High Packet Loss in the Evening Only

[dncan29]

I've been having periodic packet loss for the last month or so at very specific times in the evening, and am at a bit of a loss on what to do.

To start off I'll explain that I live in a remote area, so I use a mobile SIM in a TP-Link router for household internet. The phone mast is quite literally at the bottom of the garden, so I've always had a very strong signal and quite fast speeds - enough for gaming and streaming simultaneously. I also have a number of smart devices around my home, including several Google Home devices and smart switches. Never had any issues in nearly 2 years with this setup.

Beginning at the start of December 2022, I noticed that I was getting very high packet loss (up to 30%, with higher spikes) while playing online. At these times my wife also noticed that YouTube, Netflix and iPlayer were buffering regularly or playing at low quality. We assumed at first that it would just be a temporary glitch, and left it at that.

After a few more nights I started investigating further. To start off I tried disconnecting our wifi boosters - no change. Resetting the router - no change. Comparing wired (PC) and wireless connections no  difference. After resetting everything and even trying the hotspot on my phone, I gave up. Give it a couple of weeks, I thought. It's the Christmas holidays, maybe the lines are just busier than usual.

Come January and with no further change, I used pingplotter to test our connection over a few days and the results have been quite interesting:

This is an example taken over a 48 hour period. My latency (black line) is very stable. The red bars show packet loss. What's interesting here is that every day, at 15:00 on the dot, the packet loss starts to rise. It peaks and drops again at 19:00, then rises sharply throughout the evening before tailing back to zero at 23:00.

This cycle repeats every day, without fail, near enough to the minute. And it's exactly the same whether I'm on a wired or wireless connection, and is also the same using the hotspot on my phone (and we've tried this with 2 different Vodafone SIMs).

Surely this must be some technical glitch on Vodafone's end? As I mentioned it only started beginning of December 2022, but the connection is unusable for gaming in the evening and streaming is also slow.

Is there anything more that can be done?

Thanks for any help

[dncan29]

I've come to a standstill with Vodafone support too. They're insisting it must be my hardware, despite all evidence to the contrary. I can't really prove it further without buying a new router which seems pointless considering the multiple users on here with the exact same problem - some of whom have tried new hardware with no success.

I really can't believe that Vodafone are completely ignoring us here. There are now a couple of dozen users on this forum, across several threads, with the exact same symptoms, which all started last December, who experience the same packet loss at the same times during the day. Yet after going through everything with several different people I'm getting nowhere. Some staff have told me it's a network problem that Vodafone is aware of, others have said it must be me because my mast is reporting no problems. There's very little cohesion and absolutely no work towards a solution. My setup was working perfectly for years beforehand.

[Pluginz]

I feel your frustration dude. Been like it for months now for me.

My only solution for now, is make your own APN on the sim card, and set it to 3G/2G only and enable LTE. For the peak times that is.
Change network to IPv4 only and set the authentication to CHAP.

It helps me loads in the evening.  I switch and change my APN settings depending on what time of the day. Sad ennit.

Ive got my 4G LTE APN which i'll switch to at 4 o clock in the morning if i want some serious speeds. Can hook up a good 40mbs at 4am !!! Strange.

So mainly throughout the daytime, i stick to my APN setting of,
2G/3G IPv4 CHAP LTE. Shes quite good like that.

[zaaaaar]

I am so glad to hear that I am not the only one facing exactly the same issue - I have been wondering if it was just my GigaCube "giving out" after 2 years of use!

For reference, I am based in central London, with excellent 4G and 5G mast coverage.

The symptoms described in this post fit with my experience to the T - even with the timeline of the issues beginning in Dec 2022, which I assumed might have been a Christmas surge - but how wrong! This is now a daily issue that most notably affects gaming, streaming and video calls.

I am thankful my 24 month contract expired Dec 2022 (whew, a lucky coincidence) - and so will be free to explore alternatives to leave this problem behind soon.

[bpr]

It's awful. I have 2 routers in 2 locations (different masts) both on Vodafone mvno's and both suffer packet loss during the day (I have graphing set up on each connection to prove this). Rather than battling with Voda I'd rather just move connection to another provider but unfortunately they're the only 5G provider in our area, for now anyway.

[zaaaaar]

@Pluginz Would you please be able to provide step-by-step instructions on how you're doing this APN swap, for someone who is at their wits end - and not too familiar with "making your own APN on the sim card"? I'm experiencing the exact same issues described in the thread, and I'm willing to try anything at this point!

