Ping Spikes when pinging default gateway [help required]

[ririx4268]

hey there,
i have been experiencing ping spikes issues while online gaming for years now but i only noticed it once i tried playing shooters (fortnite for example) because of how crucial that big of a ping spike (from 50~70 to 300s) is,
but the weird thing is that, i have did so much troubleshooting it, and while i have read online that you should never attempt this, by connecting both my Ethernet and wifi to my router, then select-bridge both connections, the 'packet loss' issue fixes itself,
while i am sure its not the bridge that did anything, but i am assuming the new network adapter's (that the windows created) settings are possibly different (which solves the problem?)
i have tried it multiple times, and/or by removing the bridged adapters and re-bridging them.
it works, but i would like to solve the actual issue rather than do something stupid like that, but since the packet loss issue gets fixed by messing with the settings, it assures me that its not from my ISP's end and can be (hopefully) managed, right?
i dont really know much of these things but i have experienced around.
i have also tried the following commands but they did not help :
ipconfig /flushdns ,ipconfig /registerdns ,ipconfig /release ,ipconfig /renew

my network adapters :
Qualcomm Atheros AR8171/8175 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (NDIS 6.30)
Atheros AR956x Wireless Network Adapter.
Help is Highly appreciated

Update 1! : i have run a 100 ping test to my own router's ip, and i noticed that a few of the pings showed high round trip numbers (them being 236, 401, 378, 458, 105, 84, 194).
is that normal out of 100 pings? or should they all be 1ms like the rest of them? because it seemed to be in sync with the times i would experience what i refer to as "packet loss" ping spikes.
and if so, does that mean my router is at fault? could it be its settings, or do they become weaker over time?(it was being used for about a year and a half now).
which confirms that it is not a Packet loss issue, even though fortnite's monitoring said so, but rather just weird spikes in latency between my computer and my router's default gateway ip which is 192.168.1.1

Update 2!: i think i fixed it! (by think i am not sure if it will stay fixed or not, and for how long, but it is fixed for now, even after i restarted my router twice)
the thing is, my router has 8 virtual circuits where i can input modes such as bridges or connection types, i use one with the data given to me by my ISP, and the rest are bridges usually,
what i did was just deactivate all other ports after i am connected to the internet. and it works like a charm so far!

 

[bill001g]

It is pretty easy to test if the loss is in your house. Open a CMD window and let a continuous ping run to the router IP. You want to use the ethernet connection to do this since wifi you can get loss.

You should see ping times in the 1ms range with no loss. If you see no loss then the problem is not in purely a network problem in your computer...although games may say it is a network problem when it is really something else.

 

[ririx4268]

It is pretty easy to test if the loss is in your house. Open a CMD window and let a continuous ping run to the router IP. You want to use the ethernet connection to do this since wifi you can get loss.

You should see ping times in the 1ms range with no loss. If you see no loss then the problem is not in purely a network problem in your computer...although games may say it is a network problem when it is really something else.

i have tried that before (both to local ip and common addresses such as google) and it showed 0 packet loss indeed,
but still, how come the packet loss got fixed sometimes in the past after playing around with the adapter's settings?
and as far as i can tell, i only experience the delays or spikes when i'm told i have packet loss percentage higher than 0 in said game's internet status monitor.
sure it might have just been a coincidence of it getting fixed while changing settings that are totally unrelated, but it occured multiple times and only after certain changes were made, so i'd doubt that.

 

[bill001g]

If you get no packet issues especially if you tested all the way to google it means the game is telling lies. The network tab on the resource monitor will also show packet loss and latency number for open sessions. Some times the main game session does not show up since it is UDP.

If you do other things on the internet and watch the resource monitor it will quickly show if you actually have a problem even though it tends to be hard to be sure since number jump around. But in general if you see no issues then again the game is telling lies.

You are somewhat lucky your PC is smart enough to prevent you from messing yourself up. When you bridge 2 connection to the same router you have created a loop. This many time can crash the whole network in your house. The PC likely is just using the ethenet connection and ignoring the wifi.

 

[ririx4268]

If you get no packet issues especially if you tested all the way to google it means the game is telling lies. The network tab on the resource monitor will also show packet loss and latency number for open sessions. Some times the main game session does not show up since it is UDP.

