Question Weird latency spikes

[kapul4]

Hello, recently I noticed that all games tend to have lag spikes of more than 400 ms, and all websites tend to load up with a delay sometimes. The issue first started appearing on sim card router connected via ethernet cable, but I see its the same with my mobile phone connected to pc via usb tethering. The speeds seem fine but there are random latency spikes on both connections. I contacted my ISP and they say they see nothing out of the ordinary. No system changes prior to the spikes started to occur. The issue randomly dissapeared for 2 days without touching anything and then it started again. Also, latency seems to be higher even with no spikes in mind.
https://prnt.sc/jYSqZ6gj46en
https://prnt.sc/EM4Ipn9Gflyp

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

Firstly, can you list the specs of your PC, and examples of games your playing.

Also, what service do you get from your provider. If it's on mobile connection, there could be so many things interfering with the signal and causing the spikes. Gaming on a mobile connection doesn't really cut it for most games now.

 

[kapul4]

Hey there,

Firstly, can you list the specs of your PC, and examples of games your playing.

Also, what service do you get from your provider. If it's on mobile connection, there could be so many things interfering with the signal and causing the spikes. Gaming on a mobile connection doesn't really cut it for most games now.

Hi, my specs are 32gb ddr4 ram, i5 11400f, rtx 3090 and win 11. Game i first noticed the lag spikes was league, but i noticed it in other single player games that require constant connection like genshin. My ping is usualy at about 50ms in league at eune server, actually was for the last 3 years, now when this issue is occuring, ping is going from 70-90, with that lag spike only being noticable by metering tools, lol refreshes it every 2 seconds i think. When I run speedtest over phone, my speeds are from 150-200mbit, but running it on pc the very next moment, speeds are 10-50mbits. I contacted my isp to ask do they throttle the speed when they recognize usb tethering somehow, they said they dont(or probably don't know). speed via tethering is the same as my sim card router.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Okay, just to be clear, your connection is either by your sim router (connecting to mobile network) and/or your mobile phone tethering, is that right?

If so, with it being a mobile solution, you cannot guarantee consistency. You are not on a 1:1 connection, or even 10:1. The network you workl from is shared.

Are there no cable/landline internet solutions available in your area?

The ping spikes would certainyl be felt in game play. 40-50 is okay. 70-90, not so much.

 

[kapul4]

Okay, just to be clear, your connection is either by your sim router (connecting to mobile network) and/or your mobile phone tethering, is that right?

If so, with it being a mobile solution, you cannot guarantee consistency. You are not on a 1:1 connection, or even 10:1. The network you workl from is shared.

Are there no cable/landline internet solutions available in your area?

The ping spikes would certainyl be felt in game play. 40-50 is okay. 70-90, not so much.

I have 2 connections, my main connection is usb tehtering via mobile phone, the other connection is via sim card router, that i use when it is not in use at my Airbnb. This setup has been unchanged for the last 3 years in which i rarely had any connection problems, and never this lag spikes. Both connections provide the same speeds and latency when used on my PC, when i test the internet speed on my mobile phone, it is 3 times higher. I did the same ping test on my mobile phone now tho and that ping spike also seems to be present there too so i guess its not a random windows update messing things up.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

I did the same ping test on my mobile phone now tho and that ping spike also seems to be present there too so i guess its not a random windows update messing things up.

No, I don't think so.

Are they 4g, or 5g connections?

 

[kapul4]

No, I don't think so.

Are they 4g, or 5g connections?

Router supports cat 12 4g lte while phone is 5g but limited it to 4g since there is no increase in speed

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Router supports cat 12 4g lte while phone is 5g but limited it to 4g since there is no increase in speed

Have you tried moving the router to different areas? How far is the mast from you do you know?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Also, what happens when you plug directly into the router with cable? Still the same?

 

[bill001g]

These are almost impossible to predict. When you have any kind of wireless connection in the path you take risk of interference and lag. If you connect to your router via wireless and the router connects to the cell tower via mobile broadband (another kind of radio) you now have 2 radio signals that can cause you issues.

With a cell tower the load constantly changes as people drive by in cars. So even if your connection is not moving the number of people you are sharing the cell tower bandwidth with are changing all the time. When it is heavy you can get higher latency and lower bandwidth.

The only things that maybe helpful in your orginal post is to change the DNS on the IPv4 setting on your to 8.8.8.8. This might help with the delay on web pages loading. ISP DNS can be slower in general so maybe using google (8.8.8.8) might help.

This though will not fix the latency issue in games. Game unlike almost any other kind of internet traffic can not tolerate any latency variations. Wireless of any kind gets random latency issues. If you are very lucky you can play games but you have to tolerate random times where it will not run well.