[Pluginz]

Yes , not a problem zaaaaar. Well, i can try for you.

Okies, on average there are 3 types of phones with different settings which i can explain. Im not sure on other devices. So i can only try to explain these.

1. IOS Apple
2. Android
3. Windows phone/mobile

From my experience, ive noticed that trying to create an additional APN on Voxi, does not work, and only Vodafone.

Lets start with the iPhone. The last iPhone i had was the 6S, so some years ago now. Should still be the same though.

Lets change your current connection speed from default to 3G.

Settings /
Cellular /
Cellular Data options /
Voice & Data /

Here, you'll be able to change your current connection speed from 5G/4G down to 2G/3G, or just simply 3G on its own.

Once changed to 3G, then goto,

Cellular Network /

At this point you'll see the APN you already have.

On iPhone, you'll have to reset APN settings. Its not possible to edit an APN sent from provider.
Then you should be able to install or add an APN manually.

Hold down an area of this screen and after a couple of seconds 'add' should appear.

You only need a few lines for a decent connection. You dont need to add MMS APN settings for texts and picture messaging ive found. Its not needed.

Ok, the APN settings list once selected to 'Add' or 'edit' will have a long list of lines that are all blank. You need to fill them in.

1.   Profile name: Call this bit whatever you want. 'Home APN' for instance.

2.   APN: This line must be set to 'wap.vodafone.co.uk'

3.   Username: This line must be set to 'wap'

4.   Password: This line must be set to 'wap'

5.   Authentication type: You can set this to both options, PAP or CHAP. Picture messages dont work on CHAP. CHAP adds an extra layer of authentication to your connection. So i set this line to 'CHAP'

6.   IP Type: As vodafone dont currently use IPv6, there is no point having this option enabled. Select the line 'IPv4'

7.   LTE selection on or off: For starters, you can try your new APN, without LTE enabled. Default APN's from the providor will automatically enable LTE. So if you see the option for LTE, keep it disabled/off for now.

MMS blank lines to fill in.

8.   MMS proxy: '212.183.137.012'

9.   MMS Port: '8799'

If you also see an option for 'Data Roaming', disable this if you dont use it. This setting confuses your overall data usage for the month.

Once youve changed all this, select to save the APN. Then enable and disable 'Flight Mode'. That should reset your connection. Or restart your phone.

Next, Android. Now i havnt had a Android for some years either. Last one i had was a Sony XA-1 version Android version 7.  Things are pretty much the same still i think.

Same scenario. Go to your

Settings /
Wireless & Networks /
Mobile Networks /
Access Point Names /

Now select 'Add' where you see a plus sign.

The list of options. Blank lines for you to fill in again.

1.   Profile Name: Call this whatever you want again. 'HomeAPN'

2.   APN: 'wap.vodafone.co.uk'

3.   Username: 'wap'

4.   Password: 'wap'

5.   Authentication type: 'CHAP'

6.   APN protocol: 'Ipv4'

As i was saying earlier, I find that you really dont need to add the MMS settings below, for internet to work. If you want to add these lines though,  this is what they are.

7.   MMSC: 'http://mms.vodafone.co.uk/servlets/mms'

8.   MMS proxy: '212.183.137.012'

9.   MMS Port: '8799'

10. MCC: '234'

11. MNC: '15'

Now once thats all completed, select to save the APN. Enable then disable Flight Mode to re establish the connection.

Oh and dont forget to also change the Android network connections settings from 5G/4G to 2G/3G or 3G on its own.

Thats it 🙂

If you struggle with what ive written, then here is a website with some info for both Apple and Android.

https://theroams.co.uk/providers/vodafone/guides/apn-settings/

See how you get on dude and good luck. Sorry if anything is difficult to understand. Give it time, you'll get your head around it all.

Trial and error and patience is the best practise.

Safe 🙂

[bpr]

I don't wish to jinx anything but I've had hardly any packet loss last night and today. How are things fairing for the rest of you?

[KJASTR]

Last 3 days everything was ok. Sometimes i had spikes of ping and thats it. Today i had them for few seconds on some occasions but nothing major. Now lets hope it will stay like that. 

[timdoyle91]

It has been the same for me, I've managed to stay online with no packet loss for the last 2 nights so hopefully this is a sign of things improving.

[KJASTR]

It was nice and lovely for few days. Last night i died in tarkov due to packet loss again.. did you experience any yesterday as well ?