Satellite Internet Forum

[Scope_IV]

Hi there.
It has come to my attention that I have satellite packet-loss, 3% to be exact. Is this normal of a satellite connection? Should I contact my ISP? I have tried using latency fixers and such, but nothing has worked. The packetloss does affect me greatly because I play online games.
Thanks.

[gfoster]

One way satellite internet system? Or two way?

[Scope_IV]

Two way satellite system. I also don't have anything blocking the dish to the sky or anything like that. I'm feeding the satellite modem to a wireless router then to my computer, but I have tried without modem/firewall but nothing worked.

[gfoster]

Next question, by what method are you determining 3% packet loss?

[Scope_IV]

I use Pingtest.net to determine the quality of my satellite broadband Internet connection. Online gaming, streaming media, voice and video communications require more than just raw speed.

[gfoster]

Thanks, I wanted to make sure you weren't using stream error rate as a yardstick for packet loss. Ignore the PINGTEST.NET results. That site is not set up to cope with satellite latency. Their PING delay time is clearly too short. Because of the extremely long signal path, PING tests over satellite should be performed with a return delay of 2000ms or more. That site probably uses 1000 or less. Try this instead (assuming you're a Starband user) using the Windows Run/CMD function:

C:\>PING 148.78.247.61 -n 100 -w 2000

That will send 100 packets to Starband.net, and wait up to 2000ms for each to return.

[Scope_IV]

Ok I did that also. I am from Australia. My gear is IPstar and my ISP is active8me. I contacted them this afternoon asking if packetloss is normal, they said it is and there is nothing I can do about it.
Is this true also, when doing that ping test every so often I would get a timed out command. Didn't seem to be in a pattern or anything. Thanks.

[Scope_IV]

7% packet-loss: 100 sent 93 received

[gfoster]

Ah, I didn't realize that you were using a non-US provider. That means the 7% you realized from Starband may be related to the trans-Pacific path. Try this instead:

C:\PING 122.129.128.55 -n 100 -w 2000

That should keep your PING path closer to home. By way of comparison, I got:

Ping statistics for 122.129.128.55:
Packets: Sent = 100, Received = 100, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum = 818ms, Maximum = 1242ms, Average = 950ms

And that was all the way across the Pacific and back, using my own two-way satellite connection. Goes to show that IPStar isn't telling you the whole truth.

[Scope_IV]

Ah OK, well I still had the exact same packetloss, 7%.
Maybe my dish isn't aligned right?

[gfoster]

That's what I have been working toward. Packet loss is typically a transmit problem. But there could be half a dozen things between the modem and the dish that contribute. They fall into two categories: pointing error or hardware. And before the hardware can be blamed, the pointing error must be eliminated.

Is this a self-installation, or did IPStar do it? Do they provide the means for you to optimize yourself, or do they have to send a tech?

[Scope_IV]

IPstar is the brand of the gear sorry, active8 is the ISP. Yeah they sent a techie to do it, I wasn't here when he installed the dish but guaranteed me it was working perfectly. All though the problem did occur straight away I was not able to recently distinguish it and look into it as it had not being a problem.
I could optimize the dish myself by getting the alignment out of the modem and turning the dish but that would be a last resort.

[gfoster]

Ok, then harass them till they send out a tech to optimize your transmitter isolation (co-pol or cross-pol, depending upon configuration).

[tobicat]

Hey gfoster, just for the heck of it I ran the test.

ping command output

ping-results.jpg (41.58 KiB) Viewed 63 times

Why do my pings have a pattern of 500,700,800,1000 and keep repeating that over and over?

[gfoster]

I have no idea Tobi, a Starband thing maybe? Try it again before bedtime and see if the pattern persists.