Really annoyed with random ping spikes.

[lwgnlseven]

Hey guys I'm getting really frustrated with random ping spikes on my network. I've got 10mb download and 1mb upload internet connection. I've got 3 computers hooked up to a DLink DIR-655, all hard wired, 1 laptop using wireless, and 2 IPod touch on wireless as well.

This started happening maybe 2-3 weeks ago. Basically the problem is simple. I'm getting completely random ping spikes, most noticeably in games. In BF3 I'll have my ping at 37 and then randomly it will jump to 360 for a few seconds, causing the game connection to stutter, and then go back to 37. I also play APB Reloaded and my latency will go from 29 up to 350, then back to 29. Again, causing the game to stutter tremendously. Ping on ventrilo will spike from 39 up to 300.

The router was purchased in July of 2012 so is not even 1 year old yet. I have unplugged both the router, and modem for 30 seconds and reset them both. I have the latest firmware for the router. A tech guy from my ISP came out today and gave me a brand new modem, still didn't fix the issues. I tried gaming directly to the old modem a few days ago, and it was still spiking. It spikes on both the router, and the modem, what else could be the problem? Faulty cable? ISP said everything looks good on their end.

I have used pingtest.net and have 0 packet loss, with a 40 ping, and jitter of 0-3 roughly. I ping myself with CMD and have a <1ms. Ping to google.com 20ms. Ping to yahoo.com gives me crazy results. I don't know what else to do/try. I will post below my pinging activity.

Normal pingtest



Abnormal pintest



Pingtest 2 minutes after the above test show back to normal.





All 3 tests were done right after each other, yahoo.com gives the most random pings, and they're all high ones at that. I would expect this kind of problem on a wireless connection, but on a wired one? What else can I do here? I can't enjoy gaming at all anymore when my pings are going through the roof....

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

[DiogoCDS19]

Use this to ping yourself for some time, something like 1-2 minutes.
Check if that still happens.

ping (router address) -t

[james888]

I had a similar problem but mine was just my cheap wireless card acting cheaply. Does this happen on all devices?

[lwgnlseven]

Originally Posted by DiogoCDS19

Use this to ping yourself for some time, something like 1-2 minutes.
Check if that still happens.

ping (router address) -t

I have been doing a little bit of testing with that code in CMD. So far I opened up 4 CMD windows, all pinging to 4 different servers to check results while playing APB Reloaded.

I am pinging my router, my modem, APB server, ISP default gateway. Over the course of 30 minutes, my router pinged <1ms, modem <1ms, APB 20-25ms, ISP 8-14ms. I didn't have a case of ping spike during that time, but when I do get a ping spike, hopefully I'll get my answer. If the APB server spikes, along with the ISP server, but the router/modem stay at 1ms, does that mean an ISP issue? Faulty cable perhaps? In other words, if the router/modem stay at 1ms during the ping spike, does that mean that they are both working correctly?

I tried downloading a game while at the same time see how it affected my ping in APB. When the download started, my ISP ping spiked obviously, and the APB ping spiked as well, since the bandwidth is being sucked up by the download, the router and modem both stayed at 1ms. I'm hoping to catch a screenshot of when APB ping spikes to see if the ISP ping spikes also. If the ISP ping spikes, it would almost have to be an issue with them. Keep in mind I currently play 3 different games, and in all 3 games, I have seen high ping spikes over the past 3 weeks. It can't be coincidence that the game servers are lagging. Something must be causing them to ping up so often. Gotta keep an eye on that ISP default gateway ping and see how it reacts....

Originally Posted by james888

I had a similar problem but mine was just my cheap wireless card acting cheaply. Does this happen on all devices?

I can only check on my computer out of the 4. It is the only one good enough to play any kind of game on lol.

[remixedcat]

Please specify the router used. Thank you.

[james888]

Originally Posted by lwgnlseven

DLink DIR-655

There you go remixxed cat. First or second sentence.

