Got major internet problems again even after trying different fixes.
Got major internet problems again even after trying different fixes.
Hi everyone, I've been having a really bad time with my internet connection and can't play online games anymore. Speed tests look good on paper, but when I actually try to game, I get major lag spikes, high ping numbers, and packets getting lost. I've tried every fix that's available already. My modem and router have both been swapped out, along with the cables which are now all CAT6 rated (supporting 400MB internet). A tech came out to check for noise at my taps and found nothing wrong. I'm playing through a wired connection but don't have any wireless built-in yet, so maybe adding an adapter would help later on. I don't seem to struggle with regular video streaming or watching stuff on the PC alone; it's only when gaming or streaming while playing that things break down, even though my upload speeds look fine too. Please see this link for a picture of my ethernet performance in general Windows Performance Manager. The frames are dropping a bit (~25% on twitch). I don't know how to read all the technical details, so I don't really get what's going on as far as networking goes. apex-2 Image apex-2 hosted in ImgBB ibb.co Thank you in advance!
Pretty much means nothing to monitor unless you are running a program that tries to download something at a steady speed for a long time. That way, you can get a good graph. The data rates change all the time, even sites like Netflix or YouTube. They don't stream at a constant rate; they send big bursts of data and then stop sending. This is because they might be fixing errors on the network side before you see them again while your buffer fills up with good video. The IP addresses that go down mean nothing to you. Those are local IPs used only inside your house, not your real internet address. What's interesting is that it looks like you have IPv6 enabled. Try turning it off in your router settings. IPv6 causes all kinds of weird problems and you don't really need it for anything. It might not fix things, but it's better to keep it turned off until you actually find something you need. After that, try leaving a constant ping running to 8.8.8.8 in the background window. See if you get packet loss or maybe huge spikes in lag (more than 100 milliseconds). Speedtest doesn't care about small amounts of data lost, but games do and some things like twitch are affected too. I had windows visual effects crap getting stuck and using up CPU for a long time that caused drops on twitch. I turned something off in those settings and it fixed the problem. It never made sense to figure out why other than knowing it was just another stupid feature forced on me by Microsoft with a patch. Many games have problems because of video settings. The game will blame data loss or high ping times for network issues when really, the game itself is stuck in some video process.
So after turning off both IPv4 and IPv6 separately, disabling one of them causes problems. Without IPv6, my packets drop a lot. With IPv4 turned off, I can't connect to most things. I don't know what's going on here. I'm pretty sure it isn't because of the hardware since everything worked fine until about two weeks ago. The exact same setup then.
IPv6 was just a guess because it's usually not a big problem right now. You need to actually check if your network works on real things, even if the game says you are losing connections. Just thinking about it is hard proof that the problem isn't with your ISP or their servers. I mean, if my internet company was your ISP, they would blame me instead of them because I can't prove anything wrong. You need to do more testing. Start by hitting 8.8.8.8 from a separate window in the background. If that one thing fails, try running tracert against 8.8.8.8 to see exactly which hop is broken. Then keep pinging your router and then ISP routers while trying to ping the game server at the same time. This will help you find where things are going wrong. The easiest fix usually comes when the network shows no loss of connection for your IP address but a lot of packet loss right after it hits the first router from the ISP. That almost always means there is a bad cable between your home and their network.
Good morning @bill001g - thanks for getting back to me. I'm sorry, but I really don't know how networks work. What do I need to use when running a ping to the router? Where can I find that information? There is only one router in my house: the one provided by my internet provider. Sorry if it sounded like I had two routers. Please check the file attached for a 500 count test to go to google.com (8.8.8.8). I also ran a traceroute to see where packets are going when they reach my ISP's DNS server. Based on what I've learned, something seems wrong here because of a failed read and a big jump in ping time. I attached some files that might help you understand this better. The last one is just an attempt to look up the IP address using the command ipconfig; I blurred out parts of it so it looks less official. Thanks again for your help. Here are the links: https://ibb.co/nmV6BNY, https://ibb.co/TK1K77M, https://ibb.co/pwPwWzV, https://ibb.co/vB36dG0, and https://ibb.co/KDtwYqC
The only thing that really counts is the IP address on your router. Everything else is just the ISP's stuff and you can probably guess which city you're in. So this proves nothing at all. You need to be very careful with IPv6 because different paths exist, so when you test things, you have to make sure you test either only ipv4 or only ipv6 every time. If your problem comes and goes like that, now you have a problem where the tests keep running even though it's not happening at all.
I'll need to reach out to the ISP right now. I did pretty much all the checks I could. I took my PC over to my friend's house and streamed while playing at the same time, everything worked fine there. When he moved his PC to my house, it started showing packet loss and ping spikes. We connected directly to the modem on both ends and got the same problem. So far, I've tested everything myself and checked outside factors like drivers and hardware, and they ruled out a malfunction.
The problem is the ISP are going to be jerks and say it is not their problem....and sometimes they are actually correct. Although your pc working in another location makes it unlikely it is the pc it could still be something similar. For example say your friends house does not support ipv6 and your does and is using IPv6 for a connection. Just a example because we saw the IPv6 in earlier traces. You are almost going to have to do the ISP job for them and prove to them there is a issue with their network. If your friend uses the exact same ISP then it is likely it is somehow related to the last mile cables coming from the first ISP router/equipment to your house. The good news is this is the easiest to convince the ISP to fix. If it is a different ISP then it can actually be the game companies ISP and their interconnection to your ISP. You need to hope not because it tends to be impossible for a end user to get this fixed. What I would first do is check all the levels on the modem and make sure they are within the recommended ranges. This varies a bit depending on the exact version of docsis you are using. Some modem also will show you corrected and uncorrected error packets. Uncorrected errors are packet loss. Maybe you get lucky and there is something useful in the log. There is always some junk messages so try to find one the have time stamps to where you saw issues in the game. Normally you would leave a constant ping run to hop 2 but for some reason it does not respond. The ISP did this intentionally for some reason but it makes testing a bit harder for a home user. You can ping hop 3 which is still in the ISP network and it would still show if there was a issue to the line to your house.
Well, honestly, I'm just done with all those tests now. I've already checked everything out enough to figure things out. So, it's not really my fault.