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I've been suffering an intermittent problem and having a hell of time resolving it.
Occasionally I get a back log of quote data to be processed. The cause may be application related or network connection. I've ruled out hardware because I'm running a recent AMD processor with 8Gb ram, though I have always doubted Vista 64. I have 10Mbps internet which i think is enough, though online tests suggest it's faster (18Mps) while my practical download tests suggest it's much slower (3Mps).
What I'd like to rule out is my network connection setup and configuration. Does anyone have suggestions or websites that would direct a thorough examination? I have a cable technician visiting tomorrow (for the 5th time) and hope to rule a few things out.
Appreciate any advice from the tech geeks amongst us.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Try pingtest.net to check for packet loss. You may need to run it several times, and try to time it during these 'problem' areas to see if you are indeed experiencing packet loss.
Are you using wifi to connect to your router? If so, you could be experiencing a channel sync issue/noise, which can cause a delay while the network syncs to a new channel. You should switch to wired and see if problem goes away.
Is anyone else sharing the router? Other computers running network intensive applications like torrents or anything utilizing the upstream bandwidth, etc?
tracert should help you rule out your network. The results will show you every every stop your data takes on the way to their server, and give you round-trip times. Go to command prompt and type the following:
tracert "data server ip address"
The first stop should be your router. You should see <1 ms delay here. Each other line displayed is a stop the data makes on the way to the data server.
Good idea. My ping results are good overall but I've yet to test at the problem times. I'm currently connected directly to my modem and even replaced it to rule that out. As for torrents etc, those days are long past for me So nothing that I'm aware of and I do run spyware checking software weekly. Just me connected directly.
I'll leave a command prompt open and try a ping test when a problem arises again.
Seems to start out fine but the 3rd hop always times out. Is that significant or normal?
Otherwise there are typically 15 hops which seems reasonable to me.
In my experience it does not mean there is an issue. There could be, but also could not be. Some routers simply don't respond to ping requests. There are a bunch of internal routes also on non-public facing routers that you can't see in a tracert.
The key is packet loss. If you are getting packet loss, there is a problem. pingtest.net can test for this.
When the problem occurs, are you able to access google or a regular website instantly during the problem? Is it only the data feed that seems to be the problem? Does your machine 'pause' or feel sluggish for an instant when the problem is occurring, if so it could indicate a hardware problem (for instance, a failing hard drive can cause the entire system to appear frozen for a few seconds).
Traceroute works by sending packets each with an increased TTL value. The device it expires on sends back an "expired in transit" ICMP packet. However some devices, such as most firewalls, will black hole the packet and not send the expired message.
If it always times out at the same hop, and then starts again at the next hop this is not an issue. However if it sometimes gives a response and sometimes not, then it definitely is an issue.
Try downloading netlimiter, and see if your data stops during the times you have problems. The speed/rate should be constant during while you are connected to a data feed.
Check your routers logs to see if it is dropping connections.
Run ping google.com -l 1400 -t in a command prompt and just leave it running. If it starts timing out when the backlog occurs, then you know it is a problem with your connection.
Technician just left - this guy discovered the signal was weak (shocked that nobody noticed previously), likely due to a damaged cable somewhere along the line. Slipped him $40 and he ran new cable throughout. Despite a wasted morning, I'm pretty happy that I may have resolved this issue once and for all. Though only time will tell.
Those are some great troubleshooting tips that you guys suggested.