Question Will a gaming router fix lag?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
I have been having really bad lag as of late and i think its due to my brother getting a gaming PC. Whenever we game together or a lot of devices are being used at the same time, my games get really bad lag. What i have noticed is its not my ping that goes up and down. I play Valorant a lot and i turned on Network RTT jitter on and i've noticed it jump really high. When normal its at a steady 3-5ms, but then it jumps to 20-30ms and sometimes even 100ms and its been as high as 1000ms at times, but rarely. When this happens my whole game will freeze, then all of a sudden im somewhere else in game. Sometimes my character will rubberband. Also at the start or end of a round in Valorant my game will have a big 2-3 second screen freeze a lot of the times. I thought it would be my modem, but i've done some research and there isn't really much i can improve there. I called my ISP and they said there is nothing they can do as i have an up to date modem and my internet speeds are where they should be (400-500mbps).
I've tried new ethernet cables, i've also tried using my brothers PC to see if there is lag there too and there is. Also i've tried downloading games on my PS5 while playing on my PC and there is big spikes when doing so. The only thing i can think of now is buying a gaming router that supports a lot of devices at the same time. My games have become unplayable and i can't think of anything else that can fix this issue. Any suggestions are appreciated!

Speedtest: View: https://imgur.com/a/HOFUSXM
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
You are going to have to buy a modem and a router.

Before you chase down this path really think about what you are doing. You said

"Also i've tried downloading games on my PS5 while playing on my PC and there is big spikes when doing so"

Of course this is going to cause problems the download will attempt to use 100% of the connection. A much simpler solution is going to be to set the maximum download rate in the ps5 to something lower so it does not max out the connection.
You have a huge internet connection and should not have trouble running any mix of applications. Download pretty much the only thing that can kill it.

I would see if there are simpler solutions like trying to find what other traffic is causing the problem and try to fix the traffic rather than looking for magic routers.

The largest issue is with a really fast connection like you have you need a massive router cpu to keep up when running any form of traffic shaping. Lets say you decide to use the merlin firmware and the fancy traffic shaping it has. Even with the fastest router you can get you are going to give up 100-200mbps of your 500mbps connection. Is it worth giving up that much bandwidth to do this. The only things that can really keep up with a 500mbps internet connection is a small pc running as a router.

The QoS is normally only need on smaller connections say 50mbps-100mbps. When you have a large connection like yours if you are running it at 100% especially if it happens for long periods of time you have something very wrong with the traffic in your house. You see this when you have teens who run torrents constantly. Note the fancy things like FQ-codel shaping will not stop torrents from causing issues you must use a much more brute force approach to that.

Yea I never thought about downloads causing connection issues, but I almost never download while gaming and i still have connection issues. I just did it to test it out, but didn’t really think about it. No one in my house uses the internet for more than just browsing, streaming Netflix, and gaming. So it’s nothing too heavy duty that i think should be causing these issues.
I don’t know if my ISP is giving me a good enough router that can handle these speeds. Or is there even one that can handle these speeds without issues?
Before I had a plan of 200-300mbps with limit of 1000GB of data and had no issues with connection, but during Covid we were exceeding 1000GB and were getting charged for that. So, we decided to go to the 500mbps 2000GB. Now when we made this switch our router never got replaced. So, maybe it should have? However I have called my ISP and told them the problems im having and they said there is nothing they can do. They said that since me speeds are good then the problem might be on my part, but I have a new PC and my brothers PC also has the same issues. I am paying $12.95 a month for the router and im starting to think that’s the problem because I’ve tried just about everything I can think of on my end. Im willing to spend some money on a good router considering I’ve been renting this router for close to 5 years now. However, what’s do you meant by a router and a modem? Are they 2 different things? Will I have to get both? I honestly don’t know much about router or modems so I don’t know which ones are good. Also will my ISP support a router that’s not from them directly? Sorry for all the questions.
 
Let me state this very clearly.

Any form of QoS does nothing unless you are using 100% of your internet connection.

Before you spend money doing that you need to determine if you actually have any data being delayed. QoS purely decides which packet to send first if there is no overload all data gets sent immediately.

