Online Gaming Has Frequent Lag Spikes w/ 500mbps Spectrum Ethernet
Hello everyone, I switched to Spectrum a few months ago when I moved into my new place. I've been really happy with it thus far until I noticed one issue I didn't have with AT&T before on the same computer:
When trying to play any faster-paced games online, I experience lag spikes/stuttering often enough to make it virtually unplayable. I ran a popular bufferbloat test that consistently showed a latency increase of around 70ms while downloading, so I suspect that may be where the problem lies. I do not use wi-fi at all, just ethernet with Spectrum's provided modem on the 500mbps plan. The most common suggestion I see online is to get a router designed to handle this type of problem, but do any of you have further advice?
EDIT: I should also mention that I've only tried this in the evenings (PST) and am not sure if it's better in the morning or afternoon yet.
Thank you in advance,
Josh.
Answers
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Hi @funkdoc, welcome to our community!
70ms while loaded is actually pretty good and unlikely to be causing any noticeable issue while gaming, it certainly would not make any game unplayable.
Will you please run a ping test? To do this on Windows press the Windows key on your keyboard, type "cmd" in the search bar, and press Enter. This will open the Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt window, type "ping -t 8.8.8.8" and press Enter. This command will continuously send ping requests to the IP 8.8.8.8 until you use Control+C to end it. Leave it running for as long as possible to check for ping spikes or dropped packets.
The best way to rule out any issues with the router is to connect just your computer straight into the modem, reboot the modem, and check if you still have issues that way.
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Thank you for the reply, William! I am not using any router at all, just the Spectrum modem, so we can rule that out already. =)
What I'm realizing now is I might have more intermittent internet during peak hours, as I was trying to play between 8-10PM PST when this occurred. The experience this morning was far smoother; I'm using PingPlotter Pro and it shows one brief period with 100% packet loss roughly every half-hour or so. See these screenshots from this morning:
Those red lines are much more frequent in the evenings, which is my problem.
Hope this helps,
Josh.
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Adding some more detail, this definitely seems tied to overall internet usage. Once it got past 8AM the 100% packet-loss spikes became a bit more frequent (maybe 2.5x as common as they were from 5-8AM).
EDIT: Now it's picking up even further after 9:30...
This is already dicey territory for the kind of stuff I'd like to play, and it definitely gets worse from here...
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I discussed this matter with a friend who works on these kinds of issues for a living, and he thinks it's a signal noise issue since it gets worse the longer my modem & PC are powered on. I don't have direct access to the main junction box in my building, so would someone be able to come look into that particular possibility?
Thank you so much,
Josh.
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Never mind! The problem was resolved when your support stepped up big-time to bring a tech to my apartment on short notice (replacing some 10+ year old connections) and I switched to a higher-end third-party modem instead of the EN2251. Haven't had a single packet loss at all yet with the new modem!
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