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Sakki54
join:2012-11-20
Tyler, TX

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Re: [Connectivity] Terrible Ping during downloads/games

Since I know it's not my modem's bandwidth, what should my next step be?

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA

moldypickle

Premium Member

Get sdltech in here to check your line for you.
Moostang
join:2009-03-24
Tyler, TX

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said by Sakki54:

Since I know it's not my modem's bandwidth, what should my next step be?

How do you know that? Are you graphing your connection somehow? There are many things like the World of Warcraft client (among many others) that use peer to peer sharing (unless you disable the feature) that will consume every bit of your modems upstream bandwidth and if you don't know what to look for, you'll never know it.

moldypickle
Premium Member
join:2009-01-04
Haughton, LA

moldypickle

Premium Member

The wow client updater actually needs to be running to use idle bandwidth, and I don't think people usually leave that open w/out the game...
Sakki54
join:2012-11-20
Tyler, TX

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I know it's not the bandwidth because it only happens during this time and it happens w/ any device/no devices connected. What I mean is only my computer connected (Hardwired from Modem), 300+ ping terrible dl speeds. Only my iPhone connected (Can check devices connected thru router), 300+ ping terrible dl speeds. Funny thing is how my upload can stay a consistent 1.5. Just wondering, what's a normal Downstream on the Touchstone Modem Status thing?

S1R1US
join:2002-08-25
Clearwater, FL

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S1R1US

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Where are you getting these ping speeds from? Initially, when I read about you referencing high ping times and poor gaming performance my automatic thought was your ping as represented in the game itself. How are you seeing your ping speeds from your cell phone? I ask this because even informed troubleshooters of desktops might not automatically know exactly how to obtain the same information via their cell phone. Are you talking about ping results you're getting on your cell phone as illustrated by speed test apps?

I'd at least like to point out that we aren't asking this variety of questions to prove you wrong or be difficult, but because it literally takes asking this level of questions to accurately assess what's entirely involved. I say entirely because there could be multiple things happening. 'Duplicating' the problem on your cell phone doesn't necessarily say the two results are related. Perhaps correlated, but not necessarily caused by the same thing. Point in case, the purpose of bypassing a router is to perform tests with all external equipment eliminated as a variable. Testing from a cell phone is effectively ignoring this and using external equipment while also adding yet another variable, the cell phone. In plenty of cases it's a fine method; if you test your phone at your friend's house, neighbor's house, and place of employment with no problems, it seems to make sense that a different result at your home between a certain time would indicate a clear problem. When using your phone though you are very clearly doing a completely different test. You're factoring in the result relative to your wifi network. All it would take is for you to have an 802.11b device connected to your network for it to cap your 802.11n device to only be operable to the capacity of a 'b' device. Let me point out that the analogy I just used isn't directly comparable to your situation because even with that example it wouldn't necessarily explain high ping times.
Sakki54
join:2012-11-20
Tyler, TX

Sakki54

Member

I get speed/ping tests on my iPhone/iPad it's from SpeedTest.net's app iOS app.
On my pc it's from PingTest.net, PingPlotter, Games, TeamSpeak, and SmokePing.

I don't do much gaming but I watch a lot of YouTube and it's near impossible to watch an HQ (Think it's 720p) vid during bad times, yet I can watch a 1080p vid from YouTube on my computer during normal times easily.

SDL L3Tech
join:2011-06-07
Tyler, TX

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Click for full size
Green is upload, blue is download
Click for full size
Pingplotter showing latency
I built a graph for your connection and I am also running a PingPlotter trace to your modem's private IP and your network's public IP.

Pingplotter showed high latency to your equipment that started right before 8pm but no latency to the modem itself. The graph shows a significant increase in upstream traffic originating from your network. Since the Upload bandwidth of a cable modem is low, it is very easy to overutilize it which causes the high latency.

I have attached the graphs. Pingplotter is zoomed down to 60 minutes. The graph however is a 5 minute average and only polls once every 5 minutes. You'll note the green dot next to the text box in the graph, which is showing what the usage was at that time.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Sakki54
join:2012-11-20
Tyler, TX

Sakki54

Member

The upload spike is from a crappy messed up laptop that whenever it connects to wifi, at any time, causes similar results to my timed problems. No idea why it does it but that specific laptop alone (no other devices) kills my net... This isn't the problem that I've been experiencing though. It'll still have that timed problem if the laptop isn't on, hasn't been on for ~2-3 days, or I've bypassed the router.

Is there some way that I can continuously have some active thing going that uses up my net? My ping is only bad when I'm actually doing something and I'm pretty busy during the week so I won't really be able to show the problems.

I ran PingPlotter after that laptop was turned off and I got ~20ms pings to Google, I then started to dl a ~800mb file and my ping started to spike, go down, and spike again in a constant loop.

S1R1US
join:2002-08-25
Clearwater, FL

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S1R1US

Member

@SDL L3Tech, Great information. Mind if I message you privately to get some advice on how I might be able to generate and correctly read similar information when I'm troubleshooting my own connection?

@Sakki, Something that is leery to hear as someone helping another troubleshoot, is why the 'crappy messed up' laptop is even connected to the network at all during this last week or more of troubleshooting. Until the issue is fixed and fully evaluated, no device should ever have access your network except one (hardwired of course; whichever is not 'crappy' or has the least 'crappiness' to it heh. I'm not suggesting this is your problem, but there could very easily be spyware on one or all of your devices that is timed to only activate during certain times of the day. This is not unheard of for spyware/malware because often times customers and/or providers may attribute consistent and/or repeatable problems during particular times as a problem with network congestion or the home network, when in reality it's something malicious running in the background locally on the user's computer that is scheduled to activate at only the busier times of the day to be more easily masked.

It makes it difficult for 3rd party users to help diagnose the problem, and even more difficulty for your provider, when a problem with your connection is being misrepresented by you because the state of your home network is constantly changing. I don't think a Suddenlink tech should ever have been able to produce the results provided in the post above by accident because your 'bad laptop' just so happened to be connected. How can we expect for you to get the full level of support from your provider's dedicated teams if they aren't fully aware of each and every variable at play, at any given time? You have to leave your connection completely isolated from all outside devices except 1 hardwired. Until SL says 'we will no longer help you', you should not access your network from your cell phone, your laptop, and same goes for anyone else in your home. I don't mean just don't connect to the wifi network. I mean disconnect the router altogether. If it's a combo modem/router given to you by your provider, work with them to just disable it until your issue is definitively tracked down. However long you've been a customer and however frustrating or inconvenient it's been so far, as long as you continue paying your bill you should give them the best possible opportunity to thoroughly help you.