Awkward issues with my connection and WiFi

[#1]

Hi,

I don't know what happened and why. Since I am a gamer, I mostly focus on my upload speed and ping (MS) but lately my ping has been playing up. Basically, it shows that I have 23-30 ms but my game is still lagging (my character is telleporting all over the place and I have no control over the movement) and it happens on both my PC and xbox. Another issue I am having is the WiFi.. all of my devices that use WiFi keep disconnecting and connecting from and to the router and sometimes it just wouldn't work at all for a good half an hour.

I reported this issue to PlusNet and they've been testing my connection but everything seems to be fine from their end. My guessing is that my router is faulty and fails to send the required amount of data across my platforms. I might be wrong and I don't know what do to. Hopefully someone can give me an answer and point me in the right direction.

Thank you in advance.

[#2]

Thanks for your post @robert2601.

We're sincerely sorry to hear that this issue is ongoing.

Can you confirm how your PC and Xbox (good choice) are connected to the router? Are you using Ethernet or wireless connections?

[#3]

Buy yourself a better router if you're using the PN ONE.
Also ensure you give Routers 2 frequency bands, DIFFERENT SSID's.

[#4]

Hi. 

Sorry I took sooooo long, I honestly forgot about having to reply.

To answer your question, anything that I game on is connected with an ethernat cable. Only my TV, laptop and our phones are connected to the Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is terrible and it just wouldn't work and the ethernet connection is doing its weird thing so.. It's a lose lose. I am looking into buying a new router and see if that is better. I tried contacting customer services about this and asked them if it's possible to change the router but they refused to do so and I don't know why.. 

Thank you and I am very sorry I took so long to reply

[#5]

Hi @robert2601,

I've replaced the Hub One you currently have, but this will also be a Hub One (we don't supply any other hardware). When that arrives (if you don't supply your own hardware). Make sure to split the SSIDs as @Gel has advised to prevent any wireless issues. A guide on this can be found here.

[#6]

Hi @JOLO 

Thank you very much   Maybe the router is just giving up.. it can happen... I split the SSIDs and will test my Wi-Fi in the next couple of days until the new router is here. I have the router connected in the testing socket since I also have issues with my ping (ms) in games. It basically says I have 32-45ms but I still have lag spikes. My ping goes up to 200-400 for a few seconds then goes back to normal. Sometimes it doesn't even go up to 200-400 but it does the same thing. I sometimes create a temeporary server so I can play with my friends and all of us have this issue. As soon as I join my friend's server, it's only me that has this awkwardness going on. Maybe it really is the router but we are about to find out. 

I will update you on the situation but allow me to test it first, about one week. 

Thank you very much for the help it's a shame I have this unexplainable issue.. I honestly like Plusnet. 

Have a great day. 

[#7]

Hi @robert2601 cheers for getting back to us and thanks for the update.

Let us know how it goes once you've got your new router and you've tried it out, fingers crossed that sorts it!

[#8]

Hi there,

So it's been a few months now and I said I will come back to you. With that being said, I've been testing my internet in every possible way. It did fix some issues like my wi-fi is finally working properly and it doesn't randomly disconnect. But.. unfortunately my the HIGH MS and LAG SPIKES never dissapeared. It's not as bad as it used to be honestly but it's still there and I got to a point wher I have no idea what I could possibly do in order to get rid of this issue. Sometimes I get annoyed because I pay £33 every month just so that I can lose when I am playing competitive and lose money because of that. I am sure there is something going on, maybe cables or certain settings or something. I have no clue. 

In general, the replacement of my router did help and made life easier at a certain extent. But the problem that I wanted to fix inittially didn't get totally fixed. 

Next thing I might do is buy a router, not from Plusnet. Maybe that would fix every issue. 

Thank you very much for your help, it did help me a lot. Looking forward for your reply.

Robert.

[#9]

Hi @robert2601,

Thank you for letting us know how things are going. I'm glad to hear that your connection has improved with the new router, though it's a shame that you're still seeing intermittent lag spikes.

