Router Ping/Speed Consistency Issues

[Crims]

Pretty much as the title states, I have been having an issue with my router recently where the ping will remain somewhere between 20MS-40MS most of the time and then for no reason at all begin to skyrocket to numbers closer to 2000MS and remain there for anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours. The issue is not only with the ping because when the router decides to have these moments, loading web pages and other related things are near impossible as well. Seeing as I have tried everything to my knowledge to fix it, I figured I would come here and see what opinions others have. Any and all tips are welcome and helpful.

Router:
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (2nd Generation)

PC Specs:
AMD FX Vishera-8320
Gigabyte 970A-UD3
AMD Radeon HD 7850
Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333
Windows 8.1 64-bit
Ralink 802.11bgn 1T1R Wireless Adapter

 

[bill001g]

Were you pinging the router address or some address on the internet. If it is the router and you were using wireless it could be interference but it normally is more random. You will want to do the test connected via a ethernet to confirm the issue only happens when you are using wireless

On the internet you would need to first run traceroute to some common site like 4.2.2.2 or 8.8.8.8. You would then ping the first couple of hops. The point where this high latency starts is the location of the problem. The first hop is your router of course which you should have eliminated but the second hop can still be your modem or the cable in your house. It represents all the equipment on your end and the ISP for the connection to your house. It tends to be the most common location of problems. Hops past this tend to get tricky because it is hard to tell what they are and who owns them. In most cases you can't do much anyway. After verifiying your cables you will need the ISP help to find issues in hop 2.

 

[Crims]

Were you pinging the router address or some address on the internet. If it is the router and you were using wireless it could be interference but it normally is more random. You will want to do the test connected via a ethernet to confirm the issue only happens when you are using wireless

On the internet you would need to first run traceroute to some common site like 4.2.2.2 or 8.8.8.8. You would then ping the first couple of hops. The point where this high latency starts is the location of the problem. The first hop is your router of course which you should have eliminated but the second hop can still be your modem or the cable in your house. It represents all the equipment on your end and the ISP for the connection to your house. It tends to be the most common location of problems. Hops past this tend to get tricky because it is hard to tell what they are and who owns them. In most cases you can't do much anyway. After verifiying your cables you will need the ISP help to find issues in hop 2.

Thanks for the quick reply, Bill! I thought the same and immediately went to the ISP when it began happening to see if there was anything on their end that was causing the problem. After talking with them and realizing that a simple router restart sometimes solved the issue I figured that it was an issue with the router and not the ISP/modem. As I have no idea what exactly a "traceroute" is or how to run it through a specific site, any help or guide for this would be helpful so I could more definitely pinpoint the location of the problem. And if it was the router, is what might I do to go about fixing it so the issue doesn't continue to happen?

 

[bill001g]

The command is tracert ....and I assumed you really meant you were using the ping command and not one of those number a game puts out since those are not actually pings and they are influenced even by the video drivers.

If you suspect the router then firmware upgrade is always the first option. You then really need to determine if it is the router itself or if it is just the wireless part by testing with a wired connection. If it is wireless then it could very well be a neighbor turning on his router and the only way to fix that is to try to avoid him. You need to test everything else before you chase the wireless angle because wireless is the hardest to fix and sometime unfortunately it can not be completely fixed

 

[Crims]

The command is tracert ....and I assumed you really meant you were using the ping command and not one of those number a game puts out since those are not actually pings and they are influenced even by the video drivers.

If you suspect the router then firmware upgrade is always the first option. You then really need to determine if it is the router itself or if it is just the wireless part by testing with a wired connection. If it is wireless then it could very well be a neighbor turning on his router and the only way to fix that is to try to avoid him. You need to test everything else before you chase the wireless angle because wireless is the hardest to fix and sometime unfortunately it can not be completely fixed

Router firmware is up to date. When you say it could possibly be a neighbor or something, there is truly nothing I can do to avoid their connection interfering with mine? Changing channels or frequency wouldn't help?

 

[bill001g]

You can try but it has gotten to the point when you live in high density areas people are using all the channels.