| Most people have access to broadband Internet at | | | | precise moment of trouble. If you are convinced that it |
| home and at work. Broadband speeds continue to | | | | is your ISP and have gotten them involved, they may |
| improve as well giving ample bandwidth for applications | | | | never be on site while you are experiencing |
| using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Voice over | | | | intermittent problems. ISP technicians can be |
| Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Video. However, many | | | | aggravating when they tell you there is nothing they |
| Internet connections will not support these applications | | | | can do since the circuit is working fine now. |
| as their quality is not sufficient. Insufficient quality | | | | Use an IP Packet Loss and Delay Test Tool to Find |
| means they are experiencing packet loss and latency | | | | the Problem |
| or delays in transmitting packets. | | | | An IP Packet Loss and Delay Test Tool (Test Tool) is |
| Symptoms of Packet Loss and Latency | | | | designed to help VoIP providers find and eliminate the |
| Problems with packet loss and latency can manifest | | | | source of Internet packet loss, latency and outages |
| intermittent symptoms including outages. Unstable | | | | causing problems with Hosted PBX and Hosted VoIP |
| Internet circuits can work fine for hours or days at a | | | | solutions. You do not need to be a service provider to |
| time before they will have periods of trouble. In addition, | | | | use these tools and take advantage of the results. |
| they may have occasional or sustained latency where | | | | Some are free to use and will take less than a minute |
| it takes packets too long to travel to and from your | | | | of your time to start monitoring on any public IP |
| business or home network. | | | | address of your choosing. |
| Frequent and intermittent outages are only one | | | | Test Tools enumerate and continuously ping each |
| symptom of a poor quality Internet circuit. Packet loss | | | | router between the Test Tool host and your IP |
| and latency will cause trouble with any application that | | | | address. They keep track of latency and packet loss |
| requires packets to arrive to their destination in a timely | | | | within the network and specific to each router or hop |
| fashion with little or no retransmissions. Lost packets | | | | along the way. If present, you can locate specific |
| and latency will cause dropped or garbled VoIP calls, | | | | periods of packet loss and latency. From the reports, |
| slow and choppy video and slow Internet. They may | | | | you will be able to determine whether the problem is |
| also cause VPNs between office networks to break | | | | happening only at your location or within the network |
| halting work flow until the VPN is reinitiated. | | | | of the ISP. If the ISP has a congested router causing |
| Do not give up on these applications working properly | | | | latency or packet loss, you will know which router it is. |
| Today's broadband Internet circuits should be able to | | | | This gives you power and knowledge for your next |
| handle VoIP, video, VPNs and other time critical | | | | conversation with them. |
| applications. Wiring within your home or office, | | | | Whether you are: 1) having trouble with your Internet |
| software in use or equipment at your site can be the | | | | applications, 2) about to deploy new Internet |
| cause lost packets, latency and drops. The problem | | | | applications or 3) want to see if your ISP, wiring and |
| can also be your Internet Service Provider (ISP). | | | | equipment are delivering a quality Internet connection, |
| Intermittent problems can be frustrating to solve as | | | | spend less than a minute to follow the link below and |
| issues can be brief and difficult to diagnose at the | | | | start a report. |