Latency & Packet Loss Issues

[Owimyr]

Hey all, got an issue that has been driving me mad for months, and I have had zero luck in resolving it. 

 

The issue I am experiencing is a sporadic latency issue in games, most noticeable in WoW (500-3500ms world pings). I believe this is caused by packet loss to my router, as tested through WinMTR. I've updated bios, updated chipset drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled intel on-board NIC with a variety of old and new drivers, changed out all cabling, bought a new router (since swapped back to the old one, since it didn't help), had spectrum replace their modem, purchased a wifi adapter (with most recent driver), performed windows 10 updates, and even upgraded to windows 11 as a last ditch effort. None of this had any impact on the packet loss or latency issue.

 

There are two things I've been able to do that do seem to solve the issue - either use my work laptop or plex server (obviously can't play games on them), or bypass the router and connect the desktop to the modem directly (not ideal, as I have other wired devices). 

 

I am completely baffled at this point, and hoping you guys might be able to think of something I didn't. 

 

System specs:

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime X570-Pro
  • BIOS version 4021
• CPU: Ryzen 9 3900XT
  • Chipset version 2.11.26.106
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X
  • Driver version 472.12
• Memory: 4x16gb G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 
• Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB
  • Firmware version EGFM11.3
• PSU: Corsair RM850x
• NIC 1: Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection (onboard)
  • Driver version 12.18.11.1
• NIC 2: TP-Link WiFi 6 AX3000
  • Driver version 22.80.0.4

 

WinMTR screenshot: 

 

[kirashi]

1 hour ago, Owimyr said:

Hey all, got an issue that has been driving me mad for months, and I have had zero luck in resolving it. 

 

The issue I am experiencing is a sporadic latency issue in games, most noticeable in WoW (500-3500ms world pings). I believe this is caused by packet loss to my router, as tested through WinMTR. I've updated bios, updated chipset drivers, uninstalled and reinstalled intel on-board NIC with a variety of old and new drivers, changed out all cabling, bought a new router (since swapped back to the old one, since it didn't help), had spectrum replace their modem, purchased a wifi adapter (with most recent driver), performed windows 10 updates, and even upgraded to windows 11 as a last ditch effort. None of this had any impact on the packet loss or latency issue.

 

There are two things I've been able to do that do seem to solve the issue - either use my work laptop (obviously can't play games on that), or bypass the router and connect the desktop to the modem directly (not ideal, as I have other wired devices). 

 

I am completely baffled at this point, and hoping you guys might be able to think of something I didn't. 

 

System specs:

• Motherboard: ASUS Prime X570-Pro
  • BIOS version 4021
• CPU: Ryzen 9 3900XT
  • Chipset version 2.11.26.106
• GPU: MSI GeForce RTX 3080 SUPRIM X
  • Driver version 472.12
• Memory: 4x16gb G.SKILL Trident Z Neo 
• Storage: Corsair MP600 1TB
  • Firmware version EGFM11.3
• PSU: Corsair RM850x
• NIC 1: Intel(R) I211 Gigabit Network Connection (onboard)
  • Driver version 12.18.11.1
• NIC 2: TP-Link WiFi 6 AX3000
  • Driver version 22.80.0.4

 

WinMTR screenshot: 

Without being able to see the full traceroute details, hard for us to say for certain what's causing the high ping times. I'd compare a traceroute to the game server IP addresses from your laptop that seems to work and your gaming desktop that's experiencing the problem. You're looking to see where the difference in routing is in hopes that you can narrow down the issue to a certain piece of hardware or software.

[Owimyr]

23 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Without being able to see the full traceroute details, hard for us to say for certain what's causing the high ping times. I'd compare a traceroute to the game server IP addresses from your laptop that seems to work and your gaming desktop that's experiencing the problem. You're looking to see where the difference in routing is in hopes that you can narrow down the issue to a certain piece of hardware or software.

Here is a full traceroute from my desktop to the IP suggested by Blizzard (137.221.105.2).

 

And here's one from my server.

 

Unfortunately, can't do one from my laptop to the blizzard IP, as it's a work laptop and they have it blocked. That said, every IP I've tried that is available has no issues on the laptop (and server), but does have issues on the desktop. 

 

The third hop (xe0013.dllctxra02h.texas.rr.com) has given me some concern, but not nearly as much as the significant difference in sent/received and packet loss to the router. Also Spectrum (sigh) claims no issues on their end. The above screenshots are with the old router that I swapped back to since the new one didn't seem to change anything. 

