Frequent Ping Spikes, Troubleshooted and Swapped all Gear

[CaseyHo]

Hi all,

I've been experiencing some drastic ping spikes in my connection for the last month. I notice in a live environment, such as an internet call, a livestream with no buffer, an online game etc. that ping will be around 30ms, but as frequently as every minute or sometimes up to 5 minutes, the ping will spike drastically, if only a moment, to 300-700ms. Of course I observe this spike in multiple applications first to ensure its not a server side issue of the target app. My internet plan is 30mbps, but a lot of devices are connected. However for the past year I've had no ping issues and I can't think of anything else has changed. I will share my troubleshoothing process.

First I tried a different wireless adapter, but the symptoms did not change. I powered off almost every other device and tested again, to see if the ping spikes were related to available bandwith, but still received the spikes. I tried a laptop computer to test if maybe rogue applications were interfering with my PC connection, but it showed identical symptoms to my desktop. Using ethernet annoyingly also did not solve the problem, which was very strange. At this point, I determined that the router, and modem, and my ISP were the only things left in the chain. My modem has a built in router that I don't use. Disconnecting from my normal router and using the built in router instead did not solve the issue. After calling my ISP, they told me everything looks normal as far as they can see, so I suspecting an issue with the modem.

Well today I got a brand new, higher end modem from them, as well as upgraded my plan to 150mbps. Using the new modem with the new built in router still did not fix the issue. I think I've exhausted all possibilities known to me. I've swapped out each individual piece of gear at this point. I'm really at the end of my wit.

One other thing I can't quite understand is when I ping my own router through command console (pint -t ip) I can even observe the ping spikes here, suggesting there is a probelm localy regardless of internet? I've only measured it this way after getting the new modem, but since I still get the same spikes, we can assume it was always happening locally too. What doesn't make sense is that you would think swapping network adapters, routers, or modems should have solved the issue here already. The router is about 15 feet from my computer and the distance didnt cause issues before, which is irrelevant anyway considering ethernet has the same problems.

There must be something crtical I am missing. Any suggestions are welcome. I'm a real newbie at this and I've tried my best to troubleshoot the issue to this point.

 

[bill001g]

It is likely a issue with the ISP but you are going to have to prove it to them to get them to even look at it.....you need to get past the idiot who thinks rebooting your computer fixes all.

What you want to do is test on a ethernet connection directly to their modem/router. This eliminates many of the things they can try to blame on you.

Next run a tracert to some common ip like 8.8.8.8. This is just to get a list of hops. Now you want to run continuous ping to hop 1 which should be your router and hop 2 which should be the ISP router at the far end of the connection going to your house. Run both these in separate cmd windows at the same time.

Your goal is to show the ISP that you have no issues to your router which proves all your equipment is not the cause but you see problems as soon as you leave your house.

If hop2 is configured to not respond or you see no problems to hop2 you can try hops farther out in the trace but the farther the problem is away from your house the hard it is to get fixed. It could be some bandwidth issue between your ISP and another ISP in a connection point in a city near you. Something like that they will never admit and will not even discuss with you.

 

[CaseyHo]

In the main post, I explained that I already pinged my own router (xxx.xxx.x.x) and that I can already see the ping spikes there. As such, I have no reason to suspect my ISP, as the issue seems already to be occuring in my own house. The strange part now is that I already swapped modems, routers, network adapters, computers, and the ping issue persists.

 

[bill001g]

It is almost impossible to get a ping spike on a ethernet cable. Wireless you see them because data is re transmitted when it detects errors. Ethernet just drops the data so you would see packet loss instead of delay. The cable itself can not delay data.

This leaves you with your PC is telling lies because it is too busy doing something else and delays reporting on the response it received or your router being too busy to respond to the ping.

Problem is you say you have eliminated both the end points by trying mulitple routers and different computers.

The only other possibility is you have another device on your network that is sending traffic that is overloading ether the router or your pc in some way.

I would go back and try as simple as possible. Plug your pc directly into a router with the wireless disabled and the internet unplugged. I would try both you computers and your routers in this configuration to be sure all the hardware is good. You would then slowly add things like the wireless or the internet and see if the problem occur.