Your internet connection is huge so it is unlikely. In addition there is no consumer router that can run QoS on a 500mbps connection you are going to have to use a pc based router.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
Let me state this very clearly.

Any form of QoS does nothing unless you are using 100% of your internet connection.

Before you spend money doing that you need to determine if you actually have any data being delayed. QoS purely decides which packet to send first if there is no overload all data gets sent immediately.

Your internet connection is huge so it is unlikely. In addition there is no consumer router that can run QoS on a 500mbps connection you are going to have to use a pc based router.
So how do I got about figuring out if my data is being delayed? to see if I’m having connection issues should I test each device I have by itself? I should say we only have 2 PCs 1 PS5 and my smartTV connected via ethernet. Then we have 4 iPhones.
 
It would be nice if your router had a method to see the utilization but it does not appear to have that function.

So the tv and the phones likely do not put any load on the link really. Even if you said 100mbps all together that would likely be high.

The 2 pc you can look in the network tab of the resource monitor and see how much bandwidth each device is using. Unfortantly this is a manual thing where you must look at each and then add the number together. But it should be very obvious if you see one of the machines using say 300-400mbps or more of traffic. The PS5 I don't know how you tell. The only time it would use a lot of bandwidth was if it was downloading game files. Playing games uses almost nothing and doing something like watching video is still maybe 40mbps even for 4k video.

It should be very obvious. 500mbps of bandwidth is alot to use up.


This is why I have my doubts your problems are caused by overload. What I suspect is there is some other interaction between your machines going on. Still the process is going to be the same. Hook just 1 pc up and disable the wifi radios to start.

You want to see if you can get the problem to happen with just 1 pc on the network. If it has issues then you know it has to be some software issues or maybe some very strange issue with your internet connection. You will want to check the resource manager network tab to be very sure there is not some background process....like windows update... downloading crap you don't know about. Generally when you play a online game you will see far less than 10mbps of traffic. Many games only use 500kbps of traffic.

If it works fine with 1 pc I would add the second pc and see if there is any correlation to what is being run on the second pc. Does it only happen when the same game is run, or different games, or maybe watching video. What you might also do it leave a constant ping command run from the second machine to something like 8.8.8.8 to see if when the first machine reports issue does the second machine also see the issue at the same time.

You when they add the ps5 but I am unsure about what you can and can't do in those boxes. What you are looking for is can you cause the problem with 2 pc and the ps5.

You can then add the tv and the phones but these are such low volume devices it is not likely the issue.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
It would be nice if your router had a method to see the utilization but it does not appear to have that function.

So the tv and the phones likely do not put any load on the link really. Even if you said 100mbps all together that would likely be high.

The 2 pc you can look in the network tab of the resource monitor and see how much bandwidth each device is using. Unfortunately this is a manual thing where you must look at each and then add the number together. But it should be very obvious if you see one of the machines using say 300-400mbps or more of traffic. The PS5 I don't know how you tell. The only time it would use a lot of bandwidth was if it was downloading game files. Playing games uses almost nothing and doing something like watching video is still maybe 40mbps even for 4k video.

It should be very obvious. 500mbps of bandwidth is alot to use up.


This is why I have my doubts your problems are caused by overload. What I suspect is there is some other interaction between your machines going on. Still the process is going to be the same. Hook just 1 pc up and disable the wifi radios to start.

You want to see if you can get the problem to happen with just 1 pc on the network. If it has issues then you know it has to be some software issues or maybe some very strange issue with your internet connection. You will want to check the resource manager network tab to be very sure there is not some background process....like windows update... downloading crap you don't know about. Generally when you play a online game you will see far less than 10mbps of traffic. Many games only use 500kbps of traffic.

If it works fine with 1 pc I would add the second pc and see if there is any correlation to what is being run on the second pc. Does it only happen when the same game is run, or different games, or maybe watching video. What you might also do it leave a constant ping command run from the second machine to something like 8.8.8.8 to see if when the first machine reports issue does the second machine also see the issue at the same time.

You when they add the ps5 but I am unsure about what you can and can't do in those boxes. What you are looking for is can you cause the problem with 2 pc and the ps5.