If you do other things on the internet and watch the resource monitor it will quickly show if you actually have a problem even though it tends to be hard to be sure since number jump around. But in general if you see no issues then again the game is telling lies.

You are somewhat lucky your PC is smart enough to prevent you from messing yourself up. When you bridge 2 connection to the same router you have created a loop. This many time can crash the whole network in your house. The PC likely is just using the ethenet connection and ignoring the wifi.

i also thought so, but thanks for clarifying,
i knew that it wouldnt be possible for the computer to use both wifi and Ethernet simultaneously (without thirdparty softwares of course) but still, it baffles me why it fixed the issue i had/i'm having.
and whether or not the game(s) were lying about the packet loss feed back, it feels real, i have read about the issue and what i am suffering from only points out to it being something similar if not that specifically, since my ping rises in bursts that sometimes doesnt even show up for long enough on real time monitoring, and it makes certain non-turnbased online games "unplayable" due to the random transition in animations i get to see, after briefly fixing it by messing around with some settings, i have also got to experience different ping levels, playing at low ping gives you a smoother look and more precise perspective on whats actually going on (what hits, what misses, etc) but playing on high ping only messes that up, never did i experience stutter, rubber banding or such by just being in-game with high ping (even 200-300) though i usually play on somewhat 40-70ms.
i would love to further troubleshoot this but i am completely clueless, i've tried my connection when it was presenting the error on a different pc and it got the same results (it being packet loss issues), which got me frustrated, since that definitely (?) means that my pc was not on fault, and probably all the settings i've changed/messed with (except those of the router) did little to no effect on the problems i am having.
if you can lend me any more of your time that would be appreciated, otherwise, thanks for the assistance.
that aside, i want to know one more thing, while i know a router does not require data collected from the computer to connect to the internet (meaning it can function before any devices even connect to it) but, can a devices settings alter the router's (excluding those that are reached by going to the router's settings page via a browser) and prevent it from connecting to the internet, or present other problems?

 

[bill001g]

If you get ping loss to your router especially if it also happens from another machine running on ethernet then it has to be some issue with the router.

Do you have a separate modem you could try to plug directly into.

A router should never get high ping times. You almost always see 1ms. Maybe disable the wifi on the router to test and see if it makes any difference.

 

[ririx4268]

If you get ping loss to your router especially if it also happens from another machine running on ethernet then it has to be some issue with the router.

Do you have a separate modem you could try to plug directly into.

A router should never get high ping times. You almost always see 1ms. Maybe disable the wifi on the router to test and see if it makes any difference.

did exactly that minutes before checking your comment,
but i did not try ping testing with the other computer, but rather just transfered a small online game (300mbs) which i was able to experience lag on when my connection to the router spikes (or what i used to refer to as packet loss due to what the fortnite monitoring system calls it), and it did lag at a similar pattern to when my local connection's ping spiked.
i also tried turning off the router's broadcasting of a wifi signal and my laptop's, but running the ping test still showed multiple spikes to either 70-80ms or 400-500ms, just like before.
i also made sure it was running on the latest firmware uploaded by their website, its a TP-link router connected to a landline phone cable.
still nothing, so far o3o;

 

[bill001g]

The problem with any form of file transfer or any internet traffic for that matter is you really don't know if it is the router or your internet connection.

It is much more likely the internet connection actual router failures not related to wifi are very rare. Even wifi radio failures are not common.

If you get ping spike talking to your router with no traffic that point to the router. You could test by removing the internet connection. If you get ping spikes to your router when it is disconnected there is not much left.

Now the other possibility and much more common would be if the router problem only occurs when the CPU is under load. That one tend to be almost impossible to isolate since for most people the only way to put load on the router is to transfer to the internet. If your router has a ethernet wan port in addition to the DSL you could if you work at it put a pc on the wan side and on the lan side and test inside your house. It is not hard but takes knowledge of manually setting of networks and subnets.

At some point if you really suspect it is the router you just have to give up and spend the money on a new device. It is much more likely the problem is the internet connection but you can only do so much to isolate things.

