F5F Stay Refreshed Hardware Desktop Occasional surges in online traffic persisting for extended periods

Occasional surges in online traffic persisting for extended periods

Occasional surges in online traffic persisting for extended periods

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cursino_8
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11-05-2023, 03:06 PM
#1
Hello everyone, I've encountered several issues while working as an IT technician in college, but this one with my personal internet is really puzzling. My connection suddenly fluctuates—sometimes it's a steady 60 ping, other times it spikes above 300 for days on end. It seems to happen at random intervals. Initially, I thought it was just network congestion during busy evening hours, but that wouldn't explain the prolonged periods without improvement. Occasionally it returns to normal the next day or lingers for weeks, sometimes even months. Despite having a full 300/300 Mbps connection and consistently showing good speeds in speed tests, the problem persists. I've tried unplugging and replugging devices, resetting settings, but nothing changes. As someone more comfortable with hardware than networking, I'm trying to figure out what's causing this. I contacted my ISP about replacing the modem, but they said it might be a simple fix if the issue continues. By the time a technician arrives, the problem could still be active. Any advice would be greatly appreciated—I really need stable internet for gaming after work!
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C
cursino_8
11-05-2023, 03:06 PM #1

Hello everyone, I've encountered several issues while working as an IT technician in college, but this one with my personal internet is really puzzling. My connection suddenly fluctuates—sometimes it's a steady 60 ping, other times it spikes above 300 for days on end. It seems to happen at random intervals. Initially, I thought it was just network congestion during busy evening hours, but that wouldn't explain the prolonged periods without improvement. Occasionally it returns to normal the next day or lingers for weeks, sometimes even months. Despite having a full 300/300 Mbps connection and consistently showing good speeds in speed tests, the problem persists. I've tried unplugging and replugging devices, resetting settings, but nothing changes. As someone more comfortable with hardware than networking, I'm trying to figure out what's causing this. I contacted my ISP about replacing the modem, but they said it might be a simple fix if the issue continues. By the time a technician arrives, the problem could still be active. Any advice would be greatly appreciated—I really need stable internet for gaming after work!

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samigurl0903
Senior Member
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603
11-10-2023, 06:57 PM
#2
The modem might be the issue, as some ISPs have had their modems tampered with before causing odd behavior. I've noticed a router set to auto negotiate at 100 causing problems. For cable modems, a damaged cord entering the building was the cause—its crimped connection would occasionally spike pings. You could try running tracert, similar to what I do by tracing to google and saving the output. If you see a ping spike, it helps pinpoint the problem. For example, at a data center I experienced over 100 ms pings; tracing revealed the issue was with the eastern connection route. When I contacted the ISP, they explained a trunk problem. Running extended ping tests and exporting results can provide evidence of recurring issues, and there are tools that log pings and graph them along with packet loss.
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samigurl0903
11-10-2023, 06:57 PM #2

The modem might be the issue, as some ISPs have had their modems tampered with before causing odd behavior. I've noticed a router set to auto negotiate at 100 causing problems. For cable modems, a damaged cord entering the building was the cause—its crimped connection would occasionally spike pings. You could try running tracert, similar to what I do by tracing to google and saving the output. If you see a ping spike, it helps pinpoint the problem. For example, at a data center I experienced over 100 ms pings; tracing revealed the issue was with the eastern connection route. When I contacted the ISP, they explained a trunk problem. Running extended ping tests and exporting results can provide evidence of recurring issues, and there are tools that log pings and graph them along with packet loss.

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