You can then add the tv and the phones but these are such low volume devices it is not likely the issue.
So, i ran my PC by itself with no problems. Then i ran both my PC and my brothers still no problems. Then i ran both my PS5 and both PCs and still nothing. I had resource monitor and a constant ping on both PCs when doing this test and didn't see any abnormalities. My internet usage doesn't go past 15 mbps on any of the PCs and my ping didn't go past 27ms. Before i would get spikes of up to 300ms. So, im lost now cause i haven't really have been having any issues the last couple of days, but before that for about 1-2 weeks i was having big issues. I couldn't even play a game cause the lag was so bad. i guess i did try different DNS servers 2 days ago a new ipv4 and ipv6 servers also, but i didn't see any instant fix when i did that.
 
Welcome to the world of IT where the problems run away and hide when you are testing but come back as soon as you stop.

Not sure itermittent stuff is really hard. This would more likely be something like say a windows update running that you did not know about or maybe something is backing up files to the internet. Upload bandwidth can be exceeded also but most applications send very very little except for something like a backup. That is why ISP divide the total bandwidth with much more download than upload.

I suspect you are going to have to get lucky to find it.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
Welcome to the world of IT where the problems run away and hide when you are testing but come back as soon as you stop.

Not sure itermittent stuff is really hard. This would more likely be something like say a windows update running that you did not know about or maybe something is backing up files to the internet. Upload bandwidth can be exceeded also but most applications send very very little except for something like a backup. That is why ISP divide the total bandwidth with much more download than upload.

I suspect you are going to have to get lucky to find it.
Just an update, but the last 3 days i had been having no problems till today. I ran a tracert and this is the result. This is on a Sunday so the high ms might be due to being a busy day? It is currently 9:00 pm when doing these tests. Honestly i think vie tried everything i could think of on my side. I'm hoping to see if my ISP can fic this but i know know what to say to get them to actually come and fix it. I've told them about these issues, but they said that since my speeds are good then there is nothing they can do. At this point do this has to be on their side right?

This is on DNS 8.8.8.8 View: https://imgur.com/a/fFAEam3

I still get similar results on other DNS servers, I also ran a constant ping and was getting spikes of up to 300ms. Also something i noticed is when i use speedtest i had about +400ms for the duration of the speedtest is this normal?
 
I've been working on customer's PC's for nearly 20 years now, and a router is normally never the cause of some ones game or game system lagging, its usually the internet provider or the users PC or the speed of the connection is to slow to handle there 5 kids streaming video and online gaming all the same time, or they are on wireless which wireless although has gotten way better still will suffer from interference..

I doubt its a router especially with just one or 2 users, but it its a n300 router thats from 2007 and you have 5 bandwidth users, its not going to keep up well, or a crappy Netgear/Nighthawk router/modem that can't handle even the slightest QoS traffic...

If you have another device that can game or see it is expeinces any lag, if so, might be the router/modem or ISP, or buy another router, keep the receipt, don't destroy the box and see if it still lags, if not, can rule that out and return it.

Good Luck!
 
Tracert in general does not show much other than the path because it does not collect enough data to find intermittent problems. You could in a way built you own by opening multiple cmd windows and ping different hops so you have more data.

I see a number of issues with this. First how do you get 14ms to the first hop. This is normally the router in your house. You should see about 1ms connected via ethernet. If you connect via wifi then you will get variations in the latency and cause lag in games.

If you are connected directly to the modem then hop 1 would be the latency to the ISP first router normally this is hop 2.

In any case the first 2 hops do not show a problem. This means that the problem is not inside your house or on the cable going to the ISP. This means you can not fix this yourself it is outside anything you can touch.

You actually do not see problems in trace until hop 7 or so and if this is true then it likely is in another ISP network.

You should get much better ping/tracert times to 8.8.8.8 You could try 1.1.1.1. I suspect though you are running this on wifi which makes all results invalid.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
Tracert in general does not show much other than the path because it does not collect enough data to find intermittent problems. You could in a way built you own by opening multiple cmd windows and ping different hops so you have more data.

