright so here is me running the MTR while in-game. Also I didn't really notice any difference when I put in the console command.

In that MTR, you are definitely experiencing a good amount of packet loss to the destination (12% at least and probably more in-game since you're sending/receiving a lot more packets per second). Given your router/gateway isn't receiving any packet loss (the first hop) and the rest of the hops have packet loss, what I'm thinking is:

 

• One of the hubs/routers/hops within Spectrum is over-saturated.
• I'm not entirely sure how the MTR works with this, but if you have a router in bridge-mode that is bridged to your modem (a very common setup), while you aren't receiving packet loss from the gateway (router most likely), your modem may be dropping packets that are received by your router/gateway.

 

Unfortunately, the second hop appears to have ICMP replies completely disabled (hence why it's at 100% packet loss). So we're not able to see if this is the hop dropping packets. You could try running a tool that sends TCP/UDP packets instead to see if that hop will give a response, but I'm not sure what tools exist for Windows (WinMTR doesn't support this IIRC) and there's a high chance it won't respond to those since you need to specify an open port on that hop that'll reply.

 

I would expect this to also impact all services/servers you connect to. If this only happens on CS:GO ZE, it's probably due to the high amounts of bandwidth you're receiving/sending compared to other servers (the rate limiting should help with this, but as I said before, we may enforce a high minimum rate limit which is still too much for your network to handle). I suppose you could also forcefully limit your speed via Windows or a third-party program (which will result in higher latency, but it'll allow us to see if packet loss improves).

 

Just to confirm, you're connected to your router/gateway via Ethernet, correct? I'd assume so since the max latency you had to your router is only 1 - 2ms (most wireless setups I've seen typically have higher average latency unless if they're right next to the router/gateway).

 

My suggestions would be:

 

• Try ensuring the coax cable from your modem to the next splitter is secure and tight. Maybe try unscrewing it, cleaning anything off of it, and then screwing it back in again.
• Try rebooting your modem to see if the packet loss goes away temporarily (if the packet loss goes away temporarily, it could indicate there was an issue with the modem).
• Contacting your ISP (Spectrum), schedule an appointment, and have they come out to check the signal strength, cabling, and so on.

 

I understand this is a pretty complex explanation, but I hope this helps a bit. I really think your best bet is contacting your ISP as stated above, getting an appointment scheduled, and having them check everything. Make sure to provide them with that MTR as well, because it should be pretty eye opening when all the hops after the 2nd have packet loss while there are no packet loss to the router/gateway itself.

 

I hope the above helps!

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

@Tunks37 I'm not sure if you're still having this issue, but if you are, can you try running another MTR while experiencing packet loss in-game, but run it until at least 300 or so packets are sent (the "Sent" column)?

 

One thing I overlooked was how many packets were actually sent and received (37 or so is a very low number for MTRs). There's a high possibility this could be an issue with hop #11, but I'd need some more evidence (e.g. MTRs with much higher packet counts). I apologize for overlooking this as well, not sure how I missed it.

 

Thank you.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

Yea sorry I haven't been playing much I'll give it a try and the above suggestions. And I'll post it here when I do it.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

Here is me running it in-game with %20-%40 packet loss hope this helps. Also thank you a lot of constantly trying to help me, I really appreciate it.

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

On 11/27/2020 at 3:44 PM, Tunks37 said:

Here is me running it in-game with %20-%40 packet loss hope this helps. Also thank you a lot of constantly trying to help me, I really appreciate it.

Thank you for the extended MTR and you're welcome.

 

I still believe the issue is something on Spectrum's side here (or possibly the modem if you're running a router/modem combo). The reason I say this is within the above MTR, you're having packet loss throughout the entire route (each hop) and it starts from the first hop that sends any replies after your gateway. It's still unfortunate the second hop has ICMP responses disabled entirely because that could be the hop experiencing issues. I also doubt every hop in your route would have rate-limiting applied to ICMP packets (the default protocol used in WinMTR/MTRs). I use Spectrum myself as an ISP and I haven't seen any hops from them that are rate-limited personally.

