topic Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router? in Broadband

High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

miless — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 21:12:04 GMT

I'm experiencing high ping when using the white 'Wi-Fi Max' router (Model SR213).

Me and the wife game on separate platforms (PC and PS5, both wired ethernet connections) and are both experiencing the same lag when using the white SR213 router. This makes playing online shooters a horrible experience for both. We get NONE of these issues using the black SR203 router.

The bufferbloat on these new router models is insane. I know the Sky routers don't have QoS, but it was never this bad with the black SR203's.

My question is, is anyone else experiencing this? It seems nobody is talking about it.

I've had two white SR213 routers sent to me now and both do the same thing.

I've had an engineer visit too, who also brought with him another white SR213 router to test. Still the same issue. He was on the phone to his internal tech support for two hours while he was here, to no avail. He told me “These are new so we are still working it out"...

below are a few quick tests using the exact same wires/cables. Only swapping out the router hardware.

Tests using the white 'Wi-Fi Max' router (SR213)

cloudflare speed tests showing poor latencey

fast.com with the settings to show all metrics (so we can see latency).

pinging 'google.com' during these tests

Tests using the black broadband router (SR203)

I implore anyone else that has the new SR213 router, to run some tests and check your latency.

I've even had someone else I know (who lives a 10min drive away) who also has the white SR213 router, to run the same fast.com latency tests. Even they are getting 500+ms scores.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Chrisee — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 08:33:02 GMT

@miless IIRC there have been various reports of issues with the SR213 before including mysterious lateny issues. I am currently using one myself without any issue and my so it is not a universal fault with the unuts, see my system's speedtest.net result below. However my connection is full fibre so bypasses the modem stage while yours looks to be a FTTC connection.. What service is your friend on?

As you have raised this with Sky and had replacement units which also cause the fault and had an engineer out there should be an open issue, If so there is not much point in involving Sky's customer services from your post as that will only duplicate things. The forum management team will see your post and it will be interesting if we see other reports.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

jamesn123 — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:23:24 GMT

@miless

Sharing a 37mbps line between multiple gaming devices that can do various actions in the background like downloading games, updates, cloud syncing etc is never going to go well without QoS. The Sky Max hub may exhibit worse bufferbloat than the older Sky hubs but this isnt something Sky are likely going to look at in detail because generally the system will work well unless you are trying to use a low latency application while also using the bandwidth on the same or a different device at full tilt.

Personally I'd recommend looking at getting a gaming oriented router with QoS. I use an Asus RT-AX88u and have achieved an A rated bufferbloat on a 73mbps line which is often very saturated.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

miless — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 01:32:45 GMT

@jamesn123

The tests were carried out using only my PC, connected via ethernet, with Wi-Fi disabled to negate anything else connecting and possibly causing unwanted spikes. No high bandwidth tasks running in the background. This is just one wired PC running each speed/latencey test one by one.

Of course, I get buying and using your own hardware is always going to be better than what an ISP can offer you for free (assuming you buy a more feature rich unit). This isn't my issue though.

I didn’t have these high latency issues with the SR203 router, which I have had for years now. The stark difference between performance for the SR203 and SR213, is night and day in my experience.

It’s so strange how the max hub is performing so bad in terms of latency.

What makes it worse is, I’m currently paying the extra for the max hub and its features, but I’m being forced to use the older hardware because of this which is frustrating.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Chrisee — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 07:10:57 GMT

@miless I agree with you that this shouldn't have this issue with the SR213. Customers are normally required to return their SR203 hub when they buy Wifi Max and even if they reject the Wifi Max bundle they keep the SR213 - that is how I have mine - so in theory you should not have the SR203 to use. My SR213 unit doesnt apparently exhibit this fault. The significant difference being you are on FTTC and I am using full fibre.

What have Sky told you after the site visit which should, I would of thought, been undertaken to eliminate the type of issues @jamesn123 mentioned?

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

miless — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 09:27:31 GMT

@Chrisee

No where I've seen has mentioned having to send SR203 back. I'm glad I didn't to be honest.
The technical phone support prior to the site visit even told me to keep using the black router for now.

The Sky visit seemed like a waste of time too because they couldn't figure out what the issue was. The resolve from that visit was to order another SR213 router to my house to see if that exhibits the same issues the other two did... which it does.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Chrisee — Wed, 10 Jan 2024 09:33:17 GMT

@miless assume you have told Sky that? That the agent said keep the SR203 is reassuring and implies your case is with one of the specialised teams. I have asked the question to the Sky manager who looks after the forum to see if he can add anything useful. It is certainly puzzling.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Barry1506 — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 18:54:26 GMT

Hi! I've recently acquired the new WiFi Max Hub and I'm also suffering terrible latency and Ping issues, I live in a rural area and the fastest speed I can receive is 65mbps, because our Infrastructure is still in the Dark Ages here!

I still had a horrible Ping when I first had the Broad hub 4.2 with a Ping of 18ms, now that I have the all singing,dancing WiFi Max Hub I have to say that my WiFi Maxes out on the the actual speeds I pay for (65 down 16 up) But unfortunately there is a downside that since installing the WiFi Max Hub my Ping has risen to 22ms and above!

I have not changed anything other than the Hub so it's a bit of mystery, but I will say in the Hub's defence that I have noticed a marked improvement in my Speeds.

best wishes.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

mormegil — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 21:20:02 GMT

I have no problems with WiFi in the max hub, not feasible for me to use Ethernet

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

mormegil — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 21:25:24 GMT

Or while at the gaming pc at the other end of the house

it does seem the max hub may be optimised for fttp connections rather than fttc

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Starbug1981 — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 23:41:50 GMT

Same.here. wishes I'd never changed to max tbh

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Chrisee — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 07:10:54 GMT

@Starbug1981 several potential causes of lag but no evidence of a specific issue caused by the Sky Max hub as there are literally hundreds of thousands of these units in use and just a few posts.

Common causes of high latency are WiFi issues like interference, servers being overloaded and routing issues especially to out of country servers. The only issue specifically down to the hub is where your network has multiple users and the hub cannot keep up as fe if any isp routers do not have a Quality of Service facility which prioritises gaming traffic that routers designed for gamers offer.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

Starbug1981 — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 09:03:17 GMT

I'd say there are a lot more people experiencing the same issues. It wasn't long ago the Post Office said there wasn't anything wrong with Horizon.

My household hasn't changed and the old black router worked far better even on a lower bandwidth.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

miless — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 01:40:35 GMT

I recently tried the white max hub again just to see if any software updates has fixed this issue at all. Still does the same thing unfortunately. High latencey again just like the screenshots.

"no evidence of a specific issue caused by the Sky Max hub"

Is this not evidence?

"WiFi issues like interference"

"The only issue specifically down to the hub is where your network has multiple users and the hub cannot keep up"

WiFi was disabled during my tests. Nobody was on it. My PC was the only WIRED connection. Same latencey issues...

As soon as the previouis black router is plugged back in, ALL of the latencey issues disappear. Doubt I'll ever use the Max router at this point.

Re: High ping with 'Wi-Fi Max' router?

SMO1 — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 12:47:50 GMT

I moved from BT to Sky before Christmas and have had nothing but problems trying to game. I tried everything my end but it is still the same, I was going to ring to cancel my contract as I am not getting what I did with BT.

But it is interesting that you mention this about the Sky Max router, I just assumed Sky are throttling my speed as they can see it is online gaming. I can start new games with fairly low latency then they will ramp massively to +250ms for no reason, quit that game and start another then same thing again. I get the same when playing with friends although they don't have any issue, but are with another ISP.
The connection is awful