Question Ping spiking

[SparkytheDorito]

So I play Valorant and in game my ping spikes like crazy. It started about 4 days ago randomly and now it hasn't gone away. In game it consistently spikes to 200 ping every 1-3 seconds making it unplayable at times. I'm connected to an extender via ethernet and I tried doing just wifi and it was like 10 times worse than ethernet. I tested my speeds on speedtest.net and I'm getting good speeds (230-250 down and 250-260 up) and its not dropping at all. I have AT&T and the extender I am connected to via ethernet is one of their smart extenders. Does anyone have a fix?

 

[faalin]

Plug your computer directly into the modem with a cable, if the issue goes away then its with your extender. if the problem stays then its outside your network and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

[bill001g]

All you are really doing is using a different wifi card....just calling one a extender. It really doesn't matter how you hook the wifi radio, via usb or a internal bus or ethernet it is still wifi going to the router.
Could be one of your neighbors got a new wifi unit and is using the same radio channels as you. You can try the standard change the radio channel or band but wifi is massively overcrowded and it likely will make no difference. And just like you changing the channel one of your neighbors may do the same and cause interference.

As stated above the first step is to connect via ethernet directly to your router. If you still have problems then you can start look at other stuff like software on the pc or maybe someone else in your house is using too much bandwidth. But it is purely guess until you can plug directly it.
Your symptom is extremely common on wifi which is why they say to never play online games on wifi. There is little you can do to fix wifi. Pretty every other application except games can tolerate large ping spikes.

 

[gggplaya]

If you have Cable TV outlets in your computer room and router room. I would use MOCA instead of an extender. You'll get much faster and stable speed.

 

[SparkytheDorito]

All you are really doing is using a different wifi card....just calling one a extender. It really doesn't matter how you hook the wifi radio, via usb or a internal bus or ethernet it is still wifi going to the router.
Could be one of your neighbors got a new wifi unit and is using the same radio channels as you. You can try the standard change the radio channel or band but wifi is massively overcrowded and it likely will make no difference. And just like you changing the channel one of your neighbors may do the same and cause interference.

As stated above the first step is to connect via ethernet directly to your router. If you still have problems then you can start look at other stuff like software on the pc or maybe someone else in your house is using too much bandwidth. But it is purely guess until you can plug directly it.
Your symptom is extremely common on wifi which is why they say to never play online games on wifi. There is little you can do to fix wifi. Pretty every other application except games can tolerate large ping spikes.

Any suggestions on how to connect my pc straight to the router? I don't have an ethernet outlet in my room nor a cable tv outlet. I could try to run a cable from my room to the room the router is in I guess.

 

[bill001g]

You could try powerline adapters. They at times might be slower than wifi but games only use high bandwidth when you download them. Games when you are playing use only maybe 1mbps what they really need is consistent ping times.
Powerline has very stable ping times.

I guess if it is a lot slower than the wifi you could switch to the wifi to do the download and then switch back to the powerline to play. Many people get about 130mbps on the newer powerline so it tends to be ok. All depends on wiring in your house and how the power wires run. For gaming it will be a lot better.

Still even if it is huge pain to do running a ethernet cable is your best option. Once it is install you should never have to bother with it.