Audio/video/Xbox chat and game dropouts over past month

[Brainiac4271]

I've been playing games on Xbox Live for almost 4 years and doing audio/video Skype chats for almost a year with no problems.

For the past month, I've been getting dropouts of my video and audio Skype chats several times a night every single night on a Windows Vista computer.  I tried FaceTime on the iPad 2--same thing.  The final straw came last night when I was playing a game on Xbox Live for 1 1/2 hours and was about 10 minutes from conclusion when the connection cut out and I lost the game, not just for me, but for my partner as well.  I continued to do Xbox chat while at the same time set up constant pinging of the Google site.  After a few minutes, the chat cut out, and at the same moment, the pinging to Google stopped for about 5 seconds before resuming.  The lights on the modem never went out or indicated that something was wrong.  If one is just surfing the Internet or checking E-mail, a 5-second dropout wouldn't even be noticeable, but it's enough to drop an audio/video call or ruin a game.  For the Skype chats, using wireless or wired connections don't matter--it's all the same, still get dropouts.  I have a Westell 7500 modem with wireless built in.

I called in to Verizon tech support, who transferred me to advanced tech support, which concluded that the problem was with the software and not the Internet connection (despite the fact that this has occurred on Windows Vista with Skype, FaceTime with iPad 2, and Xbox Live, and the only thing those 3 have in common is the Internet connection), and they tried to sell me their advanced tech support plan for $14.99/month, minimum 10-month commitment.  I didn't buy it because I felt strongly it was the Internet connection and not the software, and the loss of pinging to the Google site for 5 seconds confirms it.

I'm at my wits' end and don't know what to do at this point.  Something has happened in the past month to cause my chat and gaming dropouts after years of no problems, and I don't know how to get to the bottom of it or fix it.  Any suggestions would be appreciated, though I'm not very tech-savvy in that I'm afraid to mess with internal settings out of fear of ruining everything completely.

[DLxYERTx]

Same here dude, i have the Westell 7500 and i just got verizon in augest. Xboxlive lags out partys and Youtube videos load slow. Its takes them a week to fix and when they do it only works for 2 days. After i called verizon last sunday it took them until friday to fix my HSI. So i tested and it was a little laggy so they said there was sending a Tech on monday (today) but i cancelled it because everything was super fine and fast. But now its monday and everything suck and the tech could of came. I feel i have been played with. When it time to pay my bill i will close my account and go for Comcast. Xboxlive GT: DL xYERTx

[Brainiac4271]

I constantly pinged the Google site for about 1/2 hour tonight and kept getting intermittent time-outs of the connection.  Overall, I sent 1,610 packets, and 1,489 were received, a loss of 121 packets (7%).  Everytime I was on Skype during one of these time-outs, the call was dropped.  The Internet light of the modem blinked continuously during the pinging but mostly stopped blinking during the time-out.  I've had sluggish web browsing tonight, likely due to the time-outs.  I've never had as bad a night as I've had tonight.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY INTERNET CONNECTION!!!  Can somebody help me, please???

[Brainiac4271]

Just called tech support.  They said that they'll monitor the line for 24-48 hours on their end to see if there is a problem with the line before potentially sending a tech out.  Unreal.  Just had another 5% loss of packets over the past 1/2 hour.  Doesn't matter if the connection is wired or wireless.  I'm just concerned that all the lights on the modem remain on during these brief time-outs.  The lights don't turn red or go out.  I don't want them coming back at me saying that nothing is wrong because the lights are all on.  Something is DEFINITELY wrong.

[smith6612]

Just to sum up the entire thread: During the evening/night time hours, you see packet loss and slow speeds.

Am I correct?  These problems are generally solved easily, though it requires going through other means of getting support from Verizon. I'll tell you how to get those once we get to that point. Just for safe checks, if you can provide your modem's Transceiver Statistics, we can see if the drop-outs are related to a weak signal as well. You can find them at http://192.168.1.1/ by choosing System Monitoring, Advanced Monitors, and then clicking Transceiver Statistics.

IF you need a login, try the following:

admin/password

admin/password1

admin/admin

admin/admin1

admin/Modem Serial Number

Verizon Username/Verizon Password.

If your statistics are fine during a time of the packet loss, slow speeds, and pauses, I'll tell you how to get this fixed.

[Brainiac4271]

---

@Smith6612 wrote:

Just to sum up the entire thread: During the evening/night time hours, you see packet loss and slow speeds.

Am I correct?  These problems are generally solved easily, though it requires going through other means of getting support from Verizon. I'll tell you how to get those once we get to that point. Just for safe checks, if you can provide your modem's Transceiver Statistics, we can see if the drop-outs are related to a weak signal as well. You can find them at http://192.168.1.1/ by choosing System Monitoring, Advanced Monitors, and then clicking Transceiver Statistics.

IF you need a login, try the following:

admin/password

admin/password1

admin/admin

admin/admin1

admin/Modem Serial Number

Verizon Username/Verizon Password.

If your statistics are fine during a time of the packet loss, slow speeds, and pauses, I'll tell you how to get this fixed.

---

I'm at work now, so I'll have to post the transceiver statistics tonight.  I usually only do Skype chats and Xbox gaming at night when I'm home, which is when I've noticed the problem.  That doesn't mean it wouldn't happen at any other time.

