Are PPPOE ISP connections *generally* high response times?

thomasdzubin · ‎02-05-2009

I work with a hundred clients across the country with various types of ISP connections from 10Mbit fiber to DSL and DOCSIS cable modems however one thing I keep noticing is that if a client is connected via a PPPOE connection, their response time (eg: PING time) is quite a bit slower than other connection methods... is this just my bad luck or is the overhead inherent in PPPOE significant? I care because some of these clients are using VOIP and a response time of 150ms is on the edge of what I like to work with.

Any thoughts from other people who have PPPOE clients?

aghaznavi · ‎02-11-2009

This problem typically caused by a bad connection, problem with your modem, problems with your online service (or internt service provider), incorrect settings in your oprn transport and/or PPP software or software incompatibilities. Sometimes Slow response time due to RAM storage also.

Rick Morris · ‎02-11-2009

For what it is worth here is a link to a page that discusses overhead on a PPPOE connection.

http://www.ipsec.org/email/pppoe/1999/0098.html

Joseph W. Doherty · ‎02-11-2009

PPPoE might cause large IP packet fragmentation, although I wouldn't expect this to contribute to increased ping times unless there were other large packets on the link during the ping tests.

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PS:

I've used both cable and ADSL at home. At least for me, DSL ping times were more consistant, although cable's best times were better. Difference seemed to be caused by difference in serialization delay in proportion to bandwidths. The DSL was PPPoE, but I did insure there wasn't any IP fragmentation because of it (adjusted MTU).