Best way to diagnose intermitant internet issues

[Velvis]

Client complains of "bad internet" intermittently.

Its one of those situations that its kinda like pulling teeth to diagnose it further.
"I don't know what was happening" etc.

Is there someway to monitor the connection/speed to see whats going on?
Whenever I am there it is fine.

 

[Altster]

Client complains of "bad internet" intermittently.

Its one of those situations that its kinda like pulling teeth to diagnose it further.
"I don't know what was happening" etc.

Is there someway to monitor the connection/speed to see whats going on?
Whenever I am there it is fine.

Have you asked them for specifics for when it happens? time of day? what they have just been doing? is anyone else using the internet at the time?

Too many variables here to even consider offering help. Ask them!

 

[Velvis]

Yeah, I hear you. They are one of those clients that aren't very knowledgeable and don't really pay attention to anything. just a "it doesnt work, fix it."
I was hoping there was something I could use to monitor it to get an idea of whats going on.

 

[GTP]

Have you tried these?

https://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/


https://www.spiceworks.com/it-articles/network-bandwidth-monitor/

http://nicekit.com/net-monitor/best-free-net-monitor.htm

 

[glennd]

one of those customers where the more questions you ask, the murkier it gets. they just don't have the vocabulary to describe the issue. half the time it comes down to their favourite web site is not responding immediately. or if they think of their computer as "the internet box" any little windows issue suddenly becomes "my internet is not working properly". you can unintentionally sink a lot of time into chasing people's phantom problems. some kind of network monitor is a good idea so you have some empirical evidence but you need to really grill them about *why* they think they have "bad internet".

Oh, and make sure they know they're on the clock and that you are charging for each callout, eventually they'll work out it's in their best interests to try to be a little more articulate.

 

[jfm]

Replace the router.

 

[TAPtech]

You can try using pingplotter and letting it run overnight, or even for a few days... I've dealt with this before, mainly with residential clients that I happen upon every once in a while... they certainly are not very helpful in diagnosing the problem. Typically it turns out they just have some deadspots in the wifi... like the iPhone doesn't work in their tile bathroom in the west wing!

 

[Tech Savvy]

Try checking the router logs. Also try simply looking around for bad setups: double nat, dhcp conflicts...etc


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Diggs]

Replace the router.

Agreed! I usually replace with a new tested router and wait a couple of weeks to see if that resolved the problem. If so then I bill them.

OP doesn't say where he is from or who the provider is as many Internet providers own the modem/router combo to small businesses so you can't replace. But, those are the ones that I rarely have problems with. Large/small company? Hardware layout?

 

[Archon Prime]

I work for an ISP. Intermittent issues with as green customer is a pain. Best thing to do is contact the ISP on their behalf and have them setup a monitor (if possible) and they can also check up-time and signal for the cable/DSL/fibre connection. If that has a good up-time (and the client is not power cycling the damn stuff every 5 minutes) then they can usually isolate it to CPE device, in this case the router. It could be wireless interference as well. Could try checking wireless analysers on a phone, etc and see if someone else is on the same channel, or if they are dropping out somewhere far from the router as well.

The problem with people like this is you can't get that type of information out of them because they are either green as hell, ignorant or lazy. Probing questions are basically useless at that point.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

If it's a business client, it's fairly easy to work on this. If you take care of business clients you should have a good RMM that has tools to assist in this. As well as a proper business grade edge appliance (firewall) to give you even more tools. You can setup a rig behind the ISP provided gateway, you can kick up logging on your firewall, you can setup RMM services to ping the WAN IP from your RMM server, as well as run internet tests from the online RMM probe.

If it's a residential client, heh..well, I don't deal with those...but the various freebie tools mentioned above should handle this.

 

[SAFCasper]

In the past I have used this program - http://download.cnet.com/Internet-Connectivity-Monitor/3000-2085_4-75956634.html

Pretty simple. Give it an address... it pings at an interval and logs results.

I set 2 addresses. The first as the routers local IP (eg. 192.168.1.1) - the second to www.google.co.uk
Leave it running for a while.

If the ping to router IP is dropping out... you know it's a local issue. Bad cable, bad wifi card, poor signal, faulty router etc.

If ping to the router IP isn't dropping... but ping to www.google.co.uk is... it's most likely a bad router or ISP issue.

 

[Markverhyden]

Agree with @Altster, details. details, details. This is a huge problem with consumers, which I am guessing what the OP is about. I have long advised customers to use their smart phones to capture the "act".

 

[GTP]

Agree with @Altster, details. details, details. This is a huge problem with consumers, which I am guessing what the OP is about. I have long advised customers to use their smart phones to capture the "act".

"Details Details Details"
Usually all I get is "Well this little box popped up, so I clicked it off! It said something about blah blah and then the thing shut down!"
"What do you think it is?"

 

[Erick]

I have a cheap beat up old laptop that runs PingPlotter. I'll set it up at the site and pop in remotely every so often to see what's going on.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I use pingplotter as well, i try to run it remotely pinging the router and from the client to me at the same time.

 

[LedHed]

I've used this website in the past. It saves me from having to install software.
http://testmy.net/auto

 

[brandonkick]

Depends on the use case, but mainly I've only done this in residential applications.

Is it every device they have, or just one or two? Is it wireless and wired, or just one
of them?


If they start having "intermittent" issues with their wifi, what happens if they fire up a
wired device? Laptops are great for this. If the wireless connection is acting up, try a
patch cable directly into the gateway. If the laptop plays fine with the wire and not
when it's wireless.... do any other devices have wireless troubles?

Are they too far from their access point? If they are in the same room and multiple devices
are having connection issues with the wireless, then you can rule out a hardware issue
in terms of the clients themselves. Try different setups until you can rule out that it's not the
clients devices (iphone, tablet, laptop, desktop) because they all have connections issues
and determine if it's all just wireless problems or both wired and wireless.

If it's not any one specific device, or connection type that are affected when this issues flare
up... then it's either a networking hardware issue, issues with the cabling in the house, or an
ISP problem.