4 replies to this topic

[Kaptain]

Hello

Curious If anyone else has any ideas so I am posting here. Traditionally my ping is about 100 give or take 25. When my room mates are watching videos online or downloading it can be around 200-250 but its very playable and stable. BUT over the last month or so I have been having crazy spikes. Sometimes it spikes to 700, or 1400 or 3000!?!

My connection
Quest DSL
20mps down but only point 8 up
Quest modem
Dlink 3 antenna G/N router
Wireless N

Now in an attempt to solve this issue I have:
-Disconnected my phone, laptop and roomies computers
-Cut a 90mm hole in my modem and installed a fan grill on the top (used to get hot hot hot)
-Reset the modem / router
-Factor restored the router and setup security again
-Insured that only our house is on the network
-Had quest reset things on their end
-Upgraded my desktop to a dual antenna wireless N card
-Tested my connection over and over again

Things I know:
-I know its not being caused by another computer on the network because I have had the problem even when no one else is at home, when everyone is sleeping or when everything is turned off for the night
-Only our computers are on the network (checked mac addresses)
-When the spikes happen speed test says I am getting 25-60 ping @ the full 20 up and point 8 down

I am going to swap Routers with an Asus and maybe try another modem. Just curious if anyone else has any ideas? The spikes only happen every few days for an hour or so. No patter to it that I can tell... sometime at night, sometime at day, sometimes its during the week and sometimes its on the weekends...

Suggestions are appreciated

[Kaptain]

Replaced some bulging (slightly) caps in the modem and while I am not getting spikes into the thousands anymore. I am sill occasionally seeing spikes from 150-600 and everywhere in-between. It was perfectly stable at 100ish and then I connected the rest of the laptops, desktop and such the problem reappeared. Those devices are just sitting idle though... I also updated the firmware on the router but no joy... Any ideas?

[darqsyde]

Have you tried swapping your router yet?

I just replaced a failing D-Link 655 with a Netgear Nighthawk, and that seems to have cleared up a large number of the disconnect/lag spike issues I was having.

(The remaining issues are largely due to having a WISP and some ....strange... routeing/peering)

[Kaptain]

Replaced the router last night actually and I am still getting crazy spikes. The new Asus router allows me to monitor network traffic for both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands as well as the router overall. I also watched network traffic on my computer.

While playing MWO the traffic on my computer was below 1% of a 150Mbps wireless N connection... So that't not the problem.
Router Traffic was also relatively light... so my DSL connection is not the problem etither...

BUT here is the crazy thing. Traffic on the 2.4ghz range spiked to 1048583.98 KB/s or 8,192 Mbps !!! What on earth could be causing spikes that high? I am sure this is the problem as the spikes on the graph coincide perfectly with my lag in game.

[darqsyde]

I'd see if the spikes are periodic, or "random", or limited to specific programs running.

If they are periodic, it's likely interference from another wireless source, nearby router, or wireless phone perhaps.

Specific Program, well that _should_ be relatively easy to sort out.
(Should, and Are, are two completely different things though)

If it's random, well...time to start eliminating any possible sources, one by one.

First thing I'd try is plugging the computer directly into the router, then do your monitoring. This would at least eliminate or verify one possible source.