How much ping timeouts are acceptable when testing WiFi

You asked, "How much ping timeouts are acceptable?"

For pinging inside a LAN, any ping timeout likely means 100% timeout, so something badly broken.

Hi David,

I am pinging Google in these tests.

Should I ping my WiFi device instead?

Thanks,
Robbie

For full diagnostics, you ping AP, router, and some internet host.

That way you know where the real culprit lies.

In any case, some packet loss is acceptable for pure internet browsing. Using work related software packages, might need 0% packet loss for a user to work without loss of time (an app could be slow, freeze, need restart, or even miss data).

Hi,

I did a ping overnight to my Access Point IP using a PC connected to its WiFi and found no problems.

The next morning, with nothing changed, I was using the same PC connected to AP WiFi but instead pinged to Google.

I found that within 40 mins received two "request timed out".

What do you think that means?

Thanks

Either the AP to router is giving you problems, or the router to Google (or internet), though then probably all wired PC's would have the same problem.   

Though 2 time outs in 40 minutes is very manageable. It's if there are more within minutes that _could_ give you a problem, as I said earlier, for just the  casual browsing, it can be even higher without much problems.

Hi,

I have been doing tests of wired and wireless internet connection on client site.

They are an IT company which have been having intermittent internet connections (noticeable if streaming where it may buffer for a bit at random times).

Having continuous pings sent to Google, I tested the network for timeouts and sent log to text file (network had disconnected for 9 minutes straight at one time)

I disconnected devices and set the network to a minimal state which I had tested before and worked fine (only first building devices on network).

In first building (where main router is), I tested switch connected to their router using one laptop wired to switch and tested an access point on this switch providing WiFI with laptop connected to this WiFi.

This worked fine after an hour testing via pings with no timeouts for both laptops.

After powering on and connecting to network a few devices such as an Access point in second building and PC, I tested the network for around 30 mins. (Second building less than 10 feet away from first building, Access point provides same WiFi as previously mentioned Access Point and is connected by Ethernet to switch in first building)

I used same two laptop setups in first building and in second building, ran ping test with PC connected to Access Point WiFi in second building and noticed some timeouts.

There were two ping timeouts (4 seconds each) at different times for each of the three tests - laptops wired and wireless in first building and PC wireless in second building.

Do you think these timeouts are acceptable?


Thanks,
Robbie

As I said, it totally depends on what you need. Only clients to browse a bit, or a system critical database system that needs to be online all the time?

Seems you don't have problems on wired connections, meaning the servers probably will never have a problem. Sounds like you only need a bit of browsing, so in that case, yes it's acceptable.

Hi,

I did a ping test pinging Google for 24 hours using laptop connected to WiFi.

I sent results of this to a ping log file.

I analysed and found the following results from ping log file:

- Timeout every 2- 10 minutes (random and intermittent WiFi for entire 24 hours)
- 4 second time outs (185 times during 24 hours)
- 33      second time out (1 time during 24 hours)

I attached this ping log file in this message.

What do you make of these results?

Thanks,
Robbie
Res-WiFi-Ping-Log.txt

My response is still the same, please read my previous response. Nothing you provided changed anything.

Hi,

We did a test on network with minimal connected devices.

This was our setup:

- Internet -> RJ11 Socket -> Main Router -> Laptop wired
(no other devices connected to router)

In 11 hour long ping test pinging Google DNS (8.8.8.8) using laptop, I found following results:
  - 14 x 4 sec disconnects ("Request timed out")
  - 1 x 56 sec disconnect ("Request timed out")
  - 1 x 2 min disconnects ("Request timed out")
  - 6 minutes of "Destination net unreachable" message

1. What do you think could be wrong here?
2. Is this a reliable test pinging Google DNS (8.8.8.8)?


Thanks,
Robbie