Question Massive Ping Spikes - Router to modem connection (Australian VDSL Fibre) ?

[izoblanc]

Modem:
TP-Link W9970

Routers:
Asus AX-3000P (main - connected to the modem)
Asus RT-AX55 (node)

Recently, I started having massive ping spikes up to 10000ms every 5-20 minutes, on every device, regardless if it is connected via cable or WiFi (PCs, Laptops, phones)
I had only 1 router (RT-AX55) but after I moved, I bought a new router (AX-3000P) and connected them via Ai Mesh. It worked fine, I always had small internet spikes to around 160ms every now and then but they were just "normal lags" i was accustomed with.

(Modem is connected via PPPoE and router delivers internet via DHCP)

Steps I made (ONLY with 1 device connected to router at the time):
1. Full reset of modem and router
2. Update to the latest firmware
2. Setting up 1 router only (ax-3000 or rt-ax55)
2. All ipconfig resets - flushdns, release, flushdns renew, , netsh winstock rest, netsh int ip reset, netsh int ipv4 reset (and so on, on every device)
3. DNS change - I changed it to ISPs, to Google, to Cloudflare in router, modem and also in 2 different PCs (I tried each step separately)
4. Beamforming - turning off MU-MIMO, Airtime Fairness, Explicit Beamforming, Universal Beamforming and 802.11ac Beamforming for all three bands (each step separately - found it on the ASUS forum)
5. Turning off 160mhz connection on 5ghz
6. Setting manually channels of each connection
7. Separating bandwidths (2.4 and 5ghz)
8. Contacted my ISP - they reset ports and no problems on their side
9. Update of wireless cards on both computers (Gigabyte B550I Aorus PRO AX and A320M-H)
10. Turning on and off uPnP in modem and router
11. Bought and ran a 15m ethernet cable straight to router and to modem

ONLY wired connection straight to the modem seems fine - 30ms with spikes to 160ms (still sometimes having "General failure" and "Request timed out" but it doesn't cause connection or packet loss)

This is a wired connection to the router (similar results on WiFi)

https://imgur.com/RkaA4cc

https://imgur.com/xaLLbNT

https://imgur.com/0iIf1nn

This is a wired connection to the modem

https://imgur.com/cutCikQ

https://imgur.com/QTdQebO

Can't play, can't watch netflix on TV.
I spent so much time on this. And I really have no idea what I can do at this point.
Please help.

 

[bill001g]

When you get general failure it most times means that the ethernet port failed, mostly it just disconnected. Because it happens on wifi also it is not likely a cable or port problem. Since it happens to different devices it is also not likely to be the ports on the router.

The thing that I find strange on the testing is you are using the same IP to test....192.168.1.1. You actually have 3 routers. The device you call a modem is also a router. You so called mesh device is also a router.

My guess would be you have some kind of ip conflict. Most times though if you hook the wan to another router and the lan and wan are using the same subnet it will give warnings.

What is strange though is this should work using just the modem/router with the other routers disconnected.

In the long run you need to fix the IP subnets or better just use the modem/router as the only router and use the other units as AP. It all depends on why you have the secondary routers in the first place.

 

[izoblanc]

The thing that I find strange on the testing is you are using the same IP to test....192.168.1.1. You actually have 3 routers. The device you call a modem is also a router. You so called mesh device is also a router.

Yes, however wifi on the TP-link was disabled from the beginning, signal was really weak, hence the reason it's connected to a different router. I thought i should ping to 192.168.1.1 to check internet stability.

My guess would be you have some kind of ip conflict. Most times though if you hook the wan to another router and the lan and wan are using the same subnet it will give warnings.

I tried all the ports on the modem and replaced the ethernet cable to cat-8

In the long run you need to fix the IP subnets or better just use the modem/router as the only router and use the other units as AP. It all depends on why you have the secondary routers in the first place.

WiFi signal in tp-link was really weak and unstable that's why I bought AX55, but since I moved to a bigger house and the telephone port is on the other side of the house than my office I just bought another router to mesh it up together

 

[bill001g]

Maybe I should be more clear.

Both the tplink and the asus can not be using 192.168.1.1. Every device in your network needs a unique IP address.

Just turning off the wifi on your tplink does not disabled the router function.

If you need for the other routers is purely for wifi I would set the asus to AP mode. You still might need to change lan IP. If the third "router" connects to the other asus via wifi then you are likely using repeater/mesh mode. This sometimes will not function if the first asus is running as a AP. If the third router connects via ethernet then run both asus as AP.

Maybe just try to change the tplink lan IP to 192.168.2.1 and also change the dhcp range if it does not do it automatically.
Even if this works you are running router behind router which may or may not matter. You have multiple nat which can cause issues for game consoles.

 

[izoblanc]

Maybe I should be more clear.

Both the tplink and the asus can not be using 192.168.1.1. Every device in your network needs a unique IP address.

Just turning off the wifi on your tplink does not disabled the router function.

If you need for the other routers is purely for wifi I would set the asus to AP mode. You still might need to change lan IP. If the third "router" connects to the other asus via wifi then you are likely using repeater/mesh mode. This sometimes will not function if the first asus is running as a AP. If the third router connects via ethernet then run both asus as AP.

Maybe just try to change the tplink lan IP to 192.168.2.1 and also change the dhcp range if it does not do it automatically.
Even if this works you are running router behind router which may or may not matter. You have multiple nat which can cause issues for game consoles.

My bad. Asus ip was set to 192.168.1.103 automatically when set its function to DHCP.
tp-link has range from 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.199.
Thank you a lot for your help. I will change asus to AP tomorrow and will let you know.

 

[Ralston18]

Also - from Post #3

"I tried all the ports on the modem and replaced the ethernet cable to cat-8"

Cat-8 is not standard and should not be used.

 

[izoblanc]

Maybe I should be more clear.

Both the tplink and the asus can not be using 192.168.1.1. Every device in your network needs a unique IP address.

Just turning off the wifi on your tplink does not disabled the router function.

If you need for the other routers is purely for wifi I would set the asus to AP mode. You still might need to change lan IP. If the third "router" connects to the other asus via wifi then you are likely using repeater/mesh mode. This sometimes will not function if the first asus is running as a AP. If the third router connects via ethernet then run both asus as AP.

Maybe just try to change the tplink lan IP to 192.168.2.1 and also change the dhcp range if it does not do it automatically.
Even if this works you are running router behind router which may or may not matter. You have multiple nat which can cause issues for game consoles.

I have no idea why ai mesh mode would cause problems after a while of working fine, however,
since I manually changed TP-link lan ip and switched asus to AP mode i havent noticed any spikes other than 160ms (as i had earlier).

Thank you a lot for your help!!!!!

Also - from Post #3

"I tried all the ports on the modem and replaced the ethernet cable to cat-8"

Cat-8 is not standard and should not be used.

Also, as advised, I swapped the cable back to cat-5e.