[95Viper]

Are you on cable or DSL?

Have you tried a traceroute (tracert) to see which hop is causing the problems?
How to use the Tracert command-line utility to troubleshoot TCP/IP problems in Windows

If you try it a few times and it is the same ip address then that is probably your culprit.

Also, are any of these tickets affecting your area?

You may want to try some of the quality tests at Visualware... they put the info in a nice format, once you get the hang of playing around with the test and information.
And, they have a nice bit of information.

ISPgeeks, also, has some good quality/capacity tests (as well as speed/ping tests) and they have some good info, too.

[Frick]

At this point I would also go with tracert. As you've used yahoo.com in the past, use that again. tracert yahoo.com.

BTW, the actual term is latency. Ping is a tool you use to measure it.

[jagd]

Yes traceert is best tool to see where is the problem is generally . I have another question when this spikes happenes ? Weekends (from friday to monday ) or everyday spesific time like 19.00-24.00 pm ?

[lwgnlseven]

Okay I am on a cable modem, not dsl. I will try a tracert when I get home. I did one before but don't understand what any if the results actually represent, so I will post my results here. How do I know which IP to tracert to? My router? Modem? ISP default gateway? Yahoo.com?

I work until 5 on most days so most of the high latency comes from 6pm-midnight from what I've noticed.

[Geofrancis]

i had problems with the dlink cable routers doing wierd things like that. to check if its the router or your isp open 3 command boxes and do


1st one
ping ***.***.***.***.*** -t

** being the ip of your isp's gateway you can get it from the WAN info on your router

second one
ping google.com -t

the -t will keep them pinging continually untill you stop it

third one

ping 192.168.1.1 -t or whatever your routers local ip is


if just google lags then its your isp's connection to the net
if google and the gateway ip lags then its either your connection to the isp
if all 3 lag then its the router

[brandonwh64]

Did the cable guy check the signal strength of the coax cable? Also I would have him run a new coax from the box specifically for the modem.

[lwgnlseven]

I will ping the 3 while gaming later and report back. Also I wasn't home when the cable guy installed the new modem. As far as I know he just hooked up the new modem and did a few speed tests to confirm the correct speeds. I doubt it's the router or modem, probably a bad cable somewhere?

To put into comparison. Try playing an online game and download a game in the background. That is the same exact result that happens when my latency spikes. The Internet latency pings up really high but the router/modem do not ping up with it.

[brandonwh64]

Seems like either something on your PC is doing it or something beyond the modem is the issue. Have you tried this on another machine hooked directly into the modem.

[lwgnlseven]

I have only tried with my computer. The other computers in the house aren't capable of running any games and the latency spikes happen more so while gaming. While gaming I might spike up 2-3 times per hour. I think the results I'm likely to find will be ISP and google ping both to spike up at the same time. That would mean a problem with the connection to the ISP? Bad cable somewhere?

[brandonwh64]

Could be someone in the house on their PC at the same time you are gaming?

[lwgnlseven]

I don't know what on my pc could be causing it. It's hard wired to the router. I run avg/spyware/malware scans often always coming back clean.

[lwgnlseven]

Originally Posted by brandonwh64

Could be someone in the house on their PC at the same time you are gaming?

My mother might be checking Facebook at times or my dad on imdb or something but that shouldn't be hogging the connection that bad. I had a dir-655 for 2 years before it crapped out. Then replaced it with another in July and am just noticing this issue now. My sister sometimes streams music from pandora using the wireless but I don't know that even that could lag the connection like that. If it was anything like that, it would lag the connection for a period of time right? My problem is bursts of latency spikes. 10 seconds here. 10 seconds there. Completely random times. Sometimes within 15 minutes of each other. Other times maybe 1 hour in between.

[lwgnlseven]

Also if a tech guy comes out to check the signal strength, what are the odds that be checks it while the strength is strong? I can't replicate or force the ping to spike. If he checks it and its all looking good, he won't even see it spiking at all...

