Intermittent connection issues

[Sean369]

So I'm having a rather odd problem. I'm having intermittent connection issues. It'll be fine for an hour or more and then it will just drop connections. If I'm streaming YouTube or Prime it will buffer and stop. Web pages won't load. After a few minutes it will be fine again for a while. Now the odd part is if I connect to my VPN then it does not drop at all. I can be streaming on my Shield with my VPN turned on and it'll be fine but at the exact same time it will drop on my PC. I've turned off and restarted my XB7 and my router. It's happening on my PC my Shield and my Xbox. Without a VPN I get random drops. With my VPN on my connection is solid. Any ideas as to what the problem might be?

[Sean369 · Accepted solution]

Started happening when connected to my VPN as well so after a chat with Shaw tech and a modem refresh and a few reboots it seems to be better. Only time will tell if it sticks.

[mdk]

@Sean369 -- with the VPN active, your TCP/IP packets go through Shaw's network to the VPN server, and then from the VPN server to the gaming-server site. Without the VPN, your packets go through Shaw's network directly to the VPN server.  So, the packets take different "routes" to get to the gaming-server. 

For example, if driving from Edmonton to Regina, you could drive to Calgary and then to Regina, or you could drive to Saskatoon and then to Regina.  If there is an Alberta snow-storm while going south to Calgary, your drive will be slower, with intermittent stops/starts, than if you drove the alternate path through Saskatoon.  Two different routes, just like with-VPN & without-VPN are different routes.

Under Windows, when your VPN is active, use the "tracert" command-line utility to show the Internet "path" from your computer to your game-server. Repeat when your VPN is inactive, and post the results here.