Issues with Random Ping Spiking

[dom_lumen]

For a while now I've been having severe issues with large, random ping spikes on my PC. There are some days where I can play games completely fine and with no issues at all, other days where the internet will go crazy for an hour or two then back to normal, and even still other days where throughout the day it will consistently be spiking and make it impossible to play. As far as I can tell, this is a problem that happens with all devices on the network but is especially bad with my PC. I looked this problem up on the internet multiple times and was able to find a test where I could use the command prompt to test my connection to the router, here are the results:

pinging with 1000 bytes of data
request timed out
request timed out
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
request timed out
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
request timed out
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
request timed out
reply from bytes 1000 time=1ms TTL=64
request timed out
request timed out
...
packets: sent=30, received=20, lost=10 (33% lost)

as you can see that's quite a bit of packetloss, but I'm not sure the cause. There are a few other devices on my network, maybe 10 including 2 other PC's, and netflix is sometimes running as well. I thought it was this at first, but I did some testing and played while netflix was playing and on somedays, there were absolutely no spikes and everything played fine. Other days, it might be something like this:
http://

Anyways, wondering if I could get any thoughts or suggestions on how I can stop these spikes from happening. To be honest I haven't tried much yet, so even something basic might do the trick. My thoughts were that these spikes seem to be higher and more frequent than an average network traffic issue, and that something else might be causing issues here. Interested to see what you guys think. My specs below, let me know if you need more info:

router: linksys WRT54G
DL speed: 15 mbps
upload speed: 1 mbps
PC connection: ethernet cable
OS: windows 8.1
motherboard: MSI H97 (used different one before as well, same issues)
ISP: Time Warner Cable

 

[AgPaul]

connect your computer directly to your modem for a few days and monitor your pings. If they continue, demand a new modem. if the problem still isn't fixed have them send a tech and check your lines. if the problems continues it most likely wil never be fix until one random day far in the future because issue will likely be deep within the isp somewhere.

(assuming your nic is 100% not the issue, fully updated, etc...)

edit I just read that your pings are to your home router (my bad), try a 30 30 30 reset on the router as well as moving your ethernet connection to a different port. if this doesn't fix the problem either reflash your router (hard) or buy a new one (easy).

 

[Kewlx25]

If someone is running P2P, like BitTorrent, it could cause higher load on your weaker router because of lots of connections. Modern routers can handle tens of thousands of connections, but older routers many times have limits near 1,000, plus or minus some.

So even if all of your bandwidth is not being used, you could be running up against a connection limit.

 

[dom_lumen]

I have actually reset my router quite a few times and this problem persists, and it seems to happen on other routers I have tested my PC on as well, but there is something else I've noticed. These ping spikes (seem) to be triggered by certain other devices on the network, namely an Ipad. Whenever the Ipad is running and connected to the network, I will have random, severe ping spikes. I'm not sure if this is the only device that does this, and it happens no matter what the ipad is doing whether it be web browsing, watching youtube videos, or facetiming. I have tried messing with the prioritization services, port forwarding, IP's... all did nothing. I'm not sure if it is an error with the Ipad, an error with my PC, an error with the router... Anyone have similar experiences or know what could possibly be the problem?