Hello, I have been having an issue with my internet for over a year now and it has gotten to be a point where it is unbearable.
I have a Linksys WRT3200 Router and a Arris CM820a Modem with download speed of 50mbs and upload speed around 8-10. I have the issue of when playing online video games I will have a ping below 50 and then pings upwards of 400 which will last anywhere from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes. I have done multiple tests and have no clue as to what is causing this issue.
First, I attempted to see if the servers were the issue for the games. However, no matter what, if the server was in my region or far from me, I still get random ping spikes on multiple different games. Second, I attempted to see if maybe something was interfering with my wireless connection so I went to play via ethernet. Still, I am getting constant ping spikes. Third, I attempted shifting my router position to a more open area as far away as I could from speakers, tvs, etc. in hopes of getting away from interference; still getting ping spikes. Fourth, I tried to see if it was my ISP but it can't be as I am able to load videos extremely well, surf the web with no load times, and overall have a good internet experience besides playing online games. Lastly, I attempted looking for firmware updates on my router, hard resetting, and checking on multiple pcs and consoles but still I am getting ping spikes. I am ripping my hair out on this issue and have no clue what could be the issue. Anyone have any ideas what I could do next or what could be the issue with my Internet. Attached should be the two results I got using an ethernet point and wireless on PingPlotter. As you can see, I am getting random spikes and little bit of packet loss. Any ideas as to what is causing this issue, what kind of issue it is, and how to fix it?
Edit: I have correlated that when playing a game and noticing lag, I immediately look at the data on pingplotter running in the background and also see the latency spike as well. Also, an ISP technician also tested this issue and also noticed these latency spikes as well.

Hey Vilanovam,

Thanks for getting in touch!

It looks like you've already taken some *great* troubleshooting steps here. Based on your screenshots, you've already ruled out your wireless signal as being a culprit in your problem (as the problem pattern is still present in your PingPlotter results after switching to an ethernet cable). Correlating the patterns you're seeing in your PingPlotter results with your actual experience with playing your game is *fantastic* as well - as now you know *exactly* what patterns to look for when continuing on with your troubleshooting efforts.

It is, however, a bit tough for us to speculate on much based on the little amount of information we can see in the screenshots you've provided. The spikes in latency are pretty easy to see; but without being able to see the graphs for earlier hops in the route - we can't tell where in the route this issue is starting. If you'd like, feel free to send over a .pp2 file of your results (via the "File" -> "Export Sample Set" option in the program), and we'd be happy to take a closer look and offer any guidance we can from there.

In the meantime, from what we *can* see in your results - the pattern you've got here looks an *awful* lot like bandwidth saturation (we've got some similar looking examples available here: https://www.pingplotter.com/fix-your-network/common-network-problems/#bandwidthsat). You could perform a few tests to see if this is indeed the case. One way to go about this would be to disconnect anything in your network that is actively using a network connection, and then start plugging things back in (one at a time) to see you can identify anything in your network that may be contributing to the the potential saturation (and be sure to do this while still tracing with PingPlotter, so you can see any changes in your patterns). If you're interested, we cover bandwidth saturation in more detail here:

https://www.pingplotter.com/wisdom/article/bandwidth-saturation.html

We've also got a guide that goes over some strategies and best practices to employ when troubleshooting an issue like this one, which may be of some help to you here:

https://www.pingplotter.com/fix-your-network

If you should find yourself with any questions, or needing any other guidance - please don't hesitate to let us know!

Best wishes,

-Gary

Hi Gary,

Appreciate the support. Here I will attach two pp2 files as requested. These two tests are taken during different days and times. Hope these help. I will continue to look more into the bandwidth saturation possibility and keep in contact with my ISP and troubleshooting.

Hey Vilanovam,

Thanks for sending over these pp2 files!

It looks like the pattern of increased latency in your results starts pretty clearly at hop #2, and continues through the full route to the final destination. This would imply that the culprit in your issue is somewhere between hop #1 (your modem/router), and hop #2 (the first step out to your ISP). Based on the pattern, and where it's starting in the route, this is *most* likely bandwidth saturation (as I had mentioned in my previous message).

If you have any other questions - please let us know!

Best wishes,

-Gary

Hi Gary,

Just wanted to update you on my situation. I went ahead and upgraded my bandwidth to support more data and so far I am seeing much better results! Little to no ping spikes at all. Just a little bit of packet loss from hop 5 and 6 which I'm not sure why but so far seeing much better results. Thanks so much for the help as even when I had my ISP send multiple technicians in to fix my problem they couldn't detect what was causing it.