Inconsistant ping (jumpy)

Kreaterx

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Oct 9, 2015
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I've noticed recently in a couple of games my ping isnt as steady as i'd like, no it wont jump to rediculous numbers but it will go from maybe 15 to 25-40 then come back down, resulting in very annoying gameplay as its not steady its very noticable.

I did a standard pingtest just to google and its giving me the same results:

Pinging www.google.com [216.58.206.36] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=37ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=26ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=45ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=44ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=54
Reply from 216.58.206.36: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=54

Obviously I had it going for longer but the story is the same.
Is this my ISP's problem or something on my end?
I am using a wired connection.

Thanks!

 
Solution
Sorry I wasn't clear. Your ISP's router or gateway is the machine that you and all the people in your area connect to. It's first hop that is outside your house. The reason to focus on it are 3 fold. 1. The link between your router and the ISP router is the lowest bandwidth (speed) connection between you and everywhere. 2. Your ISP router can be very busy or not, depending on the demographics of the area you live in. 3. Traffic problems beyond that router are out of our control and potentially out of your ISP's control (well, you normally pass through 2-3 or more ISP routers before getting to the internet backbone).

The reason we like to look at ping times is because they give us a good idea of connection conditions are like. If...
7ms to google is extremely fast ... I suspect there are people out there that will cut your throat for that. Even 45ms is not terrible.

All that said, there does some variance in the latency. Instead of pinging google, I would focus on the routers controlled by your ISP (let's face it, unless you're Bill Gates you can't fix the internet). If you do a tracert, the 2nd or 3rd hop will normally be your ISP gateway. If pings to your ISP gateway are all over the place then it is likely you have congested ISP router.

If you use ping -t it will continue until you stop it (Control-C). You can also ping your router (192.168.1.1 or something similar) as a test of your network.
 

Kreaterx

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Oct 9, 2015
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4,520
Hey, appreciate the response.

What do you mean by isp router? I purchsed my own router previously using a asus 68u.

Pinged my router:
https://pastebin.com/j35f4mpZ

Haven't done a tracert before but I think this is it:
https://pastebin.com/63NbiyC9

Few things up and down but I'm not majorly sure what im looking at to be honest.

By the way standard ping is great of course, issue comes when things / games can actually feel sluggish from it being so jumpy.
 
Sorry I wasn't clear. Your ISP's router or gateway is the machine that you and all the people in your area connect to. It's first hop that is outside your house. The reason to focus on it are 3 fold. 1. The link between your router and the ISP router is the lowest bandwidth (speed) connection between you and everywhere. 2. Your ISP router can be very busy or not, depending on the demographics of the area you live in. 3. Traffic problems beyond that router are out of our control and potentially out of your ISP's control (well, you normally pass through 2-3 or more ISP routers before getting to the internet backbone).

The reason we like to look at ping times is because they give us a good idea of connection conditions are like. If ping times are consistent and stable, then your data will most likely be consistent and stable.
 
Solution
Not with the information so far. Pull up a command prompt and do "tracert google.com". The 1st hop should be your router. The 2nd hop should be your ISP router (unless you have a modem or 2nd router ... then it might be the 3rd hop). Then do "ping -n 50 x.x.x.x" where the x.x is your ISP router. Copy and paste the last line here (the one with min, max, and average).