Question Lost/Late Packets & High Network Jitter/Ping Maxes for Months. Tried Everything and Desperate for Help

[FortressTV]

As stated above, I have been having drastic problems with network jitter/high max ping spikes causing late/lost packets and could really use some help in any capacity.

I came back home from college knowing that I would want to stream on Twitch while I was back home but when I tried to, my network started buffering and losing frames. I have no idea what is causing this but when looking into it I realize that not only was that failing all of a sudden, but I was getting packet loss across pretty much everything including games that have NEVER had an issue before (Literally 10 years with this never being an issue I have seen before). Since this point, I have been battling with this issue for MONTHS and I am beyond lost for what I can even do.

Here's a list of everything I have tried:

• Upgraded internet plan (400 down 20 up)
• Bought a new router (with bufferbloat prioritization)
• Got a new modem
• Tested a VPN
• Tested during all hours of the day
• Tried 5 different Ethernet cables
• Changed out my surge protector
• Had my ISP change our cables
• Had my ISP test everything outside showing no issue
• Changed DNS server
• Tried different devices
• Tried wifi instead of Ethernet
• Went to someone else's house that goes to the same servers and found no issues
• Changed almost every Windows setting I could imagine
• And a bunch of other stuff I just simply cannot think of because of how much I have been working on this

I am willing to listen to any suggestions at all

again, the problem seems to be high ping spikes/jitter that cause late packets which causes my upload speed to jump inconsistently up and down (Usually starts at 12-15 and instantly drops to about 3-4)

I can provide more tests if need be, I have done every single one of them and all of them say roughly the same thing. Same with anything I may have missed I am happy to elaborate. It just is so much that I have tested and tried over these last few months that it's hard to remember everything

Thank you to anyone who responds, I appreciate it beyond belief!

https://imgur.com/a/G68jIiB

View: https://imgur.com/a/G68jIiB

 

[kanewolf]

You only have control of the network up to your router. If there are no problems between your PC and your home router, then you have to work with your ISP, or change ISPs if you can't get satisfaction.
Start with a ping to your router. Does it have variability ? If not, then do a traceroute to google.com (or a game server IP).
Then you would start doing continuous pings to each of the hops shown in traceroute starting with the nodes nearest your home router.
You have to identify which hop has an issue. It may not be internal to your ISP (typically the first 2 - 5 hops are internal). If it is internal to your ISP you may be able to show this to them and they will "fix" something. If it is beyond your ISP, then they may say there is nothing they can do.

 

[bill001g]

You have to be a little careful about sites like this. 5ms of jitter is within the measurement error of the tools so is not real. If you saw closer to 100ms then it would be significant. If jitter is your problem you can not generally fix any form of latency unless you happen to be overloading your internet connection or you have some software on your machine causing it. This is almost always caused by some kind of data buffering because of a overload but if the overload is in something you share with other people then you would be extremely lucky if the ISP even admits that there is a bottleneck in their network.

I would first reset your router and remove any fancy configuration especially the stuff related to bufferbloat. This software can actually cause issues, it put a lot of burden on a router cpu. This is one of those thing that people have no clue what does but they see all kinds of post in gamer forums from more people that have no clue recommending it with no justification other than works good for me. It is another form of fake news mostly.

Bufferbloat only means data is being held in buffers and delayed. It of course can cause jitter. BUT bufferbloat is not the problem itself. It is a symptom of the real problem that you have overloaded the line. The actual solution is to buy more bandwidth or find a way to not overload your connection, maybe by rate limiting file transfers. You would only use this when you have no option to upgrade the internet and there is no way to limit traffic. It really only works well on smaller lines like DSL connections. If you attempt to run it on faster internet it will cap out your speeds at maybe 200-300mbps because router just do not have strong cpu. You must use a actual pc. Then again if you can overload a 500mbps internet you are doing something very strange. There is no way bufferbloat firmware can fix any
problem that is related other peoples traffic.

The largest issue is the site that checks for bufferbloat is not actually testing that. It can overload any internet connection and cause bufferbloat. It is more testing that you have bufferbloat software properly configured. Again you do not need the software unless you have actual problems caused by overloading your internet connection.


My best guess since it says you have upload loss it is the connection to your house. You need to test this so the ISP will fix it. You want to ping the ISP router as suggested above. You really need to hope you see loss to the isp router.

What you also might check is the output levels on your modem. I am assuming that you have a cable modem. If not then this does not apply. You want to check the levels to be sure they are not too high. The exact number you need to google search for but in general if it is above 50 you have a issue. The ISP should know how to fix that since it is almost always some wire issue.