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Maytime · 07-14-2010, 12:48

Hi Rumbly,

Do you have cable, DSL, etc? I used to be an ISP tech support guy, and one thing you need to pinpoint is where the hiccups are happening from a) your computer to your router b) router to modem or c) modem to ISP. One way to test this is to use the "tracert" command, short for Trace Route. First, you need to open a command prompt; hold the windows button and press R, type cmd, hit enter. A black window should pop up. Now we need to find a DNS server to point to. We can find this by typing "ipconfig /all" (no quotes), and scrolling down to DNS servers, make note of one. On a new line, type "tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where the x's is the IP address of the DNS server. When you hit enter, it will trace the route to that server, going through your router, modem, and whatever infrastructure your ISP has set up. You will be able to see the speeds at which it takes to get through each hop.

I have to go now but at least it is something to try.

Regards

p.s. Note the time of day that the hiccups are occurring, and look for patterns. It could just be a high traffic time.

Edit to add: With regards to your ISP ping question, their ability to run connectivity tests remotely depends on how fancy their monitoring systems are. Older cable modem monitoring programs are generally DOS or Unix shells that only give information about the state of the modem. Newer programs have the ability to run a wide array of tests to examine bandwidth, ping statistics, etc.

Also, although you may be "connected" to the Internet, there may be an issue with how the network is resolving domains into IP addresses, which would look like you couldn't point to google.com or other common sites. One way to check to see if you have a DNS (Domain Name System) problem, is to go back to a command prompt like before, and type "nslookup www.google.com" again without quotes. This will see if the domain google can be resolved to its assigned IP address. If it can't, then you can call your ISP and go from there, since there isn't a whole lot you can do on your end.

07-14-2010, 12:48	#2
Maytime Guerrilla Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Seattle Posts: 199	Hi Rumbly, Do you have cable, DSL, etc? I used to be an ISP tech support guy, and one thing you need to pinpoint is where the hiccups are happening from a) your computer to your router b) router to modem or c) modem to ISP. One way to test this is to use the "tracert" command, short for Trace Route. First, you need to open a command prompt; hold the windows button and press R, type cmd, hit enter. A black window should pop up. Now we need to find a DNS server to point to. We can find this by typing "ipconfig /all" (no quotes), and scrolling down to DNS servers, make note of one. On a new line, type "tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where the x's is the IP address of the DNS server. When you hit enter, it will trace the route to that server, going through your router, modem, and whatever infrastructure your ISP has set up. You will be able to see the speeds at which it takes to get through each hop. I have to go now but at least it is something to try. Regards p.s. Note the time of day that the hiccups are occurring, and look for patterns. It could just be a high traffic time. Edit to add: With regards to your ISP ping question, their ability to run connectivity tests remotely depends on how fancy their monitoring systems are. Older cable modem monitoring programs are generally DOS or Unix shells that only give information about the state of the modem. Newer programs have the ability to run a wide array of tests to examine bandwidth, ping statistics, etc. Also, although you may be "connected" to the Internet, there may be an issue with how the network is resolving domains into IP addresses, which would look like you couldn't point to google.com or other common sites. One way to check to see if you have a DNS (Domain Name System) problem, is to go back to a command prompt like before, and type "nslookup www.google.com" again without quotes. This will see if the domain google can be resolved to its assigned IP address. If it can't, then you can call your ISP and go from there, since there isn't a whole lot you can do on your end. __________________ Trust your hang. Last edited by Maytime; 07-14-2010 at 15:46.
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