Question about ping spikes

[NoKillNoLife]

Okay, I have shitty internet, really shitty, when I use over 0.75 MB/s my ping goes to shit.

 

my "deal" says 16 mbit, so 2 MB, im not even gonna tell you how much I pay for it.

 

Why does my ping spike when I only use around 50% of advertised bandwidth(?)?

 

Is the 16 mbit a scam and is supposed to turn utterly useless when I use half of it?

[Jade]

Because it's advertised as: "Up to [xy}Mb/s". You're getting the bad end of it. Ping goes up when a line is saturated because all the bandwidth is going to $otherprogram(s).

[schizznick]

I am going to assume 16mbit is your download, what is your upload? It's possible you are saturating your upload depending on your usage. Most internet connections are asynchronous, meaning that your upload is much lower than your download. Have you looked at your upload usage? What type of internet do you have? Mediums such as Fiber PON and cable internet are a shared medium. Technologies like DSL are usually not shared.  A little more info might point to your issue.

[NoKillNoLife]

Because it's advertised as: "Up to [xy}Mb/s". You're getting the bad end of it. Ping goes up when a line is saturated because all the bandwidth is going to $otherprogram(s).

Its advertised as 12-16mbit

 

not sure what you mean by $otherprograms

 

It is just weird to me that I cant watch twitch on medium and play csgo without getting ping spikes when I use around 50-75% of advertised bandwidth

[Jade]

Its advertised as 12-16mbit

 

not sure what you mean by $otherprograms

 

It is just weird to me that I cant watch twitch on medium and play csgo without getting ping spikes when I use around 50-75% of advertised bandwidth

$otherprograms... as in other programs. It's a reference to programming; a variable that can change and be anything. And no, your host almost 100% guaranteed, has a clause saying that it's UP to, and due to how technology works, is not guaranteed. Checking 3 different providers got me all 3 to say the same thing. It's up to, no guarantees beyond "you will get service." 

 

 

[NoKillNoLife]

I am going to assume 16mbit is your download, what is your upload? It's possible you are saturating your upload depending on your usage. Most internet connections are asynchronous, meaning that your upload is much lower than your download. Have you looked at your upload usage? What type of internet do you have? Mediums such as Fiber PON and cable internet are a shared medium. Technologies like DSL are usually not shared.  A little more info might point to your issue.

Well, if you think about a shitstain that leads power, you got it, lol.

 

Its copper, they call it adsl+, network usage for upload has not exceeded 50 KB the last hour.

 

My upload is 0.7 mbit

[NoKillNoLife]

$otherprograms... as in other programs. It's a reference to programming; a variable that can change and be anything. And no, your host almost 100% guaranteed, has a clause saying that it's UP to, and due to how technology works, is not guaranteed. Checking 3 different providers got me all 3 to say the same thing. It's up to, no guarantees beyond "you will get service." 

 

 

It says speeds from 12-16Mbit/s

 

The only thing related in terms is that they are not responsible for "bad conditions"

 

If I do a speedtest I get the advertised bandwidth, its just that the ping is insane if I ever try to use some of it..

[Jade]

It says speeds from 12-16Mbit/s

 

The only thing related in terms is that they are not responsible for "bad conditions"

 

If I do a speedtest I get the advertised bandwidth, its just that the ping is insane if I ever try to use some of it..

Sounds like a network problem. Still worth it to contact them.

[NoKillNoLife]

Sounds like a network problem. Still worth it to contact them.

Oh I contacted them, only thing they did was send me a new modem, twice. for free. I know what im doing when im changing isp this autumn, im gonna stock up on modems.

 

I guess I'll have to live with it. What happends if you use most of your bandwidth btw? do you get spikes too?

[schizznick]

0.7mbit is really low... I would contact your ISP and see if they can use Annex M on the DSL equipment they use. This can allocate more bins to upload from your download. It could bump you as much as 1mbit. 

 

I thought 5mbit upload was bad, I really feel for you. My wife regularly saturates my 5mbit when her iphone decides to back up photo's to icloud. 

 

It's also plausible that it's an upstream issue. When I ping I usually have at least 3 pings running. 

1. Ping Default Gateway (Your Modem)
2. Ping ISP Gateway (Default Gateway of your modem)
3. Ping something on the internet (I use google dns 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 because it's easy to remember)

This might show you where the peak is. If you only see it on test 3 it's upstream from your DSL. If it's high on 2 it could be your DSL or upload/download. Finally if it's only on 1 it's something local to your network.

