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Latency Issues When Gaming

FIXED
MarkBally
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎23-06-2019

Latency Issues When Gaming

Our family has been having problems with our internet for the past few months and opened a ticket and after consultation was advised to post here on the community forums. Our sons are into online gaming and we watch a lot of on demand TV. The problem is that the more bandwidth we use the higher latency my sons receive while gaming, and before even with everyone using the internet they had no problems.

Our sons use power line adaptors to hard wire into the router although we have tested the issue directly connected via ether into the router on multiple computers and the problem still occurs. We have also replaced the router, tried using a micro adaptor instead of our bt main socket, changed the wifi channel, and created a 5 Ghz connection. We were told after multiple tests that the line was stable and working correctly. 

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks, Mark.

6 REPLIES 6
steveocee
Rising Star
Posts: 62
Thanks: 11
Fixes: 2
Registered: ‎30-05-2018

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

What you are describing is normal. Latency will always increase as bandwidth use increases as packets that are in excess of bandwidth amount are queued (or in extreme cases dropped totally).

You could look at a router with a QoS and prioritising packet types or devices however you then have to decide on a pecking order for your family (good luck with that).

Out of interest what speeds do you get? A "normal" 80/20 really shouldn't be having this kind of problem as gaming uses such a small amount of bandwidth and streaming really shouldn't be that much it affects gaming in the way you describe.

www.steveocee.co.uk
OskarPapa
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,325
Fixes: 65
Registered: ‎09-10-2018

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

HI @MarkBally, thanks for your post.

 

We're sorry to hear of this latency issue.

 

The first thing I'd note is that whilst power line adaptors look great on paper, they can actually introduce a fair bit of interference due to the fact that the line is being utilised for electricity as well as your signal.

 

On checking the line, I'm able to see a few errored seconds but nothing that should really be causing issues - although I am showing a 1113.8m line length which could potentially be a cause of any slowdowns.

 

Are you able to confirm for me the speeds you're seeing via your wired Ethernet connections? For reference, we're showing that the router is currently receiving 36.4mbps which is well within what we'd expect to see on your 40/10 connection.

 

Are you experiencing issues with your streaming as well as the latency issue for gaming?

 

As you say it's been tested on multiple computers, can you confirm how many devices you'd usually have connected at once?

MarkBally
Newbie
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎23-06-2019

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

Hello @OskarPapa, thank you for the swift reply.

 

For streaming videos there is no problems there as we are all able to stream videos at 1080p, the only problem we have from it is when our sons want to do online gaming. As for the devices we will use at maximum which will be during the evening we will have 2 desktop computers and a Now TV box. Although the problem still occurs if one of the computers is trying to play a game and stream a video at the same time.

 

Like I mentioned above we have tested using direct ethernet to the router and the problem still occurs. We receive speeds normally of about 32/7 which has been the case for since we got this package.

 

However, what I don't understand is how we have absolutely no problems with this for years, then a few months ago after us not making any habit or hardware changes this problem begins. Could there have been any changes around that time from the plusnet side?

 

My son made a gif showing how different amounts of internet usage affects his latency in game which will be attached below.

 

Thank you for your input, Mark.

BD
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 1,359
Fixes: 86
Registered: ‎24-04-2017

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

Fix

Hi @MarkBally, thanks for getting back to us. I can confirm there's been no changes that have occurred either on your account or with your connection that I can see when checking this side which would explain the latency you're seeing. Having said that, as @steveocee kindly pointed out, latency to occur when you use the connection is a fairly normal thing we see. I'd perhaps suggest trying another device that's streaming when gaming to see if the same latency issue returns. This being that the NowTV, how it's connected and how it streams the videos could be different from say a youtube video streaming at 1080 and this could give us a little insight as to what's causing it.
One thing I'd also recommend looking into is our pro addon which allows gaming traffic to have higher priority as opposed to the standard default as with the rest of traffic.
https://www.plus.net/help/broadband/about-plusnet-pro-addon/

jemd3
Newbie
Posts: 4
Registered: ‎24-09-2017

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

Hi,

We have been having issues for the last four five months with Latency when my son is gaming and my daughter is watching Netflix.  It has been so bad that my son has been kicked off some sites as they think he is trying to cheat!!  Sadly BT have been out to check my line and nothing found, but they do check durring the day and our issues only seem to be around after 1700.  That is when my son wants to play and my daughter wants to watch Netflix.

I have just added the Pro-Addon to my subscription to see if this resolves the latency issues we have.  I am on Fiber unlimited extra Broadband.

TheMightyAJ
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 2,511
Fixes: 126
Registered: ‎26-03-2018

Re: Latency Issues When Gaming

Hi @jemd3,

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues. Having tested your line today, nothing appears to be wrong from a connection perspective - with no recent drops and a speed of 76.5Mbps download and 20Mbps upload going into the property. Based on this and what you've stated in your own post I would say that this is most likely an issue between your son's computer/console and the server that he's trying to connect to. Of course, when you've got multiple devices doing multiple things, then you might see this reflected in your internet usage.

One thing I would recommend is to try and get your sons gaming device connected to the router via an Ethernet cable as this will allow for a more stable and consistent connection than Wi-Fi in most instances.

If this post resolved your issue please click the 'This fixed my problem' button
 Alex H
 Plusnet Help Team