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This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

dannyboy1121
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

I've noticed over the last couple of months that my  XBONE connection to the Destiny servers always shows me with the worst possible connection in any online match (using Ethernet not wireless connection). Every night, I play with gamers up and down the country who have good connections to the game servers - and there's me with my Plusnet account red lining and lagging all over the place.

It feels to me that my ADSL is either congested in the evenings or I'm getting shaped like hell. I've applied QOS (fq-codel) to traffic on my router and even put in complex bandwidth limiting and prioritisation policies in case other users are causing congestion on my own network. To no avail.

I spoke to support earlier today who were dismissive, and I have to say that I'm disappointed as I rarely badger support for help. I'm left wondering if Plusnet is the wrong provider to use for gaming? i.e. more of a generic service provider).

I'd appreciate advice / tips on how to rectify this issue.

7 REPLIES 7
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,839
Thanks: 9,487
Fixes: 155
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

Please use the following links to check the services available and their estimated speeds. From the first link, please record and report back the distance from the exchange. The second link advises of which fibre services (if any) are available on your line and their anticipated speed.


 

Please post your router stats; for PN TG582n and 2704n routers use the buttons below, for other routers look at the Kitz link.

Also run a BT Wholesale speed test (ideally using an Ethernet wired PC with the WiFi turned off) then run the further diagnostics and post the results here. DO NOT REBOOT the router!

Also find your CURRENT SPEED (PlusNet line profile) from the PlusNet user portal - you will need to log in.


 

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

dannyboy1121
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

Many thanks for the response.

 

Distance from exchange - 963m direct or 1.5 km by road.

 

I'm using a Netgear modem with an Edgemax Lite router so I suspect I'll need to get to the modem to grab line stats recorded this end. I doubt I'll get time to do this today.

 

Phone exchange:

> Estimated line speed:10Mb (This may vary between 9.5Mb and 10.5Mb) - Checked on 2017-02-25 16:45:22

> Current line speed:12.9 Mb

 

 

dannyboy1121
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

Okay - thanks for your patience ... here's the science bit (attached).

 

Interesting that I sync at near 14 Mbps ... because the most I ever see on my line is 11 Mbps with Ethernet connected speed tests software.

 

I'm sure errors are normal but it's not clear to me whether any of these are above a given threshold. I'd expect Plusnet to have picked this up if any were. Interestingly, since posting this message, I've had much better gaming latency (after a few months of awful connections). I have changed one thing at my end around the same time; rather than rate limit the wireless VLAN on the router and set priority and bandwidth for the wired (gaming) LAN, I pushed back the throttling of wireless to an attached switch so it's capped before it gets to the router.

Whether it's this or something else, I'm not sure. If I get time I'll revert the change and see if the problem comes back again then post up here for the sake of completeness.

 

 

 

 

 

Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,839
Thanks: 9,487
Fixes: 155
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming


@dannyboy1121 wrote:

Interesting that I sync at near 14 Mbps ... because the most I ever see on my line is 11 Mbps with Ethernet connected speed tests software.

OK A little bit of an explanation to shape expectations...

There is SYNCH speed, IP profile speed and then there is DATA speed.

Synch Speed speaks for its self - it is the raw bit rate between your router and the exchange.

IP profile speed is the MAXIMUM rather at which information can be transferred - in the case of ADSL2 that is 88% of the raw bit synch speed.

In the case of the information you have posted, an IP profile of 12.9Mbps would imply a SYNCH speed of 14.65Mbps which ties in with your suggestion of the normal synch speed.

To transfer DATA you need approximately 10 bits of raw synch per 8 bits of data to allow for bytes error correction and messaging over heads.  So a profile of 12.9Mbps will at the most deliver a 11.7Mbps DATA transfer rate.

So far all the figures appear to stack up.  HOWEVER, the error rates look rather high to me.

@CRT - what does the error profile look like to you guys please?

 

The current line rate is way above the estimate for the line, so it might be difficult to get BTOR to accept a fault report ... though the synch speed shown in the above screen grabs is somewhat low for the reported attenuation.

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

MatthewWheeler
Plusnet Help Team
Plusnet Help Team
Posts: 8,896
Thanks: 1,506
Fixes: 480
Registered: ‎01-01-2012

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

Sorry to hear you're having issues.

Our tests aren't showing any issues on your line and whilst there are some errors there aren't enough to cause the sort of problems you've been seeing.

There's no capacity issues reported in your area either.

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Matthew Wheeler
 Plusnet Help Team
dannyboy1121
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎19-05-2013

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming

Thanks for looking in to this.

 

This is one of those 'I was convinced' threads .... where a sudden change in performance made me suspect line or congestion issues. However, performance has improved by a) moving away from bandwidth limiting on the router b) simply throttling the bandwidth that wireless could consume using rate limiting on the switch the WAP attaches to. 

 

I'm suspecting that the rate limiting function on the router doesn't work as well as I'd like and that it's introducing latency under load.

 

 

Snooping on the traffic seems to show that Netflix / Amazon Prime usage is hogging download bandwidth and worse still, iPhone iCloud sync (photos etc) absolutely obliterated available upload bandwidth. The latter goes on for ages and is merciless in its quest to consume every last byte of bandwidth.

 

 

tl;dr - It's not the broadband connection.

 

 

legume
Rising Star
Posts: 179
Thanks: 12
Registered: ‎21-07-2013

Re: This broadband connection sucks for online gaming


dannyboy1121 wrote:

I'm suspecting that the rate limiting function on the router doesn't work as well as I'd like and that it's introducing latency under load.

 


ADSL connections are a bit special when it comes to setting up QOS, you need to allow for atm overheads properly.

 

It's likely that the ubiquiti can do this in theory, but you may need to use cli and special commands - but then I don't have one so can't say anything really ....