Loose connectors, old wiring, or a faulty modem cause steady packet loss and periodic line drops.
Why Damaged cable, poor contact, faulty modem or optical network terminal → Effect Packets dropped from bit errors; now and then the line drops for a few seconds to about a minute while it reconnects → On screen Steady low-level packet loss, occasional freezes of a few seconds or disconnects
Tell players to check whether other games and video calls also drop, and if so, to ask their ISP for a line check.
On the graph
Random spikes · Loss rate, line reconnect log
Where to look
Measure loss up to the ISP’s first hop for a few minutes with pathping (or mtr), and check reconnect times in the internet (WAN) connection log on the router’s admin page
Confirmed if
Steady loss from the ISP’s first hop even when the line is idle, and reconnect times in the router log line up with freezes and disconnects. Other games and video calls drop at the same time
Ruled out if
Loss starts on the wireless hop to the router: “Wi-Fi interference and weak signal.” Loss starts far into the ISP network: the ISP’s route