Poor latency at peak times
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Poor latency at peak times
26-11-2018 5:58 PM - edited 26-11-2018 6:11 PM
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My eldest child has been ranting about his poor online gaming experience - lagging and freezing in games like Fifa and Fortnite. I ran a ping test (1 per second) over ~1 week and analysed the latency times to see if there was a pattern. There certainly was!
The attached graph shows the number of pings (in 1 hour) within certain latency bands:
- 25 - 50ms
- 50 - 100ms
- 100 - 200ms
- >200ms
The graph shows a big variation in latency during the day, with the peaks coinciding with the poor online gaming experience.
Is this typical for Plusnet broadband??? If so, I think we'll need to switch.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
27-11-2018 11:00 AM - edited 27-11-2018 3:18 PM
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Hi there.
Our tests are showing a potential line fault on the Openreach network, so I'd recommend contacting whoever provides your phone line to investigate this further as it's likely to be the underlying cause of any broadband problems.
Let us know if you continue to have issues following that being fixed and we'll be happy to investigate further.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
27-11-2018 11:04 AM
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Hi - thanks for the response. Plusnet provides both our phone and broadband. The latency has been bad for some time now (several months).
Re: Poor latency at peak times
27-11-2018 11:11 AM
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Re: Poor latency at peak times
27-11-2018 3:20 PM
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Thanks for the private message.
I've tested your line this time, and the tests aren't showing any issues.
Is the device your child is gaming on connecting over WiFi or using a wired connection?
If they're wired can you run a traceroute to pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com posting up the results please?
Re: Poor latency at peak times
29-11-2018 5:16 PM
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Please find attached the output from traceroute taken at 16:29 today when the latency was particularly bad (my son was practically in tears trying to play Fortnite).
The latency over 10 consecutive traceroutes is pretty bad...
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 167.974 ms 167.900 ms 167.830 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 31.521 ms 52.194 ms 20.503 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 18.250 ms 19.310 ms 11.538 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 17.522 ms 18.229 ms 10.606 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 110.706 ms 160.933 ms 105.650 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 95.679 ms 95.619 ms 158.234 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 63.987 ms 63.867 ms 63.796 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 26.570 ms 74.582 ms 49.159 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 22.876 ms 22.815 ms 16.068 ms
9 pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com (80.249.99.164) 121.464 ms 121.381 ms 75.792 ms
Interestingly, it looks like the Plusnet router itself is struggling:
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 15.562 ms 14.466 ms 14.266 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 26.300 ms 52.069 ms 10.511 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 1.318 ms 12.107 ms 12.027 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 2.111 ms 12.316 ms 12.230 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 101.655 ms 101.569 ms 101.496 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 1.100 ms 153.533 ms 153.457 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 5.600 ms 2.112 ms 88.513 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 21.128 ms 20.993 ms 20.914 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 2.512 ms 11.085 ms 11.024 ms
1 dsldevice.lan (192.168.1.254) 180.715 ms 180.607 ms 180.510 ms
I'm running a script to collect and analyse the latency over ~1 week. It's only 2 days in, but the latency was so bad I had to send something. Will follow up with an analysis of latency wrt time of day for the full capture.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 10:28 AM
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Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 10:31 AM
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Hi - wired connection directly into the back of the Plusnet router.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 2:58 PM
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Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 3:02 PM
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Yes, easily replicated across multiple devices.
Full traceroute output attached to earlier post.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 4:58 PM
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Here's some further analysis which highlights the problem of high latency at peak times.
Just to explain my setup - the data was collected by running traceroute continuously from a PC connected directly into the Plusnet router via a wired connection. The Plusnet router is connected to the wall socket to minimise any internal cabling.
The four graphs below show a rolling average of the number of times latency is > 50ms. The four graphs represent points along the connection:
my PC -> dsldevice.lan (Plusnet router) -> sheff.dial.plus.net.uk -> telehouse.ukcore.bt.net -> pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com
The graphs show that the Plusnet router has the occasional wobble. Generally, I would just use the Plusnet router for the broadband connection and have another device behind it as the WiFi AP, due to performance limitations with the Plusnet router. However, in this case, I wanted to keep the setup as simple as possible.
The sheff.dial.plus.net.uk, telehouse.ukcore.bt.net and pingbox1.thinkbroadband.com plots clearly indicate a significant spike in latency between ~4pm and ~9pm, and also in the morning, ~7am to 9am. The correlation between the graphs suggest the main problem is between the Plusnet router and the sheff.dial.plus.net.uk, i.e. in the Plusnet broadband access network.
COME ON PLUSNET, PLEASE SORT THIS OUT.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 5:58 PM
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What router do you have? Do the times of poor latency correspond to higher usage of the Internet on your line?
The Hub Zero (Sagemcom 2704N) had a problem with very bad latency while uploading. I don't know if it ever got fixed in a firmware update, although I've not seen anyone complain about it recently.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
30-11-2018 6:22 PM
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We have a Plusnet Hub One, Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.237.2.2.
We (or the children) only notice the latency when gaming online. I would say the overall internet usage is no higher at these times than others.
Throughput is generally good (~30Mbps down) most of the time, although we have had occasional problems in the evenings with buffering when streaming video.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
01-12-2018 12:59 PM
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Thanks for the provided graphs.
From checking them against your usage logs there's more usage at these times than others which will cause any latency tests to show a higher response time as your router will be focusing on processing your traffic rather than responding to any tests.
Re: Poor latency at peak times
01-12-2018 3:32 PM
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REALLY???
I'm unclear what your response is trying to say. That the Plusnet router cannot cope with online gaming and moderate internet usage??? What was our average throughput during these times?
The traceroute traffic will be transparent to the Plusnet router (apart from the initial round with TTL=1). Therefore, the latency experienced will be representative of that experienced by all our internet traffic.
The graphs above suggest the problem is more likely to be between the Plusnet router and sheff.dial.plus.net.uk, i.e. in the local loop, or between the DSLAM and edge of Plusnet's core IP network.
We tried watching an Amazon Prime film yesterday evening but had to give up because the buffering was so bad.
I'm really disappointed by your response. I have provided you with detailed stats over the last 5 days, highlighting the latency issue and you have done nothing.
Basically, is your service fit for purpose for online gaming or not?
My next test will be to setup port mirroring on the switch behind the Plusnet router to measure the internet usage myself, and to compare this with the latency.
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