Ping Various a Lot Every 10-30 Minutes

[mumulu]

My pings vary a lot. Sometimes they are in the range of 40ms then 20 minutes later they are 300-400ms. This is not just for one site (gaming) but also google.com, yahoo.com, etc. Hence it's not site specific. I also tried from different computers and as expected it's the same everywhere.

I reseted the router a few times and each time I did that the pings significantly improved just to get worse again some 10-30 minutes later. There were a few occasions where pings improved without resetting the router but usually a reset was necessary. Rebooting the computer didn't help.

Here is some information that might help:

Tracing route to google.com [172.217.5.110]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 100 ms 88 ms 104 ms 96.120.xxx.xxx
3 66 ms 71 ms 65 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [162.151.1.169]
4 199 ms 220 ms 199 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [162.151.79.157]
5 237 ms 228 ms 240 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [68.86.143.89]
6 316 ms 332 ms 330 ms 96.112.146.10
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 328 ms 329 ms 322 ms sfo03s07-in-f110.1e100.net [172.217.5.110]

and one more:

Tracing route to yahoo.com [98.139.180.180]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 143 ms 165 ms 181 ms 96.120.xxx.xxx
3 265 ms 305 ms 300 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [162.151.1.169]
4 301 ms 235 ms 310 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [162.151.79.157]
5 299 ms 309 ms 300 ms ...sfba.comcast.net [68.86.143.89]
6 311 ms 327 ms 332 ms ...Level3.net [4.68.72.101]
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 401 ms 397 ms 401 ms YAHOO-INC.ear2.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.14.4.250]
9 374 ms 307 ms 304 ms UNKNOWN-216-115-104-X.yahoo.com [216.115.104.77]
10 324 ms 307 ms 310 ms et-0-0-0.msr2.bf2.yahoo.com [74.6.227.149]
11 230 ms 221 ms 221 ms UNKNOWN-74-6-122-X.yahoo.com [74.6.122.89]
12 389 ms 386 ms 409 ms po7.fab3-1-gdc.bf1.yahoo.com [72.30.22.5]
13 399 ms 428 ms 422 ms po-11.bas1-7-prd.bf1.yahoo.com [98.139.129.177]
14 414 ms 412 ms 468 ms media-router-fp1.prod.media.vip.bf1.yahoo.com [98.139.180.180]

 

[anotherdrew]

It's possible that just the result of congestion, but since this gets better after restarting the modem it could be marginally low signal/noise ratio. Log into your modem and you should find a page with connection statistics. Acceptable signal to noise varies depending on your connection, so google your modem model number and SNR.

If it does end up being a low signal/noise ratio, then you have to figure out if it's your issue or an ISP issue. Generally the wires inside your house are your problem (some ISPs offer an "inside wire protection plan" ... if you have it, let them come out and fix it). If you have had good service in the past, then it is less likely to be in your house. I assume this is cable because it looks like you have Comcast. One thing to watch for is splitters. If you don't need them, get rid of them. If your house wire is looking good, then it is time to call your ISP and get them out to check lines.

The 96.120.xx.xx ... is that your public IP address or is that your ISP gateway? If that hardware is in your house then I am concerned about the hop between 192.168.1.1 (which I assume is your modem) and it. If that is your ISP, then I would expect a ping time more like 20-30. If it it is in your house I would expect much less.

 

[mumulu]

This has been resolved but I wanted to post back here. First of all, anotherdrew, thanks a lot for the response. I didn't really see anything in the router and I am not quite sure how to get data from the modem (which is a separate unit). The 96.120.xx.xx is my ISP (Comcast).

As for the wiring, this is a new house with new wiring inside and also outside to the pole. I had no issues until just about a week ago and nothing changed on my side.

I ended up contacting Comcast and they ran diagnostics. They came back and said there are some signal issues. It took them a few minutes and after rebooting the modem my pings are in the 30ms range, i.e. about 10x quicker. I have no idea how such signal issues can suddenly appear and then they can fix it without physically changing anything. Are they overlapping multiple signals and they start conflicting? Just curious.

 

[anotherdrew]

Do they overlap multiple signals ... kinda. With cable internet everyone in a neighborhood's signal is carried on one coax cable and then are separated out into discrete signals (generally referred to multiplexing). Each service gets a frequency range they communicate in (think of it like each person gets their own radio station) which is called Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM). While all the data is on the same cable, it doesn't (shouldn't) overlap. My guess is there was interference on your frequency range, so they moved you to a different frequency range.

Fair disclosure ... I'm from the telephone world (landline and cell) and we do similar stuff, but it's different.