I see a number of issues with this. First how do you get 14ms to the first hop. This is normally the router in your house. You should see about 1ms connected via ethernet. If you connect via wifi then you will get variations in the latency and cause lag in games.

If you are connected directly to the modem then hop 1 would be the latency to the ISP first router normally this is hop 2.

In any case the first 2 hops do not show a problem. This means that the problem is not inside your house or on the cable going to the ISP. This means you can not fix this yourself it is outside anything you can touch.

You actually do not see problems in trace until hop 7 or so and if this is true then it likely is in another ISP network.

You should get much better ping/tracert times to 8.8.8.8 You could try 1.1.1.1. I suspect though you are running this on wifi which makes all results invalid.
No I’m on Ethernet and I’ve done tracert on both 8.8.8.8 and 1.1.1.1 and gotten the same results. Also both PCs are having the same connection issues so it can’t be the hardware.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
I've been working on customer's PC's for nearly 20 years now, and a router is normally never the cause of some ones game or game system lagging, its usually the internet provider or the users PC or the speed of the connection is to slow to handle there 5 kids streaming video and online gaming all the same time, or they are on wireless which wireless although has gotten way better still will suffer from interference..

I doubt its a router especially with just one or 2 users, but it its a n300 router thats from 2007 and you have 5 bandwidth users, its not going to keep up well, or a crappy Netgear/Nighthawk router/modem that can't handle even the slightest QoS traffic...

If you have another device that can game or see it is expeinces any lag, if so, might be the router/modem or ISP, or buy another router, keep the receipt, don't destroy the box and see if it still lags, if not, can rule that out and return it.

Good Luck!
Yea it’s happening on both me and my brothers gaming PCs so it can’t be the hardware. I have contacted my ISP about these issues, but since my internet speeds are ok they say the issue isn’t on their side, which I think is bs. As for my router this is what they have provided me with: https://www.amazon.com/Surfboard-TG3452-DOCSIS-Gateway-802-11ac/dp/B08BCBVCZM
I don’t have access to any of its features as it’s blocked my my ISP. All I can do it change my network name and password.
 
That is very strange that the first hop is so high.

Try to use a normal ping and ping the router IP.

This is actually something very simple. The pc sends out a packet, sets a timer, the router receives the packet and builds a response and send it. The pc receives the packet and stops the timer. The ethernet ports and the ethernet cable itself can not delay the data it is some fraction of the speed of light. Most times you see 1ms because of the inability to measure much more precisely.
So either the router has some issue with how long it takes to respond or the pc is for some reason delaying looking in the buffer even thought the port received it. Neither of these is very likely, I could see a couple extra ms but 10+ms is a huge delay which is mostly CPU related.

This is why I thought maybe it was wifi or running a direct connection where the delay is actually going to the ISP equipment.

This is very odd and if 2 different pc do it then you start to suspect the router but I don't know what it could be.

That actually is a fairly powerful router it has a fast CPU compared to some other. It supports the maximum 802.11ac data encodings so the wifi if you were using it would be the best you can expect.

It is strange the ISP will not let you change stuff....then again the devices that have voice ports tend to be more restricted because the ISP need to set things related to those port they don't want you messing with.

Although it painful if they ISP has to do stuff for your see if they will set the modem/router to run in bridge mode. This will make it run only as a dumb modem and then the router function can not be the problem. When you do ping/tracert the first hop should be testing the wire coming to your house. You generally see under 10ms in hop 1 with this configuration. What is going to be much more important is you see consistent results with no packet loss.

If it runs ok running just as a modem then you get the ISP to replace the unit since I assume you did not purchase it, the ones with telephone ports you generally can't buy.

In the longer run I would either get just a modem from them and buy your own router or buy a modem and separate router of your own. If you actually get telephone service from the ISP this will not be a option.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
That is very strange that the first hop is so high.

Try to use a normal ping and ping the router IP.

This is actually something very simple. The pc sends out a packet, sets a timer, the router receives the packet and builds a response and send it. The pc receives the packet and stops the timer. The ethernet ports and the ethernet cable itself can not delay the data it is some fraction of the speed of light. Most times you see 1ms because of the inability to measure much more precisely.
So either the router has some issue with how long it takes to respond or the pc is for some reason delaying looking in the buffer even thought the port received it. Neither of these is very likely, I could see a couple extra ms but 10+ms is a huge delay which is mostly CPU related.

