Unexplainable Ping Spikes..Could it be Steam Bootstrapper or ISP?

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

So guys im having some lag spikes in all games for the last few days now.

So tonight lets fault find. first i tried ookla speedtest, averaging at 10ms ping, 90Mbps DL and 5-6Mbps UL

so that seems fine. so lets do some pingbacks (ping -t) in CMD.. doing google.com microsoft.com & bbc.co.uk all for 5 mins each.. seems fine.. 15-20ms ping

Opens resource manager, nothing on the system seems to be eating resources. Bootstrapper being the main thing using my network bandwidth

so i load up rocket league (one of the most noticable games to see the ping issues) and run my ping tests for roughly 5 mins again.. the game lagged roughly every 15 to 60 secs for no more than a second during this spike. interestingly my ping on cmd prompt all jumped ip to 400s,700s & even 1000ms at one point. soon as the game is closed.. back to normal.

I run a virgin Hub 3 connected to a wireless netgear extender (better than an average wifi adaptor with 144Mbps bandwidth) never had this issue for over a year until this week.. I've now run tracerouting on cmd no issues seem to be showing just hop 4 showing request timed out (this could be sercurity the substation doesnt send back requests)
#

I'd like to add while writing this i've just pinged my router while playing.. no lag spikes.. so definitely not my network playing up


only thing i've noticed (never really noticed in the past) is bootstrapper uses more network resources when a games running? personally i think this is normal but could i be wrong.. i'll be contacting my ISP tomorrow, if they do anything..

Anyone else got any ideas?

[_I_]

try pingbombing your router or first hop from
tracert google.com result

if that shows spikes its the lan connection or pc issue

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

yup, already pinged to my netgear wireless extender & my virgin hub.. doesnt show any issues, my first hop & 2nd hop looks fine, only issues out of 10 -15 hops is hop 4 & hop 7. showing time out requests. depending on substation this could be nothing either

Originally posted by LamaMond:

Wifi internet is very dependent on the weather situation.

I'm indoors, and its clear out tonight, to be honest the range extender is overkill and i dont have to use it. ive got it hooked up as if it was a normal wifi adaptor. ethernet into range extender (1.5 meter cat5 cable) and range extender to virgin hub (the extender is being used like it was a normal wireless adaptor cept its socket powered and connected with cat5 (hence 144Mbps instead of 70Mbps from an average/cheap adaptor)

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

Originally posted by LamaMond:

Originally posted by Spelmo3:

I'm indoors, and its clear out tonight, to be honest the range extender is overkill and i dont have to use it. ive got it hooked up as if it was a normal wifi adaptor. ethernet into range extender (1.5 meter cat5 cable) and range extender to virgin hub (the extender is being used like it was a normal wireless adaptor cept its socket powered and connected with cat5 (hence 144Mbps instead of 70Mbps from an average/cheap adaptor)

It is also very dependant on the weather situation of your wifi providers hub, e.g. mine depends on the weather in Zurich as well as on the weather at my place and also some other locations like the position of the connected hub location's weather situation...as you can see it depends on many more locations then just your side :o)
Only fix: get a fibre cable connection.

Ohh you on about my ISP? like if it was DSL/Phoneline or sat dish or something? no its Firbe Optic Cable. its a virgin hub 3 router.

so my set up is..

ISP>>FibreCable>>Router>>WifiSignal>>Extender>>cat5>>PC

I've also tired removing the extender and using my old wifi adaptor which gets a good signal still just slower bandwidth

ISP>>FibreCable>>Router>>WifiSignal>>PC

but even with local ping tests.. my network doesnt seem to be running slow or bottlenecking

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

Originally posted by LamaMond:

Ah ok, so you have a cable and only Wifi in the home?

yeh pretty much. my house is a rather long terranced house. so modem placement was a pain when i first moved in (how i ended up with the extender originally 18 months ago) since then my pc has moved closer. the extender doesnt even need using but i prefer it because its faster than a standard wifi adaptor

#findelectromagneticdisturbandsforyourWificonnection.. seriously im actually considering something like that being the issue. mrs put a metal paper shredder right next to the router.. i've even gone and moved that out the way. incase that was the issue.

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

haha well for the past year.. I've had the best internet speeds i've ever had. tbh my speeds are still fine now. just this random ping spike while playing games, best is i dont have a non-steam game thats modern enough to test if it could deffinetly be steam... real head scratcher with this.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Try removing any "extender" non-sense; try a PowerLine CAT5 adapter set.

Also if any WiFi issues arise, first things to try to changing the WiFi Channel, which will set your wifi router I/O signals away from the band others near you are using, like any near by neighbors. WiFi signals can incur high latency/pings or even drop-outs if you and a neighbor are on the same wifi channel and both signals are quite strong for your wifi device to pickup and see.

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Try removing any "extender" non-sense; try a PowerLine CAT5 adapter set.

Also if any WiFi issues arise, first things to try to changing the WiFi Channel, which will set your wifi router I/O signals away from the band others near you are using, like any near by neighbors. WiFi signals can incur high latency/pings or even drop-outs if you and a neighbor are on the same wifi channel and both signals are quite strong for your wifi device to pickup and see.

my house wont work with a powerline.. (its an old house) i forgot to check wifi channels.. just got new neighbors.. maybe it could be interference. im off to bed so il get back in the morning i have an analyzer app that tells me what nearby wifi spots are on what channel.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

If you have an Android device of any kind, try using this helpful app to see the WiFi Channels everyone around you is using, then try to pick one outside of that.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

[Spelmo3 | TGN]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

If you have an Android device of any kind, try using this helpful app to see the WiFi Channels everyone around you is using, then try to pick one outside of that.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

morning! thats actually better than the app i use. giving it a go now :)