Hi all,

I’m on a Plusnet 500mb fttp connection in the UK.

I’ve been having problems with packet loss while playing COD Warzone on my PC (wired ethernet). Also tried it on a PS5 on wifi at my place and getting the same or worse packet loss on that. Seems like it’s not the console or PC causing it.

Also tried 3 different routers and the results are almost identical on all of them - so assuming it’s not the routers either. The engineer also swapped the ONT out for a different ONT and I’m still seeing the same packet loss in-game (and videos buffering/stuttering on all devices on wifi too etc).

Tried out pingplotter and got the results below.

Now I think (because the hop 1 results are similar on all my routers) that’s something about pinging rather than actual packet loss.

However, the block packet loss at hop 3 looks dodgy, and also hop 5 looks a little more volatile than others.

In the screenshot below, the average packet loss in the last hop (hop 9) is around 1.2, but it’s usually at about 2 and at certain times of day (anecdotally, at key times like lunchtime, or in the evenings, this is up at 5.0 or 6.0 or even up to 8.0 or 9.0 (and that’s reflected in the ingame meter showing packet loss). Basically I’m seeing constant minimum of 1 to 2 percent packetloss ingame, and it goes up to around 4 to 9 percent at times regularly now too (and this seems to be getting worse as the days go by).

Any advice on what you think might be causing it, and how I might be able to approach this with Plusnet/openreach people who have already been out twice to see it, sent me the replacement router (which gives the exact same results as their original one, and my netgear gaming router), and just really ran download and upload speedchecks. They've run a bunch of tests on the line but not found anything wrong.

Thanks a lot in advance!


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Hi Robertdee,

Thanks for getting in touch!

You're spot on about the results from hop 1. This is because your router is down-prioritizing ping, which is pretty common so nothing to worry about here.

What you want to do is start at the final destination (google.com) and then work your back through the route to see if you identify where that intermittent packet loss (red lines) is first introduced in the route. It's kind of hard to tell but it might be at hop 2. Here's a video that demonstrates this process: Analyzing PingPlotter Data.

You might also consider adding your router (192.168.1.1) as a Target to see what results you get. If you end up with packet loss there then you know for sure it's a local issue. If not, then it's likely an issue with the device at hop 2 (or with the route between your router and hop 2).

Feel free to post more screenshots if you'd like!

Thanks a lot for the info Tyson! Much appreciated.

Re your second point - cool no probs I'll follow that Analyzing pingplotter data guide and check the results and report back.

Just to check re your third point - should I:
o Go into pingplotter then add the ip of my router as a target - and then if I see red lines in there, then that suggests a local problem?

(Also just to check, when you say local problem; do you mean within my house [ie. router, ONT, or cables, or wifi, or devices issue] and not likely to be outside my house like their cabling up poles or their exchanges etc?)

Also, just to check, if you had to guess, what would you say 'hop 2' is? My setup goes:

Laptop connected by ethernet, modem/router (<- think the modem is hop 1) then ONT, cables leading outside the house

Yes, go into PingPlotter, add your router, and check for red lines. This would suggest a local problem. And yes, that would be things in your house, e.g. Wifi, router, cables, etc. You can use this guide to help you solve local problems: Solving Local Network Problems

Hard to say exactly what hop 2 is. I think it's more likely a device after your ONT, likely your ISP's border router. While it's possible that the ONT can have an IP address, they're typically configured as pass-through device. Here's a guide to help you build your case if it's in your ISP's network: Solving Problems Outside Your Network

Awesome - thanks again for your help with this Tyson.

So I put the router's address in and didn't see any packet loss in the readings. However, it did seem to show some jitter. See the readings below.



Would you say that it looks like my router isn't the issue? If so, would you say the next step should be to try some different ethernet cables from the ONT to my router to see if that has any impact? Guess if it doesn't fix anything then that would suggest it's definitely outside my local network?

I do see the jitter showing up. Since the max latency isn't getting that high I wouldn't be too concerned about it. This is pretty good evidence that your issue is after your router.

You could try replacing the Ethernet cables between your ONT and router. If that doesn't improve things then it could be the ONT itself, or whatever else is on the other side of the ONT.

Thanks for the info Tyson. Really appreciate the help!