Extremely Intermittent Connection

[Gaudfather1]

I know intermittent connections can be some of the hardest to troubleshoot. Looking for some advice or direction.

-Intermittent connection for the last several weeks
-the router does not drop and power cycling does not bring back the connection. The connection restores itself, sometimes quickly and other times it takes longer. My ONT has been rebooted.
– Connection drops immediately when pulling high amount of bandwidth, for example when downloading a large file over the Internet, almost immediately the connection drops. When not downloading and just using the Internet for web browsing the connection seems stable. Occasionally streaming is also dropping but very inconsistent. Using both Wi-Fi and ethernet. For the ethernet to become disconnected, takes a bit more of bandwidth usage to be affected completely.
-I am using my own router and have been for a while now with no issues. It is a Nighthawk X10

The trace route below is when I am connected but not downloading or doing anything bandwidth intensive. All signs of my troubleshooting have me looking at something outside my home but I am not completely sure what to try next.

traceroute to www.google.com (172.217.9.228), 30 hops max
Hop 1:
From 192.168.1.1, 13 ms

Hop 2:
*
Hop 3:
*
Hop 4:
*
Hop 5:
*
Hop 6:
From 140.222.227.145, 1812 ms

Hop 7:
From 72.14.214.38, 514 ms

Hop 8:
*

Hop 9:
From 108.170.248.1, 1813 ms

Hop 10:
*

Hop 11:
From lga34s11-in-f4.1e100.net (172.217.9.228), 1811 ms

Traceroute complete: 11 hops, time: 11115 ms

[Cang_Household]

From your description, this sounds like a hardware issue. Either your router is not good or the Verizon ONT needs replacement.

Disconnecting only when pulling high amounts of data: this shows some network devices' CPU is unable to handle a large amount of data. Maybe try to swap a router to see. If the problem persists, then it is the ONT or something upstream, for example the OLT in the regional distribution center.

If the OLT is the problem, your neighbors who share the same GPON line should experience the same issue. This is the case for me two weeks ago. Suddenly many neighbors lost service connection (all three). But the neighbor next door is fine because their incoming fiber is from a different OLT. I realized the OLT feeding my ONT is the culprit. Sure enough, Verizon is swapping it out.

[Gaudfather1]

Thank you, going to try a few other suggestions and do some more testing. Really appreciate your input. What makes it really difficult for me is that I can't do any of the physical stuff myself, unable to even swap my router because of disability/wheelchair. I really don't think it's my router but let me see if I can try a few more things to help narrow it down.

I hope you don't mind providing me some more guidance once I can get more information 🙂 I don't even know how I would get Verizon to check it out without them wanting me to do a bunch of things that I can't do prior to them having it looked at. I have the gigabit service.

[Gaudfather1]

Also found this to be somewhat interesting. I've been using private Internet access VPN for many years now and I've never had latency to any of the US servers, especially on the East Coast as I am in Delaware. But now this is what my server options look like. A few days ago it was even worse with latency as none of the servers were in the green

.

[Cang_Household]

I will render you an answer once the image is approved by a moderator.