I'm experiencing frequent internet ping spikes several times per minute, mostly impacting Discord and gaming.
I'm experiencing frequent internet ping spikes several times per minute, mostly impacting Discord and gaming.
Hello, please accept my apologies if this is in an incorrect place.
Summary
This could be quite unusual.
I’m experiencing frequent Internet ping increases several times per minute, mostly impacting Discord and Gaming.
All other online activities remain unaffected.
You may request your ISP to modify the route since they have indicated willingness to assist. Also ask them to investigate your connection issues. Alternatively, switching routes via a VPN is likely the best option, though it doesn’t ensure a fix. Numerous providers provide free trials. For uploading images, imgur.com is a suitable choice—it’s free and requires no registration.
The ISP typically cannot simply alter routing rules. Within their own network, they may be able to adjust them, but this involves complex negotiations among lawyers and accountants over business agreements. Only after these lengthy discussions can technical changes be implemented in years. It’s improbable they would proceed for just one user or a small group. For the ISP, it is more economical to cancel your service than to renegotiate new terms.
Changing latency from 36 ms to 53 ms has little practical impact. Games are built to handle these fluctuations, often requiring spikes above 100 ms, which are minor. The real concern arises at 200 ms or higher, where buffers and data loss become noticeable rather than high delays. Discord experiences larger spikes before affecting performance, usually resulting in data loss instead of significant latency.
The best course is to handle the situation yourself. Tools like pathping can be misleading if not understood properly. It’s better to perform standard tests. Start by running tracert 8.8.8.8 to confirm the router’s IP appears in the path. Then, open multiple command windows and execute ping commands from your router (hop1) to the ISP router (hop2), which is typically your home and the final destination at 8.8.8.8.
If you encounter issues with hop1 but not hop2, the problem likely lies within your home network. If hop1 works but hop2 does not, the issue probably extends beyond your premises—this is where the ISP’s involvement becomes crucial. If both hops are functional yet 8.8.8.8 has problems, the challenge may involve either your ISP or a conflict with Google’s services.
If all three pings succeed, it suggests the gaming service provider’s network is compromised. A VPN could be a solution, but only if you can bypass routers causing the issue. If traffic to both the VPN and the game provider passes through the same path, the problem remains unresolved. Often, you’ll need to try different ISPs. Ultimately, most people find it more practical to assume the fault lies with your ISP and consider switching providers.
Hey, thanks for your reply. I had to prepare for work and didn’t get a chance to respond right away.
I’m probably going to test a VPN first, honestly I’m not really comfortable with the idea of using it just to access my own country’s internet for stability on my PC, but I’ll give it a shot.
I plan to discuss this later today about routes and also when I actually enter Discord voice settings—it looks like there are routing issues (see screenshots if you check the link).
https://imgur.com/a/BPswBHQ
View: https://imgur.com/a/BPswBHQ
Hello,
Thank you for the thorough reply.
I followed all the steps you suggested, as requested.
My router (Hop1) displays a response time under 1ms with 4 packets exchanged and no losses.
My ISP router (Hop2) shows similar performance: 4 packets, 0 losses, and a latency of less than 1ms.
I’m open to testing a VPN to check if it stabilizes my ping during games, but my main worry remains the Discord issue—my friends disconnect frequently, causing audio delays of half a second each time.
I’m considering reaching out to neighbors or others who might be able to help, since I feel oddly dependent on a VPN for my internet to function properly.
Discord also reports routing problems during voice calls; perhaps discussing route changes with my ISP could be useful?
Sorry if this seems a bit stubborn—I’ve had this situation for about a year and a half now.
Here are some screenshots I managed to share.
Thanks again for your patience and understanding!
😀
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/BPswBHQ
View: https://imgur.com/a/BPswBHQ
It seems your ISP probably won't alter the route specifically for you. The main chance is they'll resolve it later or rely on a VPN.
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Using NirSoft Currports to check game/voice servers feels more practical in my view.
https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html
Your test to hop2 is likely not correct. If the latency is less than 1ms it means it is inside your house. This means you likely have 2 router in your house. This does not cause ping issue but it does make things harder if you port forward. The latency to a ISP is at least 3ms on direct fiber to the house and most times closer to 10ms or bit more depending on the technology. Normally I would say reset with hop 3.
The issue is you get no errors to google dns, 8.8.8.8. This means there is no fundamental connection issue with your equipment, your house and even your ISP. This is some issue between your ISP and the game company ISP.
The ping spikes you show in your graph are very few. You will always get some here and there partially because ping is considered low priority traffic compared to other data and the location you are pinging may be busy and delay responding to send more important traffic. Generally you see many more in a short period of time to cause issue. This is even more true for discord.
In any case VPN is your best hope. The ones to try are so called gaming vpn. Your common vpn service you go to vpn server location it changes your IP and you come back out on to the internet basically on the same location just with a different IP. A gaming vpn company has paid for what is called a engineered path between their data centers. In effect they have setup agreements with multiple ISP in the path for their traffic to be give priority over normal internet traffic and the route is designed to be the most effecienet between their 2 data centers. What they do is place a data center in the same location as many popular gaming servers. What this means is you go to the local vpn server nearest your house and then use this priority path to get to the game servers.
This is still may or may not fix things. If you can not get good access to the local vpn server or the vpn company does not have a server located near your game service it will not help. I did not see the country you live in but this is mostly useful for people in asia. Not all ISP have access to the direct undersea fibers and the vpn company does. In places like the EU or the USA there is so much fiber it tends to not help unless there is some strange issue with a overloaded path.
It is all trial and error. Some have free trials and many have good refund policies so if it does not work you can cancel in the first few days.