This is why I thought maybe it was wifi or running a direct connection where the delay is actually going to the ISP equipment.

This is very odd and if 2 different pc do it then you start to suspect the router but I don't know what it could be.

That actually is a fairly powerful router it has a fast CPU compared to some other. It supports the maximum 802.11ac data encodings so the wifi if you were using it would be the best you can expect.

It is strange the ISP will not let you change stuff....then again the devices that have voice ports tend to be more restricted because the ISP need to set things related to those port they don't want you messing with.

Although it painful if they ISP has to do stuff for your see if they will set the modem/router to run in bridge mode. This will make it run only as a dumb modem and then the router function can not be the problem. When you do ping/tracert the first hop should be testing the wire coming to your house. You generally see under 10ms in hop 1 with this configuration. What is going to be much more important is you see consistent results with no packet loss.

If it runs ok running just as a modem then you get the ISP to replace the unit since I assume you did not purchase it, the ones with telephone ports you generally can't buy.

In the longer run I would either get just a modem from them and buy your own router or buy a modem and separate router of your own. If you actually get telephone service from the ISP this will not be a option.
Don't know if hop 1 or 2 are the router but i tested both and as of right now i'm not getting high ping on hop1, All i'm getting are 1ms and 2 ms. As for hop 2 im getting mostly between 5-25ms. Then i'm getting some jumps to 60ms and even 90ms. I really dont think its my PC i just got it 6 months ago and its on the high end of PCs. Also maybe my ISP will give me access my router if i ask, but i looked online on how to access my router and when i type the address it sends me to a "control panel". I think if i give them a good excuse my ISP has to replace my router since im renting it, but i don't know what i can tell them. Sorry if this is a dumb question but, what's the difference between a router and modem. Why would i need both?
 
A modem converts the data encoding from the method used on coax to the method used on ethernet. Although it is slightly more complex because of things like encryption to the ISP it has a very simple function.
A router is what does most the work. It is what shares the IP you get from the ISP and does all the wifi function. Routers have many other feature like parental controls, vpn,qos etc.

The reason you run them separate even though it has a higher total cost is you are very limited in your choice of router if it must also contain a modem. Many of these combination units do not have some of the advanced features people need/want. Some people rent the modem from the ISP and run their own router. Even if you buy a modem the ISP is responsible for software updates. When the router is separate you can update the firmware whenever you want but if it is combined modem/router you are dependent on the ISP to do the upgrade.

Your trace/ping sounds more normal now.

You large problem now is if the problem is past hop 2 it is in the ISP network or maybe a different ISP network. There is nothing in your house you can change to affect any of this. Only the ISP can fix this and that is only if you are lucky and the problem is in your ISP and not another.

What is strange is why you are getting inconsistent test results. Maybe the problem is very intermittent. Try to open multiple cmd windows and leave a constant ping run to your router IP, the ISP first router (hop 2) and some ip on the internet like 8.8.8.8 or maybe the game server if it will respond. Then run the game and when the game says you get ping spikes check these windows and see if which if any shows a problem.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
A modem converts the data encoding from the method used on coax to the method used on ethernet. Although it is slightly more complex because of things like encryption to the ISP it has a very simple function.
A router is what does most the work. It is what shares the IP you get from the ISP and does all the wifi function. Routers have many other feature like parental controls, vpn,qos etc.

The reason you run them separate even though it has a higher total cost is you are very limited in your choice of router if it must also contain a modem. Many of these combination units do not have some of the advanced features people need/want. Some people rent the modem from the ISP and run their own router. Even if you buy a modem the ISP is responsible for software updates. When the router is separate you can update the firmware whenever you want but if it is combined modem/router you are dependent on the ISP to do the upgrade.

Your trace/ping sounds more normal now.

You large problem now is if the problem is past hop 2 it is in the ISP network or maybe a different ISP network. There is nothing in your house you can change to affect any of this. Only the ISP can fix this and that is only if you are lucky and the problem is in your ISP and not another.

