Packet loss while using iRacing

[Dadysev]

I was online sim racing with my program iRacing and kept getting packet loss to one server (us-east-oh.iracing.com)

I ran a trace with a program they suggest and found packet loss in Bells Network. Can someone help? The ip that was giving packet loss was 142.124.***.**

[dks]

Thanks for your question. One of the realties of online gaming is that packet loss is real. Packet loss can have a number of causes. Key ones include, 

• ICMP Rate Limiting: Intermediate routers often deprioritize reply packets, showing fake packet loss on a specific hop while the final destination remains healthy. These are often outside anyone's control.
• Network Congestion: Heavy traffic loads or overloaded gateway nodes along the path can delay packet forwarding. This often occurs with popular games. 
• Physical Distance: Long geographic routing paths naturally increase baseline latency. 

There is little which can be done by either yourself or Bell to resolve the issue permanently. Packet loss is usually transitory, not permanent. Your only potential remedies are to change servers or to reboot your modem, which may give you a different IP address and may give you a new or better routing, but that is certainly not guaranteed nor permanent. It does occur often with popular online games. You have to learn to live with it, unfortunately. 

[Dadysev]

I hear what you are saying.  The joke is I used to work for bell and with these folks that supported the network.  I would have this fixed the same day if I were there.  I know that up range and where it is.  I’m going to try to reach out to some of my old friends in there today.   I was just putting it out there in case anyone else was seeing the same thing.  This just started this week.  Never happened before.  

[Dadysev]

Sorry for the previous spelling mistakes. These issues can sometimes also happen in the transport layer. We have seen faulty cards , fiber, shelves, etc.  sometimes tricky and sometimes easy but I’m confident it will be resolved. 

[dks]

Thank you for your comment. I am not unfamiliar with the issue and the solution as well. I have seen it in PC gaming for over three decades on many occasions. As we have no connection in the forum with the technical side of Bell, I can only offer my own experience and suggestions. 

[Dadysev]

Your comments are helpful though and appreciated.  I was there about 30 years and was part of the evolution from dial up modems to dsl to FTTH.  There is so much in the middle that the general public can’t see, test, or understand.   But you are correct in most cases.  Thanks again. 

[dks]

Thank you. I am a very early (December, 1995) customer of Bell Sympatico with a low customer number to support that. I started a couple of years before that on the internet through an ISP in Toronto. Moved from dialup to DSL to (finally) fibre. I still miss the modem tones. 😉