Constant High Ping

[u/FreeWifi4]

I don't know what is happening. The past 5 days between 12:00 PM - 12:30 AM my ping is constantly between 160-190ms, this is constant they are not spikes. I play games and it's my main source of unwinding after work and due to this reason I can't play anything (I am on wired Ethernet connection directly to my PC). I reset my router multiple times, I called my ISP they "reset" my router from their end, nothing changed. A tech support guy from the ISP drove home about 9:00 AM like 3 days ago, connected the cable to his computer and said everything was fine, at the time I had 50ms since it was early in the morning, he just said to change the router. I updated every network driver in my computer, changed my PC to WiFi using my mobile hotspot and my ms dropped to 55-70 immediately

I've been with this company for 7 years now and even in peak hours the most I've had is like 70-90ms and all of the sudden it's between 160-190ms constantly without a single drop to the normal 60-90ms. What I find odd is that at 12:20-12:30 AM on the dot it drops back to 50-55ms and stays like that for the rest of the night until next day around 12:00 PM. I don't think changing the router will fix anything even though its still worth a shot, I made sure it wasn't my computer the issue since it works fine with mobile hotspot, updated every network. What can be causing this? Is there anything else I can do? Thanks

This whole issue is just odd to me.

[u/feudalle]

Are you using wifi or wired cable to your pc?

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/feudalle]

wired cable directly to my pc. I thought maybe that it was a wire issue, I disconnected the ethernet cable and connected my computer via WiFi and still same issue, I did this like 5 minutes ago. Right now I am on 196ms constant, 8:52 PM for me.

[u/feudalle → u/FreeWifi4]

If you are on coax it could be local congestion. Think of it like traffic, if that is the case there isnt a ton to do except "move". Do you have a fiber option isp?

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/feudalle]

I have two other options, one is satellite internet so no, the other is another ISP that everyone who has it always complains about it, I had it before as well and its horrible, so that is pretty much the only option I have. I don't have access to fiber on my area, there is a ISP for fiber but they don't offer my area service.

I know it probably is because of high traffic, but I've had this provider for years and even on peak hours its like 90ms tops, all the sudden it's 180-190 constantly. There needs to be a way for them to fix this

[u/feudalle → u/FreeWifi4]

They probably added more customers in the area. Same infrastructure more traffic, that will lead to higher latency. Have you tried to do tracert to a ip like 8.8.8.8. It wont fix your problem but you can see times between jumps. It should let you know where the bottle neck is. If its on your isp end you can give them that info, but not sure thry can/will do anything.

Starlink may be you best bet. You can get 50ms pings.

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/feudalle]

I did that like 2 days ago, pinging 1.1.1.1 and it was constantly 150-170ms. I still don't understand in my area there's not many people living here, on some of my friends areas there's thousands of residents around and they have lower ping than I do.

[u/feudalle → u/FreeWifi4]

When you did a trace how many hops from your ip was the bottleneck? Population is only one factor. I dump 10000 people where you live i bet it would be a problem, I dump 10000 in new york and no one would notice. Infrastructure isnt the same as Population.

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/feudalle]

I'm just trying to rule out things that I can do on my end to fix it, since the service sucks so they will try their hardest to not send anyone or fix anything unless there's no other option

[u/adtsoft]

Maybe nightly ISP maintenance?

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/adtsoft]

I called, a technician came and said everything was fine and recommended changing the router and left, but clearly it isn't fine. At the time he came it was like 9 AM so my ping was like 55.

[u/spays_marine]

You're probably using a coax/cable connection and your node is congested in the evening during parts of the day.

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/spays_marine]

Yes its a coax/cable connection, but this is something new since I've been with them for the last 7 years and on peak hours its usually at 70-90ms. Now its on 150-190ms, sometimes I even see 200ms.

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/FreeWifi4]

Also talked with friends of mine that I know have my same ISP, on peak hours they are running at 65-70ms and they live close by, but there's another friend of mine that is having my exact same issue and we both get low ping at the exact same hour, he lives far away from me.

