Consistent ping spikes when gaming

[ypbtc]

For almost a year now, I have been experiencing consistent ping spikes when gaming on my PC. These ping spikes mainly occur on Roblox, in which my ping spikes every few seconds or minutes. I believe that my PC is not the cause of the problem due to the fact that, even after resetting my PC multiple times in an attempt to resolve the issue, I still encounter these ping spikes. However, I am also not certain of this as the ping spikes started occuring quite recently after I received my PC.

A few months ago, I played games through ethernet (although I am unsure if I can call it ethernet as it was not connected directly to my router) - I had an ethernet cable connected from a Sky Wi-Fi booster in my room to my PC. Despite having an ethernet cable connected to my PC, I still encountered ping spikes which led to me removing the ethernet cable. As of right now, I use Wi-Fi with the Sky Wi-Fi booster behind my PC.

My dad called Sky for support about a month ago, yet I believe that he did not provide enough information about it and just claimed that there was 'something wrong with our Wi-Fi' - in the end they said that there was nothing wrong with our Wi-Fi. It also seems like I am the only one experiencing this issue in my house which led to me believing that it was something to do with QoS as I am the only one who really does gaming. This may be a stupid question due to me not knowing much about Wi-Fi and other topics related to it, but would the possiblity of the problem being QoS be eliminated if I still experienced ping spikes when home alone?

Apologies for the large amount of text, but I am quite desperate to fix this issue as it has a significant impact on me when gaming competitively, so I wanted to provide as much information as I could to try and get a fix. After looking at other posts on here about ping spikes, I have started to think about buying a Powerline Adapter and connecting an ethernet cable from it to my PC, yet I do not know if it would be any different from a Sky Booster and connecting an ethernet from it to my PC. I would greatly appreciate any support.

[mae-3]

@ypbtc 

When playing games do you download games in the background on the PC? If so, then that will cause issues with latency (ping). QoS will allow traffic to be prioritised for gaming on a router but Sky's routers don't support QoS, unfortunately.

[ypbtc]

@mae-3

No - I always make sure that there are no games in the background open when downloading other games.

[Chrisee · Accepted solution]

@ypbtc noSky router supports QOS - quality of service - which is where gaming data is prioritised you would need to buy a gaming router to get that. While it could be an issue with the hub not being able to pass data smoothly if for example other family mrmbers are streaming video while you are gaming I would suspect your WiFi setup.

Boisters act as relays receiving data from the hub and retransmiting it to your device. A booster can only therefore provide 50% of the bandwidth it gets from the hub so having a booster close to the device is going to reduce speeds (your PC's wifi card will get roughly the same speed from the hub as the booster). The second wifi jump also introduces increased latency and doubles the chances of wifi interference and packet loss. Boosters should be placed no more than halfway between the location of the hub and the device simply removing the booster from where it currently should help.

You are right using an ethernet cable to a WiFi booster is rarely sensible. A far better set up where direct ethernet is impossible is to buy a powerline networking kit (aka Home Plugs) which uses your home's mains wiring to carry the data which reduces latency and packet loss due to interference.

[mae-3]

@ypbtc 

My latency to Australia.

[ypbtc]

@Chrisee After reading your response I was considering buying a powerline adapter, but after watching a video on how to set one up, one of the tips include plugging the powerline devices into wall outlets instead of power strips. The problem for me is that there are no avaliable wall outlets for one of the powerline devices (in this case the one that would be near my router) - instead there are only extensions which I believe would result in reduced performance. Do you think that it would still be worth buying one even if it meant using extensions?

[Chrisee]

@ypbtc You can buy adapters with pass through mains sockets so retaining the mains out let for devices.