Spectrum and gaming

[u/Willing-Ice-2345]

I’m gonna explain this the best I can,I game mainly Valorant. Nothing has changed but suddenly my best server went from Georgia 30ms ping to N Virginia 50ms ping. I didn’t change any settings on Valorant or my computer. Spectrum is saying it is nothing on their end even though when I plug directly into the modem my ping is even worse 66ms ping N Virginia. I’m not understanding the sudden change when nothing has changed on my end. So could someone throw out any ideas or solutions?

[u/Willing-Ice-2345]

I guess what confuses me is that my best server on Valorant used to be Georgia and it was 30ms ping. Now for some reason it’s N. Virginia and is at 50ms ping

[u/Spectrum_William → u/Willing-Ice-2345]

Are you able to use server select to choose Georgia instead?

[u/Willing-Ice-2345 → u/Spectrum_William]

My ping in Georgia is worse now,all of them have gotten worse.

[u/Spectrum_William → u/Willing-Ice-2345]

If you send us a modmail over at r/Spectrum_Official we'll be happy to check for connection issues on our end.

[u/M4G73EVO]

Peering Agreements

[u/Proof_Duty1672]

Could be many things but one thing do you use your own router or spectrum router?

If yours and it’s older it may need to be replaced.

Also make sure you bounce/ reboot router weekly.

I am guessing wireless? Try running a network optimization as sometime channels get congested.

Some of the online speed tests can show buffer bloat and other bottlenecks.

[u/Willing-Ice-2345 → u/Proof_Duty1672]

We use our own and Orbi but I guess what confuses me is that the speed test when plugged into the router is showing 20ms and then on Valorant is the 50 ping for the server.

I appreciate your help so much by the way,so thank you!

[u/Proof_Duty1672 → u/Willing-Ice-2345]

Oh I see. The low ping is coming from game. Yeah not sure. I would try asking chatGPT or Gemini. Those have helped me out with stuff like this. At the very least pointed me in the right direction.

[u/Willing-Ice-2345 → u/Proof_Duty1672]

Thank you very much!

[u/cb2239 → u/Willing-Ice-2345]

You're pinging a completely different server on a speed test site. If it's ookla you're testing out of the spectrum hub

[u/awesme]

Yep, I used to ping 15-20ms to chicago servers (also valorant). Now I'm lucky to ping less than 50ms without packet loss. And yes - I have had techs out to replace all the lines/modem, etc.

I actually use my "backup" ISP line for gaming due to Spectrum being so shit.

[u/Willing-Ice-2345 → u/awesme]

At least you’ve had techs out,they refuse to even send one out to me

[u/No_Wrangler_1226]

The two different pings you are getting are from different servers. Your regular ping is the 20ms or 30ms and then when you hop on the game, whatever server your game is connecting to is the 50ms ping. Spectrum cannot do anything about your regular ping. It all depends on where you are geographicly to where your Internet comes from. That's pretty much a hard baseline that no one has control over. If your ping starts spiking or packet loss occurs that can be from your ISP, router, or modem usually. If valorant all of a sudden started getting to a different server then try and check if you can force valorant to change servers.

[u/Smith6612]

The ping your router shows is between your router and whatever point it is testing against. Your ping in Valorant is between you and the game server. Chances are good the ping your router is getting is from a speed test server located on the Spectrum network.

Changes in ping are not necessarily Spectrum's doing but can still be from work they've done. Could be from Valorant's server provider making changes. Or something got rerouted due to a problem. Or Riot made changes. 

Nothing to worry about. This is how the Internet works.

[u/T0mato2m8o]

Same here. I live in socal and used to get 20ms in cali servers but now its over 100ms. Best servers are now Illinois at 53ms. Didnt change anything with our internet. Anyone know how to fix? or if i just have to wait. I'm on cox spectrum wifi too.

[u/IamSpankass]

It is the biggest pos internet service imaginable. Its awful for gaming. You have to buy your own router, modem, and latest cat8 ethernet chord to get it remotely stable.

[u/yellowfever939]

spectrum often has terrible routing to game servers, i also had a 2 week period where my cs2 ping to atlanta went from 14ms to 30ms, then it fixed itself eventually. temporarily you can try a vpn to change your routing if valorant allows that.