I've tested your line but the test isn't picking up any problems from here at the moment:

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID	BBEUXXXXXXXX

Test Outcome	Pass
Test Outcome Code	GTC_FTTC_SERVICE_0000
Description	GEA service test completed and no fault found .
Main Fault Location	OK
Sync Status	In Sync
Downstream Speed	79.9 Mbps
Upstream Speed	20.0 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Bridge Tap	Not Detected
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	482.3
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Interference Pattern	Not Detected
Service Impact	No Impact Observed
Home Wiring Problem	Not Detected
Downstream Policing Discard Rate	0.0
Customer Traffic Level	Upstream and Downstream Traffic Detected
Technology	VDSL
Current 15Min Bin Retrains	0
Last 15Min Bin Retrains	0
DP Type	External
Profile Name	0.128M-80M Downstream 3dB, Retransmission Low - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2019-12-01T15:30:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps	79.9 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps	19.9 Mbps
Up Time	2.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	899.0 Sec
Retrains	0.0	1.0	0.0

Current and Last 15 Minute Bin Performance
Parameters	Last Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)	Current Traffic Count(Upto 15 mins)
Start Time Stamp	2019-12-14T15:02:52Z	2019-12-14T15:17:52Z
Ingress Code Violation	0	0
Egress Code Violation	0	0
Errored Seconds	0	0
Severely Errored Seconds	0	0
Unavailable Seconds	0	0

Is the current issue solely affecting wireless connections or are wired connections affected too?

[#10]

Hi @EmilyD 

It's my wired connection that is being affected by these lag spikes. I don't know about Wi-Fi because I don't game or stream using Wi-Fi connection. Sometimes I have 32 MS but I still experience PKT LOSS or sometimes my MS just fluxuates too much, goes from 52 to 120 and then goes back down causing PKT LOSS. 

Then I check the server status of the game I am playing and everyting seems to be working perfectly, I also ask my friends about their experience and for them everything is working fine (some of them live near me and they don't experience lag spikes even though we are on the same server).

But in general, it's my wired connection that's affected.  

[#11]

@robert2601 

To try and isolate this issue, can you try/answer the following...

Turn off all Wifi devices and see if the issue is resolved.

Is there a pattern to the lag spikes, ie evening/morning?

What ISP's are your game playing friends on, and are they all on the same exchange and on the same dsalm cabinet?

(use the

www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/ADSLChecker.welcome 

checker to determine this)

[#12]

Hi there,

I didn't want to reply because after that message, the problem seemed to go away again (temporarly). 

Every SpeedTest that I do says I have a stable and strong connection with 7 to 15 ping (ms). But in game, my ping goes from 23 to 120 and then back; and then it does this awkward thing over and over again.

I noticed it does have a pattern but it's, then again, awkward because it works just fine for about one month then for the second month I get lag spikes. So there's a time when this issue occures. 

With that being said, some of my friends are Virgin Media, some are on Sky and I have a couple of friends that are on Plusnet (and they don't have this issue; they actually say it's the best ISP they have ever been with). Which makes me believe that there's something going on either on my end or at your end but neither of us can figure it out since everything comes out positive, is in like perfect without issues. 

[#13]

@robert2601 

In my previous reply to you, I suggested 

Turn off all Wifi devices and see if the issue is resolved.

This was to determine if WiFi traffic from your devices is causeing an issue as the router may not have

sufficent processing power. This test hopefully will rule that out.

Ideally disabling the WiFi by logging into the router and turning it off, ensuring it is then actually off (ie TV/phone etc cannot access the internet)

Is there a pattern to the lag spikes, ie evening/morning?

This test was to identify if there may be a congestion issue in the exchange or DSLAM.

For example in the evenings, or weekends when more users are on the internet.

Note the times if possible.

[#14]

@dws1900 

Hi there. 

I did turn off all Wifi devices and it didn't change anything. 

But, I did some testing on my own. I don't know how much of a help it would be but yea.. here goes nothing.

I used CMD to PING my PC's connection to internet by typing "PING <my geteway> -t " and the result was a perfect and constant 1MS (which is expected); then, I used CMD again to PINT my connection to a google server by typing "PING 8.8.8.8 -t" and it was exactly my problem, it shows 11ms for a few seconds and then it goes up to 240ms then goes back down to 11ms. I will attach some pictures as well. 

[#15]

@robert2601 

Usually the gateway address, probably 192.168.1.254 if you havnt changed the settings, and is the routers address, so 1ms would be fine as its in your property.

Ideally ping or tracerouting to an address at plusnet to test initially, if thats ok then try an address external to plusnet, preferably the game server. Use traceroute command, or a gui based alternative to try and locate the problem.