Constant lag spikes in games w/ Comcast Internet

[Wunggg]

For a couple months now, games that I play (League of Legends and CS:GO mostly) are having lag spikes all the time. I'd be at around 30-40 ping and then every couple of minutes or so it spikes to 120-150 ping. Then it goes back down to regular ping and the cycle continues.

The thing is, my internet is fast with Speedtest.net giving results of like 80 down and 12 up. Download speeds are amazing and all websites and streaming sites are super fast. The lag spike issue never used to be a problem and we've had the same internet plan for a while now.

Is this issue a problem between Comcast and the game servers? Is there anything I can do to fix this? Any help would be appreciated because this is getting extremely annoying, thanks !

 

[Guest]

I am not 100% what is happening in your situation but I do have a suggestion. Assuming your computer is connected through wireless internet I'd recommend getting an ethernet cord and connecting it to your computer. You can find ethernet plugs possibly scattered around your house/apartment, and there will definitely be some stationed on your modem. Generally wired internet (ethernet) is better because your connected to cable lines from your provider which is much faster than a wireless connection which is slower and not directly connected. Tell me if you have any questions hope I helped.

 

[Wunggg]

I am not 100% what is happening in your situation but I do have a suggestion. Assuming your computer is connected through wireless internet I'd recommend getting an ethernet cord and connecting it to your computer. You can find ethernet plugs possibly scattered around your house/apartment, and there will definitely be some stationed on your modem. Generally wired internet (ethernet) is better because your connected to cable lines from your provider which is much faster than a wireless connection which is slower and not directly connected. Tell me if you have any questions hope I helped.

I would've tried this already but it's set up across my house which makes it almost impossible to use the cable right now... Thanks for the suggestion though

 

[Matias_4]

If you can't find the solution I'll just post it here:
"One last thing to try: hooking up a line conditioner between your electrical outlet and the modem.

I've posted a number of times on this thread. Many things tried, many worked for a while. Running down the list:

1. Replacing Modem
2. Replacing weather-beaten cables outside the house
3. Changing the administrative settings back at Comcast so it consistently says we're on the right speed tier

Each of these worked for a while, and our lag spike problems went away. But then it came back. I finally wondered if all the spiking wasn't really the modem (which is where the ping plots said the problem was), but the electricity coming into the modem. If the voltage into the modem was spiking, this might be causing the modem itself to have spiky behavior. So I took a voltmeter and plugged it into a wall outlet to see what we were getting. The voltage varied by time of day and from moment to moment, from about 118V to about 123V. The worst lag conditions were when the voltage was in the lower part of the range. So I bought this line conditioner,
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00009RA60/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00, hooked it up to the wal outlet, set it to 120V, and plugged both the cable modem and the router into the back. At this point, both items were getting a steady 120V -- and for the last 4 days, at least, we have had a really solid signal. I'll post back in a week once I know if this finally really worked, or was just a temporary fix like the others. One interesting thing: when I set the line conditioner to 110V, the cable modem worked somewhat, but router didn't work at all. So the router needs more than 110V to run."
His reply:
"YAY - SUCCESS!! After a week of having my cable modem plugged into a line conditioner (see post above for the one I bought) set to 120V, I can say that my signal is now perfect. 15-30 ms lag, no spikes, for a week. Possible that all the other things that were tried contributed, but this last thing is what nailed it."