What is strange is why you are getting inconsistent test results. Maybe the problem is very intermittent. Try to open multiple cmd windows and leave a constant ping run to your router IP, the ISP first router (hop 2) and some ip on the internet like 8.8.8.8 or maybe the game server if it will respond. Then run the game and when the game says you get ping spikes check these windows and see if which if any shows a problem.
As of right now im not getting any high ping, but when i do i will run cmd on everything. Is there any router and modems you would recommend? About how much would i be spending?
 
The modem you need to find what the ISP allows, again the ISP does all the maintenance and support on modem even if you own them. Without looking back in this thread you need one that matches the speed of the plan you have. You currently have a docsis 3.1 but generally you only need that for full 1gbit connections. In general you can run modem that support higher speed plans on lower speed but again you must find the list of supported modem both for you plan and where you live. This can vary a lot because the networks in different neighborhoods can be very different.

For a router the current device you have is pretty much top of the line when it comes to wifi. It supports 4x4 mimo which almost no device can use so it is already overkill. You are not really going to find a "better" router when it comes to wifi.
Other software features only you can decide the value of.

You might consider wifi6e if you want to spend more money. These routers are still pretty new but the price has come down a lot from 6 months ago. Asus still sell the AXE16000 for $700 for those that price is no object.
Be aware normal wifi6 buys you almost nothing over wifi5 (802.11ac) and wifi6e support is only starting to come to end devices like phones and tables. The nice thing is wifi nics for wifi6e cost almost exactly the same as wifi6 nics and less than $10 more than 802.11ac.
 

Inthrutheoutdoor

Reputable
BANNED
Feb 17, 2019
254
68
4,790
A) the ISP does all the maintenance and support on modem even if you own them.

B) These routers are still pretty new but the price has come down a lot from 6 months ago. Asus still sell the AXE16000 for $700 for those that price is no object.

A) FYI, I have yet to find or even hear of ANY ISP that will do ANY maintenance/support on ANY modem that they don't own and/or rent to you..... please let me know one that does so I can make a note for future reference :D

B) I purchased a wifi 6e router ~9 months ago for ~$180.... And there is NO way I would eva spend anywhere near $700 for a router, ASUS or otherwise........

however, the ONLY reason to get one is if you have devices that will use the extra speed/bandwidth, which I do...so I'm all good for a few years or so :D
 
I
A) FYI, I have yet to find or even hear of ANY ISP that will do ANY maintenance/support on ANY modem that they don't own and/or rent to you..... please let me know one that does so I can make a note for future reference :D

B) I purchased a wifi 6e router ~9 months ago for ~$180.... And there is NO way I would eva spend anywhere near $700 for a router, ASUS or otherwise........

however, the ONLY reason to get one is if you have devices that will use the extra speed/bandwidth, which I do...so I'm all good for a few years or so :D
ALL isp do the updates.
Not sure how you expect firmware upgrades to be done only the ISP can do it. The docsis standard says
"Firmware updates on cable modems are handled only by Cable Operators (MSOs) per DOCSIS Specifications"

I have had spectrum push patches multiple times. The first time I saw it was back in the days on the PUMA issues. The next time was on a brand new modem. They pushed a update a hour or so after I first connected it.
The ISP is not doing the upgrades for the consumer but more to keep their network stable. This results in them not always patching a modem/router combo unit when there are minor bugs in the router part and also why the router functions are much more limited in the combo units.

The ones I saw at the start of the years were more in the $300-$400 range but if you found one for $180 good for you. The example of the $700 router is how crazy the high end device still are. This is from a previous thread where someone want multiple 10g ports so they could actually use their 5gbit internet. Wifi6e nics have dropped so much they are almost the same price as wifi6. I expect in about a year we will see the lower tier vendors selling wifi6e routers for under $100.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
The modem you need to find what the ISP allows, again the ISP does all the maintenance and support on modem even if you own them. Without looking back in this thread you need one that matches the speed of the plan you have. You currently have a docsis 3.1 but generally you only need that for full 1gbit connections. In general you can run modem that support higher speed plans on lower speed but again you must find the list of supported modem both for you plan and where you live. This can vary a lot because the networks in different neighborhoods can be very different.