[95Viper]

Originally Posted by lwgnlseven

Also if a tech guy comes out to check the signal strength, what are the odds that be checks it while the strength is strong? I can't replicate or force the ping to spike. If he checks it and its all looking good, he won't even see it spiking at all...

No, but, you can look at my post above... run some of the tests and print out the results or take screen shots of the results and have them to show them.

Did you look at the tickets to see if any of them are or would affect your connection?

Have you run Tracert, yet?
Ping is sort of useless now, as, you already know that your latency is all over the place.
Is it you isp, another server on your path, drivers, your connection, or other influences?
You need to now find the cause by testing and trial & error.

Post some info of your testing result; not ifs, ands, or maybes.
Can't help without data/info/test results.

I am assuming you are using a ethernet connection to the router, so you are using the latest updated driver for your NIC (network interface card).
Have you looked at the cable modem to see what the signal status is?
Are there any un-terminated connections in your place?

Once you get one thing eliminated as a cause, you can move on to the next... be methodical.

Have you tested going to different areas? Dulles/DC/northern VA areas have some of the worst latency at times.
And, you may be going through some servers in those area to get to Ashburn.
Try testing, using various methods, to NY, Chicago, and/or West VA, as examples.

[lwgnlseven]

Okay just home from work now, I ran a tracert to yahoo.com twice, the 3rd test is tracert to my ISP default gateway. Can you explain what it is I'm looking at? I see line 11 for yahoo.com goes crazy.



I will look into the other tests now.

Here are 2 tests from the first link you sent me.





The first test is showing some big spikes in there with high latency, the 2nd shows what seems to be ideal connection. Are these 2 good images to show as they vary in results?

[Geofrancis]

are you 100% sure its no one else using the connection at the same time?
how long is the cable from your testing computer to the router?

this gadget ping monitor is what i use to monitor my connection. http://www.myfavoritegadgets.info/in...ml#PingMonitor

i run 3 screens and one is almost covered with them so i know when one of my servers or routers starts acting up.

[lwgnlseven]

Originally Posted by Geofrancis

are you 100% sure its no one else using the connection at the same time?
how long is the cable from your testing computer to the router?

this gadget ping monitor is what i use to monitor my connection. http://www.myfavoritegadgets.info/in...ml#PingMonitor

i run 3 screens and one is almost covered with them so i know when one of my servers or routers starts acting up.

Like I said, others from my family are using the internet to browse at random times, but its little things, checking facebook, email, etc. They are not downloading games or streaming movies. I have had this internet company for 12 years and this is the first time I'm having latency issues like this. I did what you said earlier about running CMD and pinging while playing. I caught everything I think I wanted to see. I will post the image below for you to review.

I ran 5 CMD while playing APB Reloaded. I ping'd to ISP gateway, Router, Modem, APB server I was playing on, google.com. I also have ventrilo connected to a server to show ping as well. When the ISP spiked, APB server spiked, google.com spiked, ventrilo spiked, router/modem did NOT spike. At the time of this occurrence, my sister was on her computer checking facebook. My computer is on the 2nd floor (same floor as the modem/router) and is maybe 40-50 feet away.

[Frick]

Did you run tracert? That measures the latency between routers on the path to a server. In cmd write tracert google.com when your latency is high.

[lwgnlseven]

Originally Posted by Frick

Did you run tracert? That measures the latency between routers on the path to a server. In cmd write tracert google.com when your latency is high.

Tracert to google.com reports everything just fine. MS of around 20 for mostly all of it. My tracert to yahoo.com is all messed up. Anytime I ping to yahoo.com, I usually get ms of around 800.



Also keep in mind that the latency spikes happen at random times. If I were to run a tracert to google.com during a latency spike, I'm sure it would show around 400ms. Refer to the following image of when my net spikes and what it affects.