[SOLVED] Only able to play some games online by using my phones mobile hotspot to connect to my Wi-Fi

[OGPhilk]

Hi all, I have a bit of a strange problem. I'm only able to play certain games online by connecting my phone to my Wi-Fi, turning on the mobile hotspot with Wi-Fi sharing, and then connecting my PC to my phone to use the Wi-Fi.

The games affected are GTA-5 Online & Call of Duty Warzone, if I launch GTA up on my Wi-Fi, I'll almost instantly be booted into a solo session, so if I actually want to play with other people, I have to connect to my phones mobile hotspot. As for CoD, if I launch Warzone connected to my Wi-Fi, I have crazy high latency of 800ms-1000ms and huge packet loss, whereas when I'm connected to my phones hotspot, I'll sit at a solid 65ms-85ms latency with minimal packet loss. Before this issue started happening I would have a solid connection from my Wi-Fi, with 25ms-35ms latency and little to no packet loss.

Strangely, I don't seem to have any issues playing the new CoD Cold War using my Wi-Fi, and there doesn't seem to be any other games that have a problem with it. I've done a bit of searching around online, but I can't seem to find anyone else having the same problem.

I've tried reparing the game files & all the usual advice for improving latency issues, to no avail.

 

[gggplaya]

How is your wifi setup? Do you have repeaters/extenders or mesh setup?

Is it just a modem/router directly connected to the wall?

 

[OGPhilk]

How is your wifi setup? Do you have repeaters/extenders or mesh setup?

Is it just a modem/router directly connected to the wall?

Main router is in the opposite corner of the house, there's a second router in the middle of the house. I've tried Wi-Fi extenders in the past, but they didn't make much of a difference. When I speedtest my connection I'll have 45-50Mbps when directly connected to the Wi-Fi, but I'll still have 900ms latency on Warzone, but when connected to the Wi-Fi through my mobile hotspot I'll get 30-35Mbps on speedtest.net, but only have 60ms latency on Warzone. I'm stumped

 

[gggplaya]

there's a second router in the middle of the house.

Can you explain how the second router is connected to the main router? Is it being used as a wifi repeater, or does it have ethernet connected to the main router?

Please ensure that no ethernet cable is connected to the WAN port of this second router. (Double NAT)

 

[OGPhilk]

Can you explain how the second router is connected to the main router? Is it being used as a wifi repeater, or does it have ethernet connected to the main router?

Please ensure that no ethernet cable is connected to the WAN port of this second router. (Double NAT)

It has ethernet running to the main router, and there's even tape covering the WAN port to make sure no-one accidently plugs an ethernet cable into it.

 

[gggplaya]

What's the make an model of both routers? Do you have the settings correct? ( DHCP turned off on 2nd router (Access Point Mode), gateway IP should set to the ip of the main modem or modem/router, DNS should be the same as the main router or you can use google dns or whatever)

Latency should not be anywhere near that high. Wifi is like 1-3ms, and another 1ms to propogate through the main router via ethernet. In total, the additional latency should be no more than 5ms once it leaves the house.

 

[OGPhilk]

What's the make an model of both routers? Do you have the settings correct? ( DHCP turned off on 2nd router (Access Point Mode), gateway IP should set to the ip of the main modem or modem/router, DNS should be the same as the main router or you can use google dns or whatever)

Latency should not be anywhere near that high. Wifi is like 1-3ms, and another 1ms to propogate through the main router via ethernet. In total, the additional latency should be no more than 5ms once it leaves the house.

Both routers are TP-Link & the same model. As far as I can tell all the settings are correct. I only have latency/connectivity issues on the two games I mentioned, otherwise everything works fine, and has done for a long time. My wireless network adapter and my phones mobile hotspot would both be connecting to the same router, so I don't understand why connecting directly to the router with my network adapter seems to give me problems, whilst connecting to the router through my mobile hotspot seems to improve the issue.

 

[gggplaya]

If it's only on the 2 games, perhaps the QOS on either router is holding your gaming packets back because it mis-identified them. I would try disabling QOS to see if that fixes the issue.

Also, you may want to try putting your console or PC temporarily in the DMZ to see if port forwarding is an issue. Don't leave them in the DMZ as that's very insecure, but just to see if ports are an issue causing latency.

 

[bill001g]

Try running tracert to the game server and maybe some common ip like 8.8.8.8.

You can also run ping to 8.8.8.8 to see if it is different than the game server. If it is only to the game server it is likely a issue between ISP and not something a end user can do much about.

If tracert shows nothing interesting the problem may either be intermittent or the game itself is causing the problem...ie it is not a real network issue.

In any case first step is to try to find out where the delay is.