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Using my router's built-in Ping diagnostic, I can ping sites and get times <100ms routinely. Using my laptop, or any other device, wired or wireless, I first receive a bunch of Request Timeout messages, followed by times that are crazy slow.

From the router:

PING google.com (172.217.8.206): 56 data bytes
56 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=0 ttl=58 time=63.2 ms
56 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=1 ttl=58 time=58.8 ms
56 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=2 ttl=58 time=58.8 ms
56 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=3 ttl=58 time=61.3 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 58.8/60.5/63.2 ms

But from my laptop I either get 100% packet loss or something like this:

PING google.com (172.217.8.206): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6
Request timeout for icmp_seq 7
Request timeout for icmp_seq 8
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=0 ttl=57 time=9137.265 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=8144.223 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=7148.255 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=3 ttl=57 time=6155.498 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=4 ttl=57 time=5154.403 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=5 ttl=57 time=4159.088 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=6 ttl=57 time=3154.789 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=7 ttl=57 time=2154.433 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=8 ttl=57 time=1152.531 ms
64 bytes from 172.217.8.206: icmp_seq=9 ttl=57 time=148.078 ms
--- google.com ping statistics ---
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 148.078/4650.856/9137.265/2868.997 ms

I have tried dozens of different websites, both commercial and hobbyist, and the ping results are the same. I can browse web pages OK, but other services such as ssh and Remote Desktop are often either completely unavailable or unusably laggy.

If I change networks by connecting through my phone's hotspot the problem disappears immediately. My phone network provider is different than my ISP.

My ISP says their network is working fine and won't do anything else to help. The router is a Zyxel VSG1432. There are no firewall or other restrictions on the connection. I've tried restoring the router to factory settings with no change in functionality. I've tried connecting to a VPN and that didn't help either.

The main reason to correct this is the Microsoft Remote Desktop issue--we need to be able to use this software from this location but it keeps disconnecting and lagging and the person hosting the server suggested that this latency issue could be the culprit.

Paul
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iopener
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    Using a VPN doesn't change the physical connectivity path so that's not going to be of any use. It sounds to me like the router is the problem. If it's possible to bypass the router by plugging your laptop directly into your ISP's modem that would confirm that. If that's not an option, you might try a different router altogether. – joeqwerty Jul 03 '17 at 03:41
  • Yeah, the VPN shows just how desperate/confused I was getting. The box is a router/modem combo so there's no way to connect directly to the modem like in the good ol' days. – iopener Jul 03 '17 at 03:57
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    @iopener That's not usually true. Yours is a DSL modem, nearly all of which can be put into an unintelligent mode where they act merely as a DSL-Ethernet frame translator, allowing the single directly-attached computer to perform the PPPoE exchange, authenticate to the ISP, and own the public IP address itself. If you want to take a lot of the modem's firmware out of the picture, it might be worth a try. – MadHatter Jul 03 '17 at 04:18
  • @MadHatter Thanks for the idea, I've never heard of that, or seen it referenced in the settings. Maybe my ISP restricts access to it? There are 5 ports on the back of this thing, so if it's not routing or switching, would I just use the WAN port and connect it to either my computer, or my own router? Is there a name for the mode you're talking about? – iopener Jul 04 '17 at 01:38
  • It's fairly common - I'm typing this on an internet connection so established - but AFAIK each manufacturer calls it something else. My DSL modem's a Technicolor TG589vn, and the manual makes no mention of it. The GUI, however, provides for putting the modem into "bridge mode" (and fortunately my ISP is very clueful, and they actively support that). I see that you found something similar, and are now up and running. – MadHatter Jul 04 '17 at 05:36

1 Answers1

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The ISP's modem/router itself was definitely doing something wonky. After some Googling I discovered that there was a root login on the router's web ui that allowed me to put it into "bridge mode." Once that was done, I attached my own router's WAN port to one of the ISP's LAN ports, set my router to handle DHCP/NAT, and suddenly all my ping times were down under 100ms.

Thanks for all the suggestions that helped me find the solution!

iopener
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