Trying to diagnose flaky internet connection

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So I have been having trouble with some of my devices around the house not connecting to the internet. Some connect and keep getting 404 errors randomly, but refresh sometime fixes it. Other would not even connect to the network, while others were working fine.

My idea to diagnose was to ping my raspberry pi on the local network and google.com to see where the wierdness was (LAN or WAN). I don't know what "normal" number would be for this. These are the results. Does this tell me anything or is 2% packet loss normal?

PING Raspberry pi:

1132 packets transmitted, 1132 received, 0% packet loss, time 1132885ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 1.357/9.463/841.207/63.189 ms

PING google.com

1117 packets transmitted, 1094 received, 2% packet loss, time 1117700ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 42.132/62.225/1667.301/116.370 ms, pipe 2

Dan

Posted 2013-07-15T22:33:52.583

Reputation: 181

Answers

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Some packet loss is normal over wifi. Yours looks a bit high, but nothing to be too worried about. Ideally, you'd have 0, but over the internet it is likely to drop some packets over a period of time. Because you flagged this with wireless, I am going to suggest trying to go back to basics, try wired first... if that works, then debug your wireless. check signal levels (Wifi Analyzer on Android works great). Check to make sure you aren't saturating the channel with your neighbors. Ideally your should be 3-5 channels apart. Also check your traffic load and make sure nobody else is using your connection during periods of "slowness" or "can't find the page".

It could be the provider too, but typically problems like yours are somewhere in/around your home.

MikeAWood

Posted 2013-07-15T22:33:52.583

Reputation: 647

Thanks Mike. I did some research on WiFi interference and my symptoms seem to match with that. I live in an apartment, so it makes sense. This has never happened before, the problem started yesterday after being gone for 10 days. Wierd. Gonna look in to changing the Wifi frequency to something less common. – Dan – 2013-07-16T01:12:13.443

Nice little article for people who happen upon this question.

http://www.7tutorials.com/layman-guide-solving-wireless-network-interference-problems

– Dan – 2013-07-16T01:13:14.400

@dan08, more than likely, one of your neighbors might have bought a new router. the WiFi congestions is easy to fix, but most people never bother to check. It happens in places where the same provider provides wireless routers too. In my neighborhood, its Verizon FIOS. Good luck and let us know what you find. – MikeAWood – 2013-07-16T01:38:12.653