Question Contact my ISP for internet spiking up and down? Help!

[Notary_Worker_5544]

Hello,

Hope all is well!

I am having what I think is network problems from my ignorant understanding. Regardless of what games I am playing online (in this case league of legends). There seems to be substantial lag or drops in connection as the games will freeze then re-continue later or I'll get dropped completely and have to reconnect. At this point it's gotten un-usable for games (apex, smite, battlefield, TFT). I also have the internet drop from my TV sometimes like when watching netflix.

The current PC connection is wired ethernet. I have a router/wifi set-up that my ISP (Spectrum) has installed. I’m under a group contract with them where I live so each place has a little box they gave us (see photos).

Devices connected to internet:
1 wired PC
3 over wifi security cameras
1 wifi TV
2 phones and that’s about it.


Information:
Windows 10 x64 Home
Motherboard Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite
AMD Ryzen 7 3700x 8 Core
16Gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G5, 80 Plus Gold

Network:
ISP Spectrum (wired to PC)
The WattBox WB-300-IP-3
RUCKUS ZoneFlex R610
Arris Touchstone TM1602A DOCSIS

When running a speedtest I am getting DL 373Mbps and UP 11.8 Mbps with 17 idle latency, 96 dl latency, and 17 upload latency. Upload latency was going wild during test, not sure if that matters.

I provided a few screenshots of Task Manager when I was playing team fight tactics (within the League of Legends launcher). From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any hardware or software limitations, just bad internet? I ran malware and some other scans, but nothing. Also, I haven't made any changes recently. I'm planning on calling my ISP after I get some information from anyone here! I read the posting rules and tried to remove any identifying information.

https://imgur.com/a/R1R7Bnc

View: https://imgur.com/a/R1R7Bnc

 

[Ralston18]

As an opening suggestion I would take all of those components out of that box.

Get everything unzipped and untangled.

Spread out and situate each device on its' feet so cooler air can flow through per the design - hot air rises.

My thought being that heat is building up and components are degrading.

Could be some interference as well.

 

[bill001g]

Pretty standard first steps.

Open a cmd window and do tracert 8.8.8.8

This will not likely show a issue it purely to get the ip addresses in the path.

What you now want to do is run 3 cmd windows. Run a constant ping to hop 1 (your router), hop 2 (isp first router), and 8.8.8.8

If you see issue with hop 1 it is some problem with the machine or your router....not very likely. If hop 1 is good but hop 2 is bad then it is some issue with the connection between your house and the ISP. If hop 1 and hop 2 are good but hop 3 is bad then it much more complex. If all three are good then it is something related to the game or its servers.

The upload latency when you test will jump all over the place because you are max it out and the data is being held in buffers to prevent you from exceeding your upload rate. This is called bufferbloat but it is a normal thing and the ISP does this rather than just discard traffic that exceeds the limit. They let you exceed it for very short periods of time and place the data in the buffer. When they just hard drop it when you exceed the limit you get situations where applications will not get their rated transfer speed. Only games would rather the ISP discard traffic rather than delay it. None of this likely matters in your case because it only happens when you run at 100% upload/download rate. Your game might use 1mbps upload so you will never see this latency issue.

So I am a bit confused with all the equipment you list.

Normally you have modem---router---pc and other stuff. I am unclear if the arris device you list is your modem or it some other device and if it is your modem then what is the model of the router. Or is that some speical phone box and you have a different modem/router your pc is plugged into .

Mostly the reason for these question is you need to try to log into the modem. If it is seperate a common IP address is 192.168.100.1 If it is a modem/router combo then it has the same information but you would have to find the correct menus. What you are looking for is any log that indicates the internet connection is getting error or maybe going down. If you can find it there should be a menu that shows your the download and upload signal levels. Key here is the upload one since if the signal is poor you can have issue upload.....but you should see data loss more than latency. You can look up the recommended signal levels since they vary a bit based on the type of docsis the ISP is using.

Maybe try to simplify things try only run your pc and nothing else connected to the router. If you have a seperate modem take the router out and hook the pc to the modem. You will likely have to power cycle the modem every time you change what is plugged into it.

 

[Notary_Worker_5544]

Pretty standard first steps.

