Bandwidth has room but I'm lagging
Bandwidth has room but I'm lagging
Hey there, I searched but couldn’t locate anything on this topic in the forum. I’m using a gigabit modem (Netgear CM1000) and two Asus routers (2xRT-AC68U) connected through AIMesh via Ethernet. My ISP gives me 150mbps down and 10mbps up—though I’m not thrilled about their upload speeds, the only real limitation is around 35mbps. During gameplay, lag isn’t an issue, but during Zoom or Teams calls with my kids, my Rocket League starts stuttering due to high ping and frequent drops. When I check bandwidth stats, upload stays under 3mbps and download hovers between 1-10mbps. My setup is hardwired, but the kids are using laptops with Wi-Fi (2.4GHz cards). My question is: is there enough bandwidth in both directions? Could it be the wireless connection, the video calls, or some hidden overhead that’s slowing things down? I’m tech-savvy and have tried optimizing with my ISP, but networking still feels tricky for me. Thanks!
Ping doesn't measure bandwidth directly. It shows how fast data travels between your device and the server, considering the distance, number of hops, and system load. These factors influence the time it takes for a packet to complete a round trip. You might benefit from "QoS" settings, which help prioritize certain types of traffic—like real-time voice or video—over others. Video calls usually need top priority because delays can disrupt communication. Additionally, Wi-Fi operates on shared bandwidth; if multiple devices try to send data at once, transmission may slow down and cause lag. This means a normal 50 ms ping could increase to 200 ms due to congestion.
It's important to note that all participants on the same channel use the same bandwidth. This means your neighbors might also be affecting your performance.
Just to confirm, your gaming device is connected directly to the router. The other two units use 2.4 Ghz wireless N cards. Is that accurate? Are the laptops experiencing any networking problems such as slow performance or dropped calls? This situation would likely stem from running the connection between the laptop and router at Wireless N speeds. You wouldn’t benefit from the improvements made in AC standards. Although WiFi was built to work backward, single-band WiFi can be problematic due to interference on the 2.4 Ghz frequency. Generally, issues with the WiFi signal shouldn’t impact wired connections. Perhaps this is the root cause. I remember when I was younger, overloading the upstream internet connection caused problems on the downstream side as well. I’m not sure how much bandwidth MS Teams consumes, but overloading your upload could be the culprit, affecting all devices on the network.
Neighboring channels also matter due to frequency overlap based on channel width (20/40/80 MHz). Which channels are best? Yes. If your upstream is busy, ACKs might not arrive promptly, causing the server to delay or retransmit packets, thinking they weren't received. QoS can assist, but most router settings are limited—perhaps just a toggle for enabling it.