Test Interruption (Cross-Traffic)
Last updated
Last updated
If your Whitebox has stopped reporting data, there’s a chance it’s because of constant activity on your network. We call this cross-traffic. By detecting cross-traffic, we ensure that we don’t disrupt your internet experience to run a test, but wait instead to gather the most accurate results possible.
Cross-traffic is the term we give to any network activity that goes to and from the internet, via the router, that’s not generated by one of our tests. A good way of thinking about it is to imagine there’s more than one source of network traffic crossing paths inside your router.
The Whitebox and router SDK (software development kit) run tests according to a test schedule: some tests are hourly, some are daily, and others run between a set period of a few minutes. You can read more about test scheduling at Scheduled Tests.
Before running a performance test, the test agents run a cross-traffic detection test to see how much of your bandwidth is available. When the level of cross-traffic exceeds the cross-traffic threshold, whether before or during a performance test, then the test stops. The test agents will then wait for a small time before trying again. However, if the internet is being used throughout, the “pause and retry” process will occur another five times before the entire test cycle is abandoned until the next scheduled test.
For more information about our cross-traffic detection technology, see Cross-Traffic.
Here are some signs that your Whitebox is not reporting data due to cross-traffic:
No new metrics or reports are appearing on your account dashboard.
Large gaps of several hours/days are appearing in your Download Speed chart (when viewed as a scatter plot for closer detail), despite not experiencing network outages.
On your account dashboard, all, or many, of your metrics appear as a flat line (when viewed as line charts)
Your monthly report card shows results that are significantly lower than usual or no results for a period of the month.
These issues also apply to our router agent.
If your Whitebox has been disconnected due to changes to your network configuration, a power outage, or any other reason, see Troubleshooting Your Whitebox .
If your Whitebox appears to be experiencing cross-traffic there’s nothing to worry about.
The Whitebox has been designed to cope with a broad range of lifestyles and uses.
However, prolonged usage of operations that demand significant bandwidth can mean your Whitebox is unable to run its scheduled tests.
Some of these operations and systems include, but are not limited to:
Network-connected security cameras.
NAS (network attached storage) drives.
Wireless Hi-Fi systems.
Online gaming (playing network-intensive games on the highest settings for long hours).
4K streaming.
Connecting two or more routers to a single Whitebox.
The easiest way to check whether cross traffic is consistently interrupting your performance tests is to generate a download speed scatter plot.
If test results are minimal then we recommend turning off another system that constantly uses the internet for a few hours a day.
If your Whitebox is operating correctly again, you should be able to see test results populate on your dashboard after 48 hours.
If you are still unsure or would like us to investigate, contact us by emailing community@samknows.com.
