Octopus Overlords

Howdy

As part of my troubleshooting other issues, I am wiring my PC directly to my Modem using a Cat5e cable, 16ft. Is there anything else "special" I have to do? I ask because when I first plug it in, the connection flickers back and forth a bit between "connected" and "not connected", then settles in. Once settled, it works fine (using it now, in fact). However, when I try (and fail) to properly get into my online game (PUBG), and I alt-F4 to get out, I see that the connection is fluttering again. And again, it will settle down. It doesn't seem like this is normal behavior. If it were a bad cord, I would expect ongoing issues with connections as opposed to shortlived "patterned" outages. Any advice appreciated.

Freyland

Maybe try updating your NIC driver? There shouldn't be anything you need to do. Does your router have any explicit configurations that might cause an issue (such as MAC authentication or hard-coded routes)?

Hi Jeff, thanks for posting.
I assume the nic driver would fall under the "LAN" driver for the MB? I will see if that works tonight when I'm home.
Regarding the router, when I was using it I did what I understand to open ports and to prioritize the applications in question to no avail. But to clear, most recently I have tried to bypass the router in favor of using the modem directly and the odd error in getting in my game still occurs, making me think it is somehow my isp. My isp of course denies there should be any issue.

Freyland wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2017 11:35 pm Howdy

As part of my troubleshooting other issues, I am wiring my PC directly to my Modem using a Cat5e cable, 16ft. Is there anything else "special" I have to do? I ask because when I first plug it in, the connection flickers back and forth a bit between "connected" and "not connected", then settles in. Once settled, it works fine (using it now, in fact). However, when I try (and fail) to properly get into my online game (PUBG), and I alt-F4 to get out, I see that the connection is fluttering again. And again, it will settle down. It doesn't seem like this is normal behavior. If it were a bad cord, I would expect ongoing issues with connections as opposed to shortlived "patterned" outages. Any advice appreciated.

Freyland

Do you have another device you can try to connect with? I had a similar problem several years back where my PC connection to my router would be rock solid for a while, then drop out, then reconnecting the cable would cause it to come back for a while, then it would drop out again, etc.

I know that's not exactly what you are describing but it took me weeks of troubleshooting my router and various windows networking settings to reach the (correct) conclusion that the LAN interface on my 6 month old motherboard had died. I ordered a new NIC (too lazy to pull apart my new build and RMA the motherboard - should have done that instead) and plugged it into a PCI slot and everything has been peachy since.

If you had a laptop (or a friends laptop) you could plug into the modem you could see whether the "fluttering" behavior is still there so you could narrow down whether it is a cable/modem issue or a PC issue.

Can you reset the modem? There are usually tiny pin prick holes you can push a button in to reset. Unplugging often doesn't work because cable modems often have a battery in them. I find that any cheaper routing equipment can get over loaded after being left on for months and months on end.

But yeah, cable, wire, machine, modem, or line. Swap out what you can on your end and then call the cable company.

Btw, still involved in this thread, just haven't been home enough to try out anything we have discussed. Did contract the ISP before my initial post. They said they aren't blocking anything and gave basic router advice. I responded with gratitude and pointed out I had already said I was bypassing the router and so I needed guidance regarding *their* part, not the router. Have yet to hear back despite their rapid reply the first time.

Buy your own modem and be done with their tyranny!

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:27 pm Buy your own modem and be done with their tyranny!

I was not aware you could do that. My "modem" in particular is odd.. the cord comes in from the outside tower on my roof and plugs into the "modem" which is nothing more than a small, deck-of-cards sized box that looks more like a power adapter. It has a jack for the tower cord, a jack for your cord to the modem (or directly connected PC) and a power outlet/receiver. How would I know what modem would work here?

I updated the NIC adapter and had no more "fluttering"... until I tried to again play PUBG. Again ran into the same issue once I showed up in the lobby, and when I alt-F4'd out, I saw that I no longer had internet. Then, the connection fluttered a bit and eventually settled down. I'm pretty confident the ISP (and their little modem too!) are to blame here. I'm not convinced I want to buy a new modem for just one game, but I would like to know more about the option.

Thanks

Wait waitwait...so you have satellite broadband?

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2017 8:26 am Wait waitwait...so you have satellite broadband?

No Sir. Something weirder. I almost think it is "radio-based". It comes from towers to a receiver tower on my roof. Casair.net, if you are curious, and seem to live near me (yay!).

I'm gonna guess and say with this ISP you are having latency problems.

They say this on their site:
"We do have many customers who have the capability to stream movies/shows (Netflix, Hulu, etc) or do console gaming. However, this is not something that we guarantee to our customers. This will be based on what service plan you have and how strong your service is.

Your ping level will be based on how strong your connection is to our tower and will also depend on the type of equipment you are running. On average, our customers will experience ping/latency from 20ms to 100ms. This is not a guarantee and latency will fluctuate as with any other provider."

So they can't even guarantee you can game with their service. What level of bandwidth are you paying for?

And sorry to say, I don't think you would be able to buy your own modem with this setup. I assumed you were leasing a cable modem.

Are you in the Greenville area?

I am indeed in the Greenville area. Just off of Lincoln Lake.
I can only get the 5 Mb/s service, as you have to have LOS between towers for the 10 MB/s service, and we are rather rural. My latency on "Speedtest" is usually 80, which seems acceptable, but I suppose that might be different on a farther away US server; no idea where PUBG's NA servers are located.

Tantalus Moment: If you are exploring their site, you may have noticed they provide a fiber service as well. According to their map, the edge of their service is about a mile-ish from my home. It's like I can almost touch faster internet!

I'm following the PUBG thread so I've read of your troubles in there. That's gotta be it, the latency thing, because you can play the game with your hotspot, correct?

I can sympathize, the being close enough to touch...my favorite pizza place will only deliver to within about a half-mile of my house. I tip well and they still won't come this far!

Correct, I can play with my Hotspot. Surprisingly well, for which I am grateful. I did try a free VPN but that just results in me getting a time out and disconnect error before I even make it to the player lobby. No idea how to fix that either, so again, back to the hotspot.

The VPN might introduce even more latency...

I heard good things about Kill Ping - it's not free but it's less than $2/month with a 15-day money back promise, so it wouldn't be a huge loss if you tried it and it still didn't work.