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Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

aaroninky
Hooked
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎11-09-2016

Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Seeing as I didn't get a response to my enquiry 3 months ago, and that the problem is still present, I would like to know:

 

10 minutes after I join a game my pings of 15-20 spike and STAY at around 120. This is making gaming all but unplayable for me. Am I being traffic shaped or throttled? Please let me know as there is absolutely no excuse for broadband Internet not to handle modest gaming in the evenings.

27 REPLIES 27
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Does this happen on all games, or one in particular?

Does the game upload a lot of data/stream to somewhere?

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
aaroninky
Hooked
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎11-09-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Hi Chris, my thanks for the speedy response.

It happens across all games, most noticeably in FPS due to the need for low latency. No major upstream or downstream spikes (I use a net graph in game to map this). It seems to be conditional on time of day: anything from 5pm to 9pm and my ping will jump up to 120–150 after 10 minutes play. I do get 10 minutes of reliable gameplay before the spike, which assures me I'm not connecting to faulty or distant servers.

Around 10pm and after the pings are great – I can play on UK servers with a consistent latency of 15ms, which is certainly as good as I'd expect from any fibre connection, let alone my basic broadbent package.
Chris
Legend
Posts: 17,724
Thanks: 600
Fixes: 169
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Testing your line isn't showing anything too concerning, the mean time between errors on the download is lower than I'd like to see though:

 
  Upstream DSL Link Information Downstream DSL Link Information
Loop Loss: 17.3 32.0
SNR Margin: 6.0 5.8
Errored Seconds: 0 9
HEC Errors: 0  
Cell Count: 6784 8215
Speed: 1195 12180
 
Maximum Stable Rate (KBPS): 11360 Fault Threshold Rate (KBPS): 9088
Mean Time Between Retrains (Seconds): 86400 Mean Time Between Errors Upstream (Seconds): 375
Indicative Line Quality: A Mean Time Between Errors Downstream (Seconds): 56

 

If you pick up the phone handset, dial 17070 and run the quiet line test is there any noise, hissing or crackling?

 

Are you connected over wired or wireless?

Former Plusnet Staff member. Posts after 31st Jan 2020 are not on behalf of Plusnet.
aaroninky
Hooked
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎11-09-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Hi Chris,

 

I do normally get decent download and upload speeds, yes, considering it's the basic broadband package. I am less than half a mile from my local exchange and I am the only person using the connection. 

 

I am using a wired connection and no discernible noise or crackling on the line using your test.

 

The pings were fine again this afternoon and evening, from 3pm->7:30pm. However, as of the time of writing, the lowest ping I can get to a UK or NL-based server is 120–150ms. I surmise it will be this way until about 10pm this evening. It seems to be either some sort of peak-time traffic shaping on your part or a serious problem with local exchange capacity. 

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Hi

Can you let us know what this says you are on?

http://usertools.plus.net/@gateway/

 

Also do you have any IPs of the games you get the spikes on? I've been playing a fair bit of bf4 recently and not had problems (even though my overall throughput is half what it should be)

thanks

Stim
Hooked
Posts: 9
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎31-12-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Hi there,


Same issue for me. Looks like some sort of dodgy routing or traffic shaping.

 

I've attached a screenshot of a server browser within BF1. As you can see, ping to dutch servers is an issue. Pings consistently 110-130ms.

 

From gateway:

Which gateway

You are currently connected to gateway psb-bng03.

This is located in Southbank Point of Presence.

backler87
Hooked
Posts: 8
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎31-12-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

I'm having the exact same problem at this very moment, and it's been intermittent over the past few days (maybe longer). It looks as though there is something wrong with the hop from BT->i3d (who host all the BF1 servers), the below trace is typical of any server:

 

 

Capture.PNG

aaroninky
Hooked
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎11-09-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Thanks for the responses – good to know it's not necessarily confined to my line or set-up.

 

For the record, my ping problems are in Quake Live and Counter Strike, not a Battlefield game, but I imagine the game/port in question could be pretty immaterial here.

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

The fact the traceroute is spiking where it is usually means a bad link between the two - congestion, faulty link etc or with the size in jump and no packetloss looks more like i3d routing traffic back via their us peering 😕

As the peering is with BT will need plusnet to raise a fault to be to get i3d to fix probably.

Any staff on that can raise an incident?!
MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?


So BT trace from friend looks good, so likely to be still fault link as goes a different path or a routing issue to all or some plusnet ips

Traceroute to 31.204.143.22 (31.204.143.22), 64 hops max.
1 bthub (192.168.1.254) time=12 ms
2 *
3 31.55.186.177 (31.55.186.177) time=15 ms
4 31.55.186.184 (31.55.186.184) time=8 ms
5 core3-hu0-16-0-3.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (195.99.127.198) time=19 ms
6 peer1-xe0-0-0.faraday.ukcore.bt.net (213.121.193.161) time=15 ms
7 20ge.linx-jnpr.th-n.i3d.net (195.66.225.146) time=16 ms
8 20ge.cr1-lr0.smartdc.rtm.i3d.net (109.200.218.173) time=16 ms
9 100ge.br3-cr1.smartdc.rtm.i3d.net (109.200.218.245) time=17 ms
10 hosted-by.i3d.net (31.204.143.22) time=16 ms
*** Traceroute at destination ***
backler87
Hooked
Posts: 8
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎31-12-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

Something has changed as it's now come down to around 30-40ms. Still double what it "normally" is though!

 


Capture2.PNG

aaroninky
Hooked
Posts: 6
Registered: ‎11-09-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

I should reiterate that my ping spikes only during 'peak times'. As with my first post, normally around dinner time and up until about 9pm. 

MrSilver
Pro
Posts: 550
Thanks: 82
Fixes: 9
Registered: ‎05-10-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

At non peak times i3d is now ok for me.
This is over wifi

4 be3-3104.psb-ir01.plus.net (195.166.143.136) time=29 ms
5 195.99.125.134 (195.99.125.134) time=17 ms
6 peer1-et-2-1-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net (62.172.103.25) time=10 ms
7 *
8 20ge.cr1-lr0.smartdc.rtm.i3d.net (109.200.218.173) time=36 ms
9 100ge.br3-cr1.smartdc.rtm.i3d.net (109.200.218.245) time=28 ms
10 hosted-by.i3d.net (31.204.143.22) time=17 ms
*** Traceroute at destination ***

Will try multiplay tonight
alan666
Grafter
Posts: 64
Thanks: 4
Registered: ‎26-08-2016

Re: Ping spiking - am I being throttled?

I am playing xbox one black ops 3 and infinity warfare, wired connection and suffering with 153 ms Sad download speed 55-60 up 18 but the game is playing terrible