For a router the current device you have is pretty much top of the line when it comes to wifi. It supports 4x4 mimo which almost no device can use so it is already overkill. You are not really going to find a "better" router when it comes to wifi.
Other software features only you can decide the value of.

You might consider wifi6e if you want to spend more money. These routers are still pretty new but the price has come down a lot from 6 months ago. Asus still sell the AXE16000 for $700 for those that price is no object.
Be aware normal wifi6 buys you almost nothing over wifi5 (802.11ac) and wifi6e support is only starting to come to end devices like phones and tables. The nice thing is wifi nics for wifi6e cost almost exactly the same as wifi6 nics and less than $10 more than 802.11ac.
So will buying a modem help my situation? Since i already have a good enough router. Also it might not be my router cause wouldn't it be a more frequent issue if it was? Also just an update i wasn't having any issues the last couple of days, but today as i was gaming the lag came back. So i did what you said and tested hop 1 hop 2 and 8.8.8.8 at the same time. Hop 1 was normal at 1-2ms. I saw high ping on 8.8.8.8 , spikes as high as 150ms. However i also saw spikes in hop 2, they weren't as high as 8.8.8.8, only 80ms max. Then i saw this other thing where it said "request timed out.". It happened in both 8.8.8.8 and hop 2, however mostly in 8.8.8.8. I only saw it in hop 2 about 2 times. Whenever i had a "request timed out" in 8.8.8.8 it would almost always reflect with a high ping in hop 2. Its something ive never seen before so i looked it up and i read that it could be a firewall blocking connectivity. So maybe it could be that? I don't know do. Got any idea of what this could mean?
 
Last edited:
When you get ping timeout in hop2 it generally means the internet connection between your house and the ISP has a issue.

I am not sure but I think if you use 192.168.100.1 you can get into the modem part of your router. It might be on the normal router menus you get in with the standard IP address. In either case what you are looking for is a log that show the modem communications.
This is a different log than the normal router log I think. It has been a very long time since I used combination modem/router device. What you might see is stuff like " no ranging response received" or "starting unicast maintenance". A few of these are pretty normal things like SYNC errors are a indication of a problem. In general you need to try to compare the time on these messages with the times you see problems.

There also is a signal level indicator in most modems. You can check one of the web sites that list "good" levels. It varies a bit depending on docsis being used so the table is too large to cut and paste here.

You might also see a display of correctable and uncorrectable error packets. Uncorrectable ones indicate packet loss. You will always see a little bit because these numbers are kept for days I think. What you don't want to see is the numbers change much.

All this is to see if you can find something the ISP can fix. Intermittent errors unless they happen when the ISP is looking at the line they will claim there is no problem. It is mostly trying to find a way to help the ISP see the problem.

What is even harder is if the problems do not occur in hop 2 but happen say to 8.8.8.8. This means it is farther into the ISP network or maybe in a different ISP. You can run tracert and try to figure out what hop is causing it but it is a difficult thing to get fixed since the level 1 techs you talk to generally only have access to the equipment going to your house and this would be past that point.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
When you get ping timeout in hop2 it generally means the internet connection between your house and the ISP has a issue.

I am not sure but I think if you use 192.168.100.1 you can get into the modem part of your router. It might be on the normal router menus you get in with the standard IP address. In either case what you are looking for is a log that show the modem communications.
This is a different log than the normal router log I think. It has been a very long time since I used combination modem/router device. What you might see is stuff like " no ranging response received" or "starting unicast maintenance". A few of these are pretty normal things like SYNC errors are a indication of a problem. In general you need to try to compare the time on these messages with the times you see problems.

There also is a signal level indicator in most modems. You can check one of the web sites that list "good" levels. It varies a bit depending on docsis being used so the table is too large to cut and paste here.

You might also see a display of correctable and uncorrectable error packets. Uncorrectable ones indicate packet loss. You will always see a little bit because these numbers are kept for days I think. What you don't want to see is the numbers change much.