 

Post those results and we can maybe narrow it down.

[schizznick]

Oh I contacted them, only thing they did was send me a new modem, twice. for free. I know what im doing when im changing isp this autumn, im gonna stock up on modems.

 

I guess I'll have to live with it. What happends if you use most of your bandwidth btw? do you get spikes too?

Yes a ping is the roundtrip from you to the destination and back, if it get's buffered somewhere along the way due to congestion it will increase that time. The most common location for buffering is your modem. However it's possible it could be farther down the network. 

 

Also note that ICMP is an extremely low priority so it's possible to get false spikes when testing. A router may drop a ping or buffer it well before other traffic. Also when a device is pinged the endpoint you ping has to hand off the ping to the CPU, this takes extra resources when the routers in between you and the destination can forward it in hardware reducing the latency.

[NoKillNoLife]

0.7mbit is really low... I would contact your ISP and see if they can use Annex M on the DSL equipment they use. This can allocate more bins to upload from your download. It could bump you as much as 1mbit. 

 

I thought 5mbit upload was bad, I really feel for you. My wife regularly saturates my 5mbit when her iphone decides to back up photo's to icloud. 

 

It's also plausible that it's an upstream issue. When I ping I usually have at least 3 pings running. 

1. Ping Default Gateway (Your Modem)
2. Ping ISP Gateway (Default Gateway of your modem)
3. Ping something on the internet (I use google dns 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 because it's easy to remember)

This might show you where the peak is. If you only see it on test 3 it's upstream from your DSL. If it's high on 2 it could be your DSL or upload/download. Finally if it's only on 1 it's something local to your network.

 

Post those results and we can maybe narrow it down.

Did I do it right? I kinda suck at this stuff..

 

http://gyazo.com/e3a322bd0f66a15ae15554881c86ef43

 

what can you make out of those?

 

ipconfig showed 10.0.0.138 as default gateway, the isp default gateway I kinda guessed after doing a traceroute.

[schizznick]

Did I do it right? I kinda suck at this stuff..

 

http://gyazo.com/e3a322bd0f66a15ae15554881c86ef43

 

what can you make out of those?

 

ipconfig showed 10.0.0.138 as default gateway, the isp default gateway I kinda guessed after doing a traceroute.

So take a look at mine

 

Click Here

 

Keep in mind my tests are also ADSL2+ with roughly a 5200 foot loop length. DSL loop length is a big deal and could contribute to your issue. 

 

If you look at your pings to your default gateway they are all over the place. That is most likely because your are using wireless? If you are wired it should be consistent like mine. The other pings will follow suit. 

 

If you are wired then you definately have an issue. If you are wireless try plugging in and see if it improves. 

 

For the last one try pinging 8.8.8.8, this will usually respond better than google.com

[NoKillNoLife]

So take a look at mine

 

Click Here

 

Keep in mind my tests are also ADSL2+ with roughly a 5200 foot loop length. DSL loop length is a big deal and could contribute to your issue. 

 

If you look at your pings to your default gateway they are all over the place. That is most likely because your are using wireless? If you are wired it should be consistent like mine. The other pings will follow suit. 

 

If you are wired then you definately have an issue. If you are wireless try plugging in and see if it improves. 

 

For the last one try pinging 8.8.8.8, this will usually respond better than google.com

Its wired, what do you think I should do? could it be the cable?

[schizznick]

it could be numerous things. 

1. Cable
2. NIC in PC
3. Router
4. Running Software

And a whole plethora of other options. At this point I would guess it's a local network/pc thing. 

 

Are you connected direct to the Router with a Cat5e or Cat6 cable?

 

Any other devices connected to the modem?

 

What type of modem is it?

[NoKillNoLife]

it could be numerous things. 

1. Cable
2. NIC in PC
3. Router
4. Running Software

And a whole plethora of other options. At this point I would guess it's a local network/pc thing. 

 

Are you connected direct to the Router with a Cat5e or Cat6 cable?

 

Any other devices connected to the modem?

 

What type of modem is it?

cat5e, Ill try "replugging" it

maximus vi formula network thingy

modem is zyxel, a multimodem so no router.

just my nas is connected other than wireless devices.

[schizznick]

For a wired connection those pings are really bad. They should mostly be less than 1ms. I am guessing something like this. 