 

[ririx4268]

The problem with any form of file transfer or any internet traffic for that matter is you really don't know if it is the router or your internet connection.

It is much more likely the internet connection actual router failures not related to wifi are very rare. Even wifi radio failures are not common.

If you get ping spike talking to your router with no traffic that point to the router. You could test by removing the internet connection. If you get ping spikes to your router when it is disconnected there is not much left.

Now the other possibility and much more common would be if the router problem only occurs when the CPU is under load. That one tend to be almost impossible to isolate since for most people the only way to put load on the router is to transfer to the internet. If your router has a ethernet wan port in addition to the DSL you could if you work at it put a pc on the wan side and on the lan side and test inside your house. It is not hard but takes knowledge of manually setting of networks and subnets.

At some point if you really suspect it is the router you just have to give up and spend the money on a new device. It is much more likely the problem is the internet connection but you can only do so much to isolate things.

so pinging my router when it is not connected to the internet should/could provide different outcomes and help the troubleshooting process? didnt think that it would change much, but will try it.
currently all the troubleshooting has been done while it is still connected to the internet,
that aside, any router settings you would advise to be changed or turned on/off that might be the culprit of this interruption/delay between my computer and the router?
Edit : also the problem occurs with or without the cpu being under load of any kind, tried pinging my router when nothing is open, a small game, and a cpu intensive one, and it all lead to the same results of occasional spikes to 100-500ms

 

[bill001g]

You could try to ping between your machines with both on ethernet. Since it is only passing the switch chip in the router any issue would likely be with the PC.

It would be really nice if routers had some diagnostics but most have almost nothing. Pretty much the only way the traffic can be delayed is if the cpu is so busy doing something else that it puts off responding to the ping command. Be nice if the router told you what it was doing during those times.

 

[ririx4268]

You could try to ping between your machines with both on ethernet. Since it is only passing the switch chip in the router any issue would likely be with the PC.

It would be really nice if routers had some diagnostics but most have almost nothing. Pretty much the only way the traffic can be delayed is if the cpu is so busy doing something else that it puts off responding to the ping command. Be nice if the router told you what it was doing during those times.

well, this is what comes up if i try pinging the first hop (my router's gateway) :

heres the tracert results for the first 13 hops alongside the results of ipconfig :

and the results of pinging the second hop (which are pretty similar to what i recieve when pining the gateway) :

once again, your help is appreciated, and i am completely clueless on what to do next aside considering getting a new router.
i tried 2 different ethernet cables and wifi during other pings with the same results.
no idea why this went away some days before.

 

[bill001g]

It almost has to be the router. I would try it again with the internet unplugged. Maybe someone is port scanning your router from the internet and causing your router to get busy. This is very unlikely but costs nothing to test. If that is true ask the ISP to give you a different IP address.

After that I suspect you buy a new router and hope for the best

 

[ririx4268]

It almost has to be the router. I would try it again with the internet unplugged. Maybe someone is port scanning your router from the internet and causing your router to get busy. This is very unlikely but costs nothing to test. If that is true ask the ISP to give you a different IP address.

After that I suspect you buy a new router and hope for the best

yeah that sounds reasonable, but unlike that logical stuff you said, i read somewhere about a fix that "stops your wifi from searching for other networks while its already connected to one which might cause spikes" using registry editing, and while i know my problem isnt wi-fi related, i went through with it, but once i am there at my registry side of networking hardware, i found multiples of the "network bridges" that i made on the previous days to briefly fix this, so i backed them up and then deleted them, proceeded with a restart, then got frustrated again, and what i did was to bridge the ethernet and wifi again, which in turns crashed my router's internet connection, but magically once i disconnected the wifi, the internet signal returned, and my spikes went away again.
i ran a ping test to the router and isp and they were both with no spikes (which is literally what happened first times i did this to "fix" my problem).
but seeing how you actually know of these things by far more than just google searches,
i would love to know what the heck does crashing my router and doing something remotely stupid has to do with fixing ping spikes though, but at least i can game with no spikes for now.
will be gladly here to provide you any analysis results that might help you understand this issue, if you want to continue this investigation that is!

heres the ping results :