Intermittent ping spikes / download drops every 5 - 30 minutes

[#1]

This is something that's been driving me crazy for a while now. It's mostly noticeable in games with rubber banding, packet loss, ping jumping all the way up to 4000ms, etc. It's also noticeable if I try to load up a webpage or video at the same time that one of these spikes are happening as my download speed drops to mere bytes as well, but my connection will never fully drop.

The spikes last approximately 3 - 5 seconds before my speeds and ping return to normal again and seem to happen every 5 - 30 minutes. It makes me think it's an issue with the router / ISP doing an update or check of some kind as it can happen at any time during the day or night, although during the day is slightly more frequent than night time. I've checked the logs on the router and can't pinpoint anything that coincides with the time of a ping spike and any device connected to it all experience the same issue, whether on 2.4ghz or 5ghz.

My normal ping range is around 21ms outside of these spikes and is incredibly stable.

This is only WiFi. I'm currently waiting on a 20 meter ethernet cable order online to be able to see if the issue is confined to just WiFi, but I am curious as to what could be causing this as it's very consistent and predictable.

[#2]

@GhostPants  Welcome to the Plusnet Community Fora.

This could be co channel interference from a neighbours WiFi or another device on your network. You have not told us what speed you are getting, whatever it is, you can only usr that bandwidth once . Let us know how you get on when you have tested over the Ethernet cable. Switch off the device WiFi when testing.

[#3]

A 20 meter cable suggests working at some distance ( too far even ) from the Wi-Fi Router.

The long network cable plus a Wireless Access Point would deliver good coverage to another part of the building.

[#4]

That's just for my main pc, any device, even one right next to it will still have this issue. I'm directly above it in a room upstairs

[#5]

Cable seems to have fixed the issue, there's no spikes anymore so it's clearly some interference going on like you said.

I've tried switching everything off in the house and moving to different uncrowded channels on the router settings but none of this seemed to work for WiFi. Haven't a clue what it could be. It's definitely something manmade causing the issue though as the spikes are consistent, persistent and predictable.

I have full fibre 145mb.

[#6]

Does the problem exist on both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands? Have you tried forcing your connection on to one then the other by switching each band off in turn in the router settings?

The fact that it's happening across all channels suggests that it's wide band noise being produced by something like a poorly suppressed electrical device starting or stopping. Typical sources of such interference are motorised appliances such as a fridge or freezer. Can you correlate the noise with any such domestic appliances in your ptoperty. Also, spark generators as used in central heating boilers and other gas appliances. 

[#7]

Yes it's on both 2.4 and 5ghz.

It could be the boiler actually as that is directly between where most of my devices are, but it shouldn't affect other devices that are right next to the router as they're not blocked by it surely?

Yes I've tried both bands manually as well as all the channels, all have the same result.

[#8]

@GhostPants 

It's going milder this week, so switch the boiler off and see if the problem goes away. Unless you can actually hear it starting when you have a drop then that’s the only way that you will eliminate such potential sources. The fact that other devices are not in a direct line of site between the router and device is irrelevant. EMI radiates in all directions.

[#9]

On the assumption that the router is a Plusnet Hub 2 I would also set up a ThinkBroadband monitor.

Instructions in this thread

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Plusnet-Hub-2-for-ThinkBroadband-BQM/td-p/1972981

The key bit (thanks Pob Pullen) 

Log into the Hub Manager at http://192.168.1.254, navigate to Advanced > Firewall > Configuration. There's a toggle in there for allowing ICMP/Ping. Enable it and save the changes.

Your IP address won't remain the same for ever but will hopefully do so for long enough to get an idea of connection stability.

It does sound like WiFi interference but this will help to confirm that assumption.