[kirashi]

18 minutes ago, Owimyr said:

Here is a full traceroute from my desktop to the IP suggested by Blizzard (137.221.105.2).

 

And here's one from my server.

 

Unfortunately, can't do one from my laptop to the blizzard IP, as it's a work laptop and they have it blocked. That said, every IP I've tried that is available has no issues on the laptop (and server), but does have issues on the desktop. 

 

The third hop (xe0013.dllctxra02h.texas.rr.com) has given me some concern, but not nearly as much as the significant difference in sent/received and packet loss to the router. Also Spectrum (sigh) claims no issues on their end. The above screenshots are with the old router that I swapped back to since the new one didn't seem to change anything. 

Yep, the first screenshot indeed shows packet loss locally to your router running DD-WRT, so either a) the router is the problem or b) something on your computer is the problem. If you experience the same issue with a completely different router, I'm leaning toward b) problem with the computer.

 

All that being said, I also agree that there could be a problem with the 3rd hop. If I remember correctly, Charter, Roadrunner, and Time Warner cable are all under the Spectrum banner as they were bought/sold between each other over the years. Might have to submit traceroute logs to your ISP's support, assuming their NOC is able to do anything about that hop, if there even is a problem there. https://bgp.he.net/dns/rr.com

[Owimyr]

5 minutes ago, kirashi said:

Yep, the first screenshot indeed shows packet loss locally to your router running DD-WRT, so either a) the router is the problem or b) something on your computer is the problem. If you experience the same issue with a completely different router, I'm leaning toward b) problem with the computer.

 

All that being said, I also agree that there could be a problem with the 3rd hop. If I remember correctly, Charter, Roadrunner, and Time Warner cable are all under the Spectrum banner as they were bought/sold between each other over the years. Might have to submit traceroute logs to your ISP's support, assuming their NOC is able to do anything about that hop, if there even is a problem there. https://bgp.he.net/dns/rr.com

I've submitted logs to them, they seem very much disinterested in helping and keep stating that the problem isn't on their end, despite the evidence. Sadly, they're the only option. 

 

Also for an additional data point, I ran MTR on an ubuntu live usb on the desktop, seemingly no packet loss. So this makes me seriously think it's an issue within windows. 

[Owimyr]

So, out of curiosity, I did a fresh windows install and it fixed the problem. 

 

It certainly doesn't scratch the itch for me to know what the root cause was, but apparently it was something deep in the settings that I wasn't able to reset manually before without an reinstall. 

[Chrokossa]

Good day everyone,

 

I was torn back and forth if I should open a new thread or use this one, but since it's asked specifically to use existing ones I'm using this thread.

Unfortunately I'm facing the same problem, been through everything so far. The "great reset" worked fine for me as well for a while but it started coming back after a few months. I started experiencing the issue around the same time as Owimyr so I suspect it's something on Windows side. Only My PC is affected, nothing else.

 

------------------
System Information
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Spoiler

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19043) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
Mainborad: ROG STRIX Z370-F GAMING - BIOS: 2801 (type: UEFI)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz (12 CPUs), ~3.7GHz
GPU: Radeon 5700XT
Memory: Corsair Vengance LPX 2x8GB with XMP enabled

PSU: BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 550W
NIC: Intel I219-V (onboard)

DirectX Version: DirectX 12

The issue starts and ends very randomly, at first I thought it was my NAS doing this but I basically was able to rule everything but my PC out. My ISP has replaced their router (AVM FritzBox 6591 Cable), has been on site for measurments and correction and had technicians check their nodes without any fix.

 

The packet loss is locally, it does not start externally but it's tied to when I start downloading stuff or doing speedtest, even then sometimes it works perfectly fine. Wireless devices such as smartphones or tablets are not affected at all. I tried replacing the CAT.6 Cable, no fix. Tried connecting it directly without the switch between, no fix. Here is a screenshot of a Pingplot from my PC to my router over the switch. The beginning is a bit of idle I recorded while writing this, after I did a simple speedtest.

 

 

The black line is the ping to my router, the red bars are recorded packet-loss

Now as I was doing this it suddenly fixed itself and everything went back to normal, but it will come back. I usually notice this happening when my download speed falls down or videos start buffering. Hope anybody has an idea what this could be.