Open a cmd window and do tracert 8.8.8.8
Okay, I ran tracert 8.8.8.8 and recieved 9 hops.
This will not likely show a issue it purely to get the ip addresses in the path.

What you now want to do is run 3 cmd windows. Run a constant ping to hop 1 (your router), hop 2 (isp first router), and 8.8.8.8
I ran 3 cmd and ran ping. I don't know if there is a command for constant ping. So I just C&P ping in the window.
If you see issue with hop 1 it is some problem with the machine or your router....not very likely. If hop 1 is good but hop 2 is bad then it is some issue with the connection between your house and the ISP. If hop 1 and hop 2 are good but hop 3 is bad then it much more complex. If all three are good then it is something related to the game or its servers.
I can't tell if there is any serious disruption from the pings as I don't see any loss %.
The upload latency when you test will jump all over the place because you are max it out and the data is being held in buffers to prevent you from exceeding your upload rate. This is called bufferbloat but it is a normal thing and the ISP does this rather than just discard traffic that exceeds the limit. They let you exceed it for very short periods of time and place the data in the buffer. When they just hard drop it when you exceed the limit you get situations where applications will not get their rated transfer speed. Only games would rather the ISP discard traffic rather than delay it. None of this likely matters in your case because it only happens when you run at 100% upload/download rate. Your game might use 1mbps upload so you will never see this latency issue.
Thanks for the knowledge.
So I am a bit confused with all the equipment you list.

Normally you have modem---router---pc and other stuff. I am unclear if the arris device you list is your modem or it some other device and if it is your modem then what is the model of the router. Or is that some speical phone box and you have a different modem/router your pc is plugged into .
The arris looks like it is the modem (which also appears to be a telephone line combo) and the Ruckus device (white device) is the router as it has lights for 2.4g / 5g. The box and service is meant to provide cable TV service too, but I don't use it. So some of this equipment might be that.
Mostly the reason for these question is you need to try to log into the modem. If it is seperate a common IP address is 192.168.100.1 If it is a modem/router combo then it has the same information but you would have to find the correct menus. What you are looking for is any log that indicates the internet connection is getting error or maybe going down. If you can find it there should be a menu that shows your the download and upload signal levels. Key here is the upload one since if the signal is poor you can have issue upload.....but you should see data loss more than latency. You can look up the recommended signal levels since they vary a bit based on the type of docsis the ISP is using.
I checked the event log, but it didn't show anything except something today. However, I did turn it all off and remove it from the box for easier access. So resetting everything could have deleted the event log. I don't know how that works. Otherwise no information. I didn't see a section to check signal. The advanced option ask me to insert the password of the day. I think my ISP has that access.
Maybe try to simplify things try only run your pc and nothing else connected to the router. If you have a seperate modem take the router out and hook the pc to the modem. You will likely have to power cycle the modem every time you change what is plugged into it.
I'm going to do this next. Undo the cords and take it all apart. Then simplify the connection from coax > modem > router and see if that doesn't help too before I call ISP.

Thanks for your time and effort in response all!

I tried the first comment from Ralston18 by removing the equipment to allow better air flow, etc. After several hours and with the fan on, I haven't noticed a difference in performance. Network still seems to be having spikes.

Bill please see my response in red to your comments and pictures of steps I took. I don't know if I executed your instructions accurately. Please let me know of any mistakes and I appreciate the help and knowledge.
Not sure whats personal information or not, but I hid IP numbers best I could.

https://imgur.com/a/9k1eNKS

View: https://imgur.com/a/9k1eNKS

 

[bill001g]

Those numbers are within the acceptable signal level ranges. You also are getting almost no errors and all the errors you do see the modem is correcting so you show no data loss. BUT system uptime is only 11 minutes.

Did you intentionally reload the modem. I am unsure if uptime number means how long it has been powered on or how long it has been connected to the ISP.

If it did it by itself then it is a problem. Maybe there is a log that will indicate why, all depends on if the log is deleted if it completely reboots.

I would do the ping testing next. The problem might not be a simple signal level issue could be some other issue. You might also see large spikes in the errors on the modem page if the problem is intermittent. Be careful about reading too much into the error numbers in the modem. When they run for day/weeks you will always see errors but they tend to not change much if you check them say 1 time a hour.