In-game ping is either 30 or 300

[Ben Ryder]

I don't get it. On some days in CS:GO (or at least half), my ping is locked at 260 to 350 with the occasional fluctuation up to the 400s. Every 4-5 min it might fluctuate down to 30-40 for about 15 seconds. However whenever it isn't going through this my ping might be virtually locked at some digit around 34 for hours straight, with MAYBE the occasional return to 300 ping for a couple of minutes once every few hours. This occurs on every computer.

I'm on an ADSL2+ plan with a Netgear D6200 router and an Ethernet connection. This occurs even if the most other users are doing is browsing.

What is the cause of this? OpenDNS? My router (physical problem or router settings)? My internet connection?

TL;DR - I have either 300 ping or 30 ping and I don't know what is causing it.

 

[bill001g]

What you have to do is not used the so called "ping" that games use. This many times is a special function that measure delay that includes the network. client and server delays. It is actually a better metric to how well a game performs but since it includes things other than network it is hard to troubleshoot.

So first step is to run a constant line mode ping command to a common address like 8.8.8.8 or 4.2.2.2. These are special dns servers normally located in a city very close to you. If you see the same issue then you can chase a network problem otherwise it is some issue with the game or maybe part of the game companies network.

If you see a problem the next step is to run tracert to try to find the point the latency increases. The first hop is your router and you better never see a issue there when you use ethernet. The second is the connection to the ISP in most cases. This represents your modem and the cabling to the isp and their first router. This tends to be the spot most issue occur and luckily the ISP will be fairly responsive in helping you fix it. If you get delays past this point you are into your ISP network or maybe even between ISP. It tends to be much harder to get a tech that first understands and then can do something about these problems. Obviously if the problem is far away in another ISP you can do little.