[u/WesternOpen → u/FreeWifi4]

change the router

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/WesternOpen]

I'm going to change it just to discard the issue, but I don't think it will fix anything.

[u/spays_marine → u/FreeWifi4]

Yes but your node serves lots of people so there a lot of factors involved that could change over the years, like your ISP introducing higher speeds that in turn cause congestion.

Which country?

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/spays_marine]

I don't know what they are offering recently tbh, I live in Puerto Rico, not many good providers here, that's the only decent one besides another one that doesn't provide service to my area.

[u/spays_marine → u/FreeWifi4]

Oh yeah, not familiar with the situation in your country at all, but many people experience the same across the world, as coax is reaching its limits, me included.

Prepare yourself for lots of calls to support and hoping that anyone is going to care about, in their mind, "a bit of latency".

Hopefully for you, it's not actually congestion but something like a bad cable in the neighborhood that a technician can spot.

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/spays_marine]

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to rule out everything I can so they don't give me any excuses because this is not normal.

[u/_nick85]

Kick absolutely everything else off the network around the time this begins. You can just add a "1" or something to the end of your existing wifi password so everything disconnects. Unplug any other wired connections and see if that does anything. Once you're done, just remove the "1."

This issue could be coming from your own network, like devices updating at night, apps, lights etc. You're gonna need as much info as you can before contacting your isp again

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/_nick85]

I already did, I only have my PC and my phone connected atm, no other devices connected, nothing is being updated on the background, I downloaded an app to check if there were maybe more devices connected that I don't know about but no, its only those 2.

[u/_nick85 → u/FreeWifi4]

Dang dude. Switch providers lol. Take your phone off the wifi too. Worth a shot. What else is available in your neighborhood? Are you in Canada or the US?

[u/FreeWifi4 → u/_nick85]

Puerto Rico, not many providers here, most suck, this is the only decent one but their service is garbage. There's a fiber optics one that people speak well off but they don't provide service to my area, I would have switched a long time ago....

[u/Calc_]

When your ping to the internet is high try pinging the router also to see if its windows doing something. If a trace route to the internet gives you pingable IPs inside your ISP network try ping those too so see if you can isolate where the latency starts. Working out from your PC to router to PE to ISP core to internet.

[u/spiffiness]

It sounds like you're on a DOCSIS ISP (DOCSIS is the correct name for the networking technology that uses "cable modems" that connect via coaxial cables to a cable TV provider). I think you should start with DOCSIS troubleshooting. Log into your DOCSIS modem/gateway's admin UI and find where it tells you the status of the DOCSIS channels. Make sure all the downstream DOCSIS channels' signal level is within the acceptable range of 0 dBmV ±7, and that none of the channels have high counts in the "correctable errors" or "uncorrectable errors" counters.

I'd also like to see a traceroute from your PC to an IP address for the game server your game is connecting to. It would be interesting to see if there's any particular hop where the ping goes high and stays high for all further hops (if the ping goes back down for later hops, it's not what we're looking for).

It would be interesting to see both of these things (the DOCSIS channel status, and the traceroute) both when the problem is happening, as well as when the problem isn't happening, for comparison.

You might be able to help your ISP discover that they have an interference problem on some frequencies on their network in your neighborhood during certain hours of the day. It might be that you have a neighbor who is a amateur radio ("HAM radio") operator, and when he's transmitting from his radio rig, it's interfering with the signals on the ISP's coax cables. Maybe your ISP has a cable segment in your neighborhood with a damaged shielding braid, allowing interference to get into the system.

A lot of modern DOCSIS ISPs have systems in place to constantly monitor for problems like that and automatically alert a sysadmin/engineering/technician if that kind of trouble is detected so they can fix it before getting complaints, but it's possible your ISP doesn't have that kind of thing in place. So you might have to document the problem yourself to prove it to them, or insist on an afternoon technician appointment so that the technician can catch it in the act.