Fluctuating Pings and Speed Tests

[CP101]

I work from home and have done so for nearly a year at this job. My company uses VOIP and I have been having issues with it. I've been running around in circles with my ISP...they insist there is no problem on their end and are saying it is the vpn. I use a vpn on my work computer, but not on my home computer and I've tested speeds and pings on my home computer, so it's not vpn. Will running a speed test and a ping test at the same time cause the pings to fluctuate to 100ms and more??? My boss says it should not do this, that I should be able to check my pings and speed at the same time. My cable provider tells me to test my speed on their site, but my boss says to use speedtest.net. There is a huge difference between those sites in speed and the speeds do fluctuate as much as 40 or more points! I am getting nowhere with my ISP and there are no other choices in my area. They keep insisting there is no problem on their end and I should have no issues with VOIP but I am having issues with it. Both my home computer and work computer are wired. I have a second desktop computer (WiFi) and a Chromebook as well as cellphones and tablets that access the WiFi but while I'm working, none of that is really being used. I've tried bypassing the router and plugging directly into the modem....same thing. My ISP replaced all the wiring, gave me a new modem, a new router, etc....and continues to insist there is no issue. This is so frustrating and I'm about to lose my job. Any thoughts on this???

 

[Bill_Bright]

Will running a speed test and a ping test at the same time cause the pings to fluctuate to 100ms and more???

On a slow connection, sure.

What speeds does your ISP service contract require? Sadly, most say "up to" such and such Mbps.

What are you getting with Speedtest? Where are you pinging to?

Have you tried this with your second computer?

 

[CP101]

My job only requires 5 mbps upload and download speeds. The speed I had with my internet providers was 60 mbsp download and 6 upload but I increased it to their 120 download and 10 upload speed but I'm getting all sorts of different readings. I test on my ISP site and I get 130 download, 10 upload and another time it will be in the 80's or below and only 5 or 6 upload. It also varies a lot on Speedtest.net. My pings are always high on speedtest.net...30's 40's 50's and more....and only about 8 mbps according to my ISP's site. And if I run a ping test and speed test at the same time, my pings will go over 100 mbps, sometimes 200+. My ISP says they cannot find anything wrong, but at work (VOIP) the callers sometimes cannot hear me and I cannot hear them and I've been talking over them unbeknownst to me due to the lag in my internet. I don't know what to do! Things were fine before...I've been at this job for a year. (And I had the slower speed of 60mbps download and 6 upload) and now all of a sudden I am having issues and my ISP claims they cannot find anything wrong. One supervisor told me that running a ping test and speed test would cause the pings to jump up high like that and another one said it shouldn't. My boss said it should NOT do that and that the speeds should not vary that much on different speed test sites. Any advice is welcome! I honestly don't' know much about this and am about to lose my job!

And yes, I've tested this on my other computer as well with the same results.

 

[Bill_Bright]

My ISP replaced all the wiring, gave me a new modem, a new router, etc...
I've tested this on my other computer as well with the same results.

I am afraid I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps you can take your computer to a neighbor's house who has the same ISP and see if your computer works there. If it does, then you have something to go back to your ISP with. Sorry.