Unstable WiFi (High latency)

[adeler]

Hi, for about two months now I've been having poor, unstable WiFi connection.
I originally thought it was an issue on my device but after somes tests I've come to the conclusion it's the ISP.
For about 50% of the time it works fine, but for the other 50% I can't watch youtube videos in 1080p or play any online games (ping is either so high it kicks me or is unbearable to play on)
- note ping is good for most of the time but every 5 minutes will spike from 20ms to 1000ms

Here are my router stats: https://imgur.com/a/m01opV9 
(I tried to take this screenshot at a time it was performing poorly but it might have been working fine at this time)

What the Sky WiFi test looks like 90% of the time: https://imgur.com/a/G0rMU5N 

[TimmyBGood]

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@adeler wrote:

 I've come to the conclusion it's the ISP.

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ISP hardware, quite possibly, but that's different to 'the ISP'

[adeler]

didn't realise i could attatch images without a link. here they are 

[mae-3]

@adeler 

Looking at the router stats you have a raised downstream noise margin and less than the maximum 80Mbps speed downstream at 74Mbps capped. This is likely caused by flapping the broadband line excessively (restarting the router).

DLM will likely fix the speed after a few days depending on how excessively the restarts have occurred.

Unfortunately, the ISP will not likely entertain an issue because the speed is above MGS and wireless isn't guaranteed at any speed or reliability.

[adeler]

Ah ok, the thing is I've been having latency spikes (borderline internet cutting out) for just under 2 months now. So it's not just a recent issue from me resetting the router loads
I only started resetting to try and fix the original issue
Just spiking to 1000ms while trying to play games.

[Chrisee]

@adeler sounds like packet loss and while that can happen within Sky's network or in the route to the game servers its pretty unusual.

You can set up a Broadband Quality Monitor here https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality which will show you if there is an issue within Sky's network - the test pings your router at regukar intervals from a server within the main London Internet Exchange showing round trip time graphically. It is useful evidence if there is an issue but normally the issue is either in your home network especially if gaming over wifi or at the server end so I would check those out as well.

[adeler]

Thanks! I noticed while gaming every sort of 5 minutes I spike to 1000ms and 100% packet loss and for a small amount of time until it slowly comes down so the graph just looks like this 

[jamesn123]

@adeler 

You need to use your IPv4 address not 6

[adeler]

Thanks, that makes a lot more sense
The thing is I'm still getting spikes to 1000ms periodicallywhile gaming on my computer which last a few seconds that arent shown on this graph
How come they don't show on here? - does this mean its my network adapter at fault?

[jamesn123]

@adeler 

Almost certainly because the problem is in your local network rather in the WAN where the BQM monitors.

For starters are you using WiFi or ethernet when your get the spikes?

[adeler]

I'm using WiFi, unfortunately the router is too far away to use ethernet.

- What does this graph show, the speeds my router is outputting (like what id get if i used ethernet?)

[jamesn123]

@adeler 

Then that is almost certainly your problem. WiFi may well have worked fine for you previously but if any conditions have changed (this could be something as simple as someone getting  a new device or your neighbour installing a new router/appliance) then it may render your WiFi singnal useless for gaming.

The easiest way around this is to use ethernet, if you cant use direct ethernet then maybe consider powerline adapters instead which use the electrical sockets to act as ethernet bridges. You could also look at getting a gaming focused WiFi router which is more optimised for the job.

The graph is showing the latency in response time from your router via the WAN. We would often see yellow/red spiking if the router was overwhelmed with traffic or Sky's routing for your connection was poor. However yours looks better than the average. 

[adeler]

Yeah alright thanks very much for the help - was going to call sky and get an engineer but you've helped me a lot. It's clearly my problem like you said when comparing the latency and packetloss to what I actually recieve.
The thing is I originally thought it was my problem and not sky's so I've already tried so many solutions haha. Thanks, I'll try and figure out the issue
(I assume its something to do with my network adapter because ever since I did a case swap this started - I replaced it and its still not working but hopefully I can figure it out)

Thanks! ❤️