 

The reason you're seeing 20% - 40% packet loss in-game is because of how many more packets per second you're sending/receiving compared to the MTR that only sends one PPS per hop by default (this is configurable within WinMTR, but the chances of rate-limiting being applied at lower intervals is much higher). Therefore, typically, you're going to send more packets and have a higher packet loss rate, especially if something is potentially bottlenecking here.

 

One thing I'd suggest trying here is instead of using CS:GO ZE's IP, try using Google's IP as the "Host" in WinMTR (8.8.8.8 or you can type google.com for DNS to resolve). Do this while experiencing packet loss on the CS:GO ZE server. Afterwards, stop the MTR (screenshot the results) and run another MTR after disconnection to see if you're still receiving packet loss. This could be a way for us to see if there's something bottlenecking your network here.

 

I hope the above helps!

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

First one is in game the second is out of game. Though I don't get why I have higher loss out of game lol. Also I want to mention I only have this problem on ZE. As other games aren't effected like ZE is.

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

On 11/29/2020 at 9:15 PM, Tunks37 said:

First one is in game the second is out of game. Though I don't get why I have higher loss out of game lol. Also I want to mention I only have this problem on ZE. As other games aren't effected like ZE is.

I'm sorry for the delay. Been busy with work recently  

 

Can you try connecting to one of the game servers not having issues and run the MTR against the IP of the server not experiencing issues?

 

With that said, can you run another MTR against the same server IP not having issues when you're having packet loss on our CS:GO ZE server?

 

It wouldn't make much sense to me if WinMTR was showing a good amount of packet loss at the destination, but you weren't receiving any in-game. I suppose it's possible your ISP or modem rate-limits ALL ICMP requests for each specific code/type so that it won't even forward ICMP packets to the next hop if the TTL is above 1. But I've never seen that before and very doubtful that would be the case.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

On 12/2/2020 at 4:20 PM, Roy said:

I'm sorry for the delay. Been busy with work recently  

 

Can you try connecting to one of the game servers not having issues and run the MTR against the IP of the server not experiencing issues?

 

With that said, can you run another MTR against the same server IP not having issues when you're having packet loss on our CS:GO ZE server?

 

It wouldn't make much sense to me if WinMTR was showing a good amount of packet loss at the destination, but you weren't receiving any in-game. I suppose it's possible your ISP or modem rate-limits ALL ICMP requests for each specific code/type so that it won't even forward ICMP packets to the next hop if the TTL is above 1. But I've never seen that before and very doubtful that would be the case.

It's all good I'm just glad you're still willing to help. Also what do you mean when you say run the MTR against the IP of the server?

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

On 12/4/2020 at 7:09 PM, Tunks37 said:

It's all good I'm just glad you're still willing to help. Also what do you mean when you say run the MTR against the IP of the server?

This would be the server's IP address you weren't receiving packet loss on according to your earlier posts. I'd like to see if you can run an MTR to that server's IP while experiencing packet loss on CS:GO ZE. And then after that, join the server that doesn't have any issues and run the same MTR to see if it shows any packet loss.

 

 I'd like to see if it could be somehow taking a different route after hop two to this IP which may not have packet loss.

[Tunks37 1 / 1,545]

7 hours ago, Roy said:

This would be the server's IP address you weren't receiving packet loss on according to your earlier posts. I'd like to see if you can run an MTR to that server's IP while experiencing packet loss on CS:GO ZE. And then after that, join the server that doesn't have any issues and run the same MTR to see if it shows any packet loss.

 

 I'd like to see if it could be somehow taking a different route after hop two to this IP which may not have packet loss.

Oh no I meant I don't have packet loss in other games. The only community servers I play on CS go is the GFL ZE one. On official servers I get 0% loss. Do you want me to join another server and run the MTR on that if I don't experience any packet loss?

[Roy 10,832 / 0]

14 hours ago, Tunks37 said:

Oh no I meant I don't have packet loss in other games. The only community servers I play on CS go is the GFL ZE one. On official servers I get 0% loss. Do you want me to join another server and run the MTR on that if I don't experience any packet loss?

Yeah, try playing official servers and run an MTR to both Google and the CS:GO ZE IP if you can.