 

You could try another port... to check your PC you could reboot to safemode with networking and that would allow you to test without anything else loaded. If that works better then it's something on your PC.

[NoKillNoLife]

For a wired connection those pings are really bad. They should mostly be less than 1ms. I am guessing something like this. 

 

You could try another port... to check your PC you could reboot to safemode with networking and that would allow you to test without anything else loaded. If that works better then it's something on your PC.

http://www.telenor.no/privat/kundeservice/bredbandshjelp/zyxel8702/I tried a different cable and its the same, Im pretty sure its just because my modem is shitty, should i buy a good router and just bridge it?

 

Ill try safemode now

[NoKillNoLife]

For a wired connection those pings are really bad. They should mostly be less than 1ms. I am guessing something like this. 

 

You could try another port... to check your PC you could reboot to safemode with networking and that would allow you to test without anything else loaded. If that works better then it's something on your PC.

So, safe mode. all the "pings" show <1

 

so is that a driver issue then?

[schizznick]

I don't see anything that stands out regarding that router, it's possible it's just bad. You could buy a router and bridge the modem if your ISP allows it. The modem would still provide the Ethernet to ATM conversion but the routing and ethernet would be handled by the router.

 

It may be a solution. 

[schizznick]

No it's not the driver, because that still loaded in safe mode. It's most likely software running on your PC. It could be affecting the Drivers or just causing the system in general to drag. If your NIC is onboard then it uses CPU cycles to run and so anything that slows your PC could affect it. 

[NoKillNoLife]

No it's not the driver, because that still loaded in safe mode. It's most likely software running on your PC. It could be affecting the Drivers or just causing the system in general to drag. If your NIC is onboard then it uses CPU cycles to run and so anything that slows your PC could affect it. 

After a couple of tries(disabled non microsoft services) I found the issue, it was netbalancer, the program I downloaded to measure how much bandwidth I use before I made this post, talk about counter productive lol.

 

So my original problem still stands, here are my new ping results btw

http://gyazo.com/7c8f83d9c80cf48d8afcf47b85673c66

 

edit: the first ping result of 16 was the first one, there are around 500 "<1" after it

[schizznick]

After a couple of tries(disabled non microsoft services) I found the issue, it was netbalancer, the program I downloaded to measure how much bandwidth I use before I made this post, talk about counter productive lol.

 

So my original problem still stands, here are my new ping results btw

http://gyazo.com/7c8f83d9c80cf48d8afcf47b85673c66

 

edit: the first ping result of 16 was the first one, there are around 500 "<1" after it

Well I am glad we solved one issue! Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. 

 

So now you can see your pings are pretty good too your ISP's gateway. But too google they are much worse. This looks to me like an upstream issue, it's possible it's out of your ISP's realm to fix. 

 

Can you show me a traceroute? 

[NoKillNoLife]

Well I am glad we solved one issue! Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. 

 

So now you can see your pings are pretty good too your ISP's gateway. But too google they are much worse. This looks to me like an upstream issue, it's possible it's out of your ISP's realm to fix. 

 

Can you show me a traceroute? 

Well these pings are while watching twitch to demonstrate my issue, high ping even when not using all my bandwidth, sorry if I shouldnt have had twitch open, here is one witout twitch: http://gyazo.com/dffa1412814cca3b5ffcbcd66ef4c603

 

Im not really sure about the term upstream, Im guessing it means its not in my house and is in my isp's control.

[schizznick]

Well these pings are while watching twitch to demonstrate my issue, high ping even when not using all my bandwidth, sorry if I shouldnt have had twitch open, here is one witout twitch: http://gyazo.com/dffa1412814cca3b5ffcbcd66ef4c603

 

Im not really sure about the term upstream, Im guessing it means its not in my house and is in my isp's control.

Yeah those pings look better, so this only happens when watching twitch or streaming to twitch?

 

So think of the internet as a river, the data flows down to you as the end user. Upstream is technically anything above you on that river. For example your ISP is upstream, then the provider they get internet from (ie. Level 3 or the like in the US) is upstream of them.

 

In this case I will guess the issue is upstream of your ISP since your pings to your ISP's gateway do not show the spikes. It could be anywhere upstream from them up to and including on the server's end. If this is consistent no matter what service you are using, then most likely it is something closer to you. It is possible that the issue exists on your ISP's gateway and so could still be an issue, but then many customers not just you would be affected.