All this is to see if you can find something the ISP can fix. Intermittent errors unless they happen when the ISP is looking at the line they will claim there is no problem. It is mostly trying to find a way to help the ISP see the problem.

What is even harder is if the problems do not occur in hop 2 but happen say to 8.8.8.8. This means it is farther into the ISP network or maybe in a different ISP. You can run tracert and try to figure out what hop is causing it but it is a difficult thing to get fixed since the level 1 techs you talk to generally only have access to the equipment going to your house and this would be past that point.
I tried 192.168.100.1 and is said the site cant be reached. I've tried many and before and none work. The only one that works is 192.168.0.1, but that only takers me to that control panel i was talking about that has limited access. Does this confirm the problem on the my ISP side? If so what can i say to get them to fix it? As of right now at this very moment im not seeing the "request timed out" or any high ping, but its bound to happen again. Also this is a weird question but, how come in games like Valorant and Apex or any game actually. I never see my ping raised when i lag? It only shows it in the Network RTT Jitter graph in Valorant. Iv'e also noticed sometimes when i lag in game it wont reflect it in cmd. Although most of the times it does.
Oh and i forgot to link this image from my last response: View: https://imgur.com/zpaVRah
 
That much loss is going to affect a lot of stuff. I normally have a constant ping running on one of my machine but I must have stopped it. Generally I see maybe 1 loss packet out 10,000.
Still you would think the game would see and report the packet loss.
What you might try is run tracert to the game server itself. Then ping whatever the last IP that will ping. Many times they rig it so the game server does not respond to ping to prevent denial of service attacks but some router in the path just before it should respond.

Maybe the traffic takes different paths.

Jitter is very hard to see and fix. It depends how much it is. 100ms will cause lag, 10ms will not really even be detectable. Problem is you can't really trust a game to give you valid numbers. If the game get delayed in say a video processing routing it will many times count this extra time against network even though the data was sitting there all the time. This is why people "fix" so called network errors in games by changing video parameters.

But if we go back to your previous testing you need to keep testing to hop 2. You want to see the loss and jitter on that node. That is the only one the ISP will be able to easily fix, and even then they will argue they can't see it if it does not happen a lot.
 

ItsMugen

Reputable
Jan 21, 2021
43
0
4,530
That much loss is going to affect a lot of stuff. I normally have a constant ping running on one of my machine but I must have stopped it. Generally I see maybe 1 loss packet out 10,000.
Still you would think the game would see and report the packet loss.
What you might try is run tracert to the game server itself. Then ping whatever the last IP that will ping. Many times they rig it so the game server does not respond to ping to prevent denial of service attacks but some router in the path just before it should respond.

Maybe the traffic takes different paths.

Jitter is very hard to see and fix. It depends how much it is. 100ms will cause lag, 10ms will not really even be detectable. Problem is you can't really trust a game to give you valid numbers. If the game get delayed in say a video processing routing it will many times count this extra time against network even though the data was sitting there all the time. This is why people "fix" so called network errors in games by changing video parameters.

But if we go back to your previous testing you need to keep testing to hop 2. You want to see the loss and jitter on that node. That is the only one the ISP will be able to easily fix, and even then they will argue they can't see it if it does not happen a lot.
So the last hour or so i have been having really bad lag. I tested both 8.8.8.8 and hop 2 and i had big spikes on both. In hop 2 the biggest spike was about 150ms. In 8.8.8.8 i had spikes of up to 350ms. However they didn't happen at the same time 8.8.8.8 would be fine for a couple minutes where hope 2 would be having spikes and vice versa. Since its happening in hop 2 can i contact my ISP and try and get them to fix it?
 
Maybe?
The ISP barely promises that you get certain bandwidth, they use "up to" to claim whatever you get is good. If you got packet loss they might fix that since it generally is defective equipment. Latency generally represent some kind of overload condition where data is being buffered.
Be sure that you are not exceeding your upload or download bandwidth. After that it gets messy because it could be the ISP over sold the network and you and your neighbors that share the same cable have overloaded something. The ISP will pretend they know nothing about a problem like this, the first level tech many times will not even know what ping is.