I've done speed tests:  5.2 Mbps download; 0.73 Mbps upload, which is right within the specs.  Speed doesn't seem to be the problem, just these dropouts.  The lights on the modem never go out or turn red during the dropouts, but the Internet light stops blinking during the dropout, while it's blinking continuously during the constant pinging test.

Thanks for your response.  Hopefully, this will be resolved soon.  As I said, I'll post those stats tonight.

[Brainiac4271]

Transceiver Statistics

Transceiver Revision A2pB020b3.d20h Vendor ID Code 4D54 Line Mode ADSL_G.dmt Data Path INTERLEAVED

Transceiver Information Down Stream Path Up Stream Path DSL Speed (Kbits/Sec) 5760 864 Margin (dB) 6.4 10.0 Line Attenuation (dB) 45.0 24.0 Transmit Power (dBm) 19.7 11.9

Pinging of Google timed out a few minutes before I copied these statistics.

[smith6612]

My next question is, have you upgraded your speed within the last month or two, or noticed any drops in speeds overall from when you got the 5-7.1Mbps package? I'm ignoring Packet Loss and drop-outs in this question, since it's meant to be a general question for a long period of time.

Right now by looking at your Statistics you seem to be running the line on a thin margin for the downstream. The upstream is normal for what seems to be your distance of roughly 11,000ft of wire. It could be possible that due to recent changes in the line, the line has lost capacity to hold the specific speed you have and is now starting to suffer from CRC Errors (Uncorrectables) due to noise where Interleaving cannot correct the errored frames. The uncorrectable frames can cause the packet loss you're seeing which does result in time-outs. If the line is in fact losing capacity, I would imagine that in the past, your line was running a bit faster since your sync rate is slightly higher than what Verizon normally sets for 5Mbps provisioning on the downstream, suggesting they have you set to try and reach 7616kbps on sync. The Westell modems do keep track of CRC/FEC/Errored Seconds statistics, though the tool that reaches those statistics has since gone missing so I am unaware of how to pull those statistics from the modem without Telnet access. Too bad the Web-based UI doesn't show this info as it would come in handy for such cases. Perhaps that could be a suggestion for later firmware builds...

Anyways, if you can, connect your modem to your NID's test jack and see if the statistics are any better. While I doubt it will do much, it's always worth the shot to see if a Homerun setup will solve this issue, or if Verizon could do something to solve the issue (short of dropping speed) such as switching the way the Virtual Circuit routes over at the CO if it proves to be a congestion issue (Weekend testing needed).

Lastly, visit DSLReports.com and create an account at their site, if you do not have an account already. From there, visit their Tools section and perform a Ping/Line Quality Test. The test will take a few minutes to run and then you will receive a message from the user "system" stating the test has completed. Post up the result of the test you get. Make sure the Westell's Firewall is set to Low or Off, or the test will be missing information.

[Brainiac4271]

---

@Smith6612 wrote:

My next question is, have you upgraded your speed within the last month or two, or noticed any drops in speeds overall from when you got the 5-7.1Mbps package? I'm ignoring Packet Loss and drop-outs in this question, since it's meant to be a general question for a long period of time.

Right now by looking at your Statistics you seem to be running the line on a thin margin for the downstream. The upstream is normal for what seems to be your distance of roughly 11,000ft of wire. It could be possible that due to recent changes in the line, the line has lost capacity to hold the specific speed you have and is now starting to suffer from CRC Errors (Uncorrectables) due to noise where Interleaving cannot correct the errored frames. The uncorrectable frames can cause the packet loss you're seeing which does result in time-outs. If the line is in fact losing capacity, I would imagine that in the past, your line was running a bit faster since your sync rate is slightly higher than what Verizon normally sets for 5Mbps provisioning on the downstream, suggesting they have you set to try and reach 7616kbps on sync. The Westell modems do keep track of CRC/FEC/Errored Seconds statistics, though the tool that reaches those statistics has since gone missing so I am unaware of how to pull those statistics from the modem without Telnet access. Too bad the Web-based UI doesn't show this info as it would come in handy for such cases. Perhaps that could be a suggestion for later firmware builds...

Anyways, if you can, connect your modem to your NID's test jack and see if the statistics are any better. While I doubt it will do much, it's always worth the shot to see if a Homerun setup will solve this issue, or if Verizon could do something to solve the issue (short of dropping speed) such as switching the way the Virtual Circuit routes over at the CO.

---

I used to have a Westell 327W modem (which I still have in the basement).  I upgraded my speed over a year ago as part of a promotion at no extra charge, and I was sent the Westell 7500 modem.  As I said before, I've never, ever had a problem with dropouts prior to the last month.  I've not noticed any drops in speed overall, either.

I don't know anything about NID test jacks.  I'm not tech-savvy.

I appreciate your suggestions, but what do I do?  Call tech support and suggest what you said about switching virtual circuit routes?  The CSR probably won't even know what I'm talking about, and I can't explain it.  I don't want to downgrade my speed; that wouldn't be fair to me.

[Brainiac4271]

Tonight, I've pinged Google constantly for the past 2 hours and have had only 3-4 drops, compared to a drop every minute or two last night.  That was wicked awful.  Still, I don't want to live in fear of a dropped connection on a regular basis, particularly if I'm playing a complicated game online and risking a drop after a long session and losing everything, like what happened Sunday night.  I need to be able to trust the connection.  We'll see what happens later tonight when I go on Skype.