How can I fix my ping spikes?
How can I fix my ping spikes?
Hey everyone, I've been feeling really slow internet lately and I'd love some help to fix it. In this first message, I'll try to give as much info as I can about what's happening, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask me. To start with, I use a satellite ISP that has been my internet provider for almost three years. I haven't had any problems until recently. About Thanksgiving was the first time things got weird. Between 4pm and roughly 1am, my ping would go up between 400ms and 600ms. Before this, it stayed pretty fast at around 20ms to 40ms. I thought maybe the ISP was too busy during the holidays. A week or two later came the second wave of trouble. I still have the same slow ping issues as before, but now they happen all day long until things get super bad. My ping hovers between 20ms and 100ms sometimes, then spikes randomly to 150ms up to 400ms. I already called my ISP and they mostly ignored the whole thing. The only advice I got was that my router (a Nighthawk AX8) needs to be on current firmware. I did a complete factory reset so the software is fresh, making sure it's updated. Also, since I have an ethernet cable going straight from my PC to the router, I disconnected the router in between and plugged the ethernet cable directly into the radio (I'm not 100% sure about this exact term, but this is what I plugged into my router). None of these fixes worked yet, so it's still slow. Since I do need to call and reconnect with their support team, I thought it would be a good idea to post here just in case they give you other ideas. Some useful info: We don't have any caps on our data plan, so the speeds aren't throttled. My regular setup hasn't changed; mostly I play Valorant or Overwatch while Discord and Spotify run in the background. Both games and Discord are now having trouble with ping.
You probably have something like Starlink up and running. Most fixed satellite systems are slow, with ping times over 500 milliseconds. Since it connects directly to your radio, only that actual signal gets through; there is no internet on the PC itself. I think in theory you could be using some unknown process on your computer pulling data at the same time as uploading, though usually upload speeds are the limiting factor. Time of day issues often happen because other people use the bandwidth or if a Wi-Fi router is interfering. I am not sure how these systems share the internet. They do limit how many customers can sign up in an area; once they reach that number, no new ones get added until satellites are launched more. Not sure what to suggest right now. The usual test is to run tracert on 8.8.8.8 and then try pings hop-by-hop (hop 2, then hop 1). This checks the connection from your radio unit at home to whatever router the ISP uses. I can't say if that goes through the satellite or somewhere else. It doesn't matter much since you can change many settings anyway.
I don't have Starlink, but I guess everything here is kind of like local stuff because it's mostly small businesses giving internet to homes. The connection used not to be so slow or laggy when things were working well, but now it feels a bit worse. Back in the day, we could play games that needed fast ping numbers to work smoothly. Could you run the test I wrote down at the end and tell me what score it gives us?
What are you talking about? A small local ISP. Satellites go on rockets and circle around the earth. That's way too hard for a tiny company to do. It sounds more like you're using a WISP. These things work just like cell towers, but they use big antennas to talk between your house and the tower. Maybe the antenna is out of place and doesn't get strong enough signal. Or maybe a new neighbor moved in and started interfering with your signals.