Regular latency spikes

[#1]

My connection has been like this for a long time now.  Hasn't really been a problem until I started using GeforeNow which needs a more stable connection.  I tried Stadia as well and it's pretty much unusable.  Is there any reason for this?

Graph attached

[#2]

Hi @_Jim_, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you're having performance issues as of recent. I can see when checking over your connection from this side we're seeing 67Mbps download and 20Mbps upload reaching your router with no signs of errors or underlying issues which would explain the performance issues you've been seeing.
I'd advise then firstly to try the GeforceNow on a wired device first of all so we can determine whether it's a wireless related issue behind the performance issues you've seen.

Should the performance issues look to stop when connected with a wired device then It's fair to assume that wireless interference is behind the ping spikes and performance issues you've seen. I can't currently see which router you're using so if it's one of ours then please let us know what the make/model advises on the back and we then can provide some steps which should help in improving the wireless performance seen.

Coming from a gaming background myself I can't stress enough how gaming (unlike streaming that can buffer ahead or browsing that can load bits at a time) needs a constant connection so it can transfer small packets of data forward and back updating the game/server as to what actions your doing. This meaning wireless which can be interfered by a huge number of things isn't ideal for gaming and I'd always suggest a wired connection over Ethernet cable for a solid constant connection and if a trailing Ethernet cable isn't ideal to look into power line adapters as they use a houses electric wiring to transfer a much more solid signal.

I hope this helps and please let us know how it goes.
 

[#3]

Hi @BD,
Unfortunately I'm already on a hardwired connection. I do have a really old add-on for my plusnet account that's supposed to prioritise my traffic. No idea if that even still has an effect any more.

[#4]

Did you start seeing this latency around 21st May? I've had a long-running fault open for a similar issue. My main issue is with my work connection getting up to 10 seconds (yes, no exaggeration) of latency reported from our Citrix servers. I don't use GeForce Now but I do game, and also see the issue while gaming.

After some investigation I found that there are some bad hops from Plusnet to certain London-based service providers. I have been able to somewhat mitigate the issue by using NordVPN. Once I am connected to the VPN my latency smooths out a lot, though it does still spike a little.

Does GeForce Now allow you to connect to different servers? I've also found that connecting to a server somewhere other than London helps (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris etc). While not ideal, at least it's a workaround to try for now.

I recorded these latency graphs from Path of Exile earlier this evening as a demonstration of my issue. Both while connected to the London server, the top one "vanilla" via Plusnet, the bottom one via NordVPN - https://imgur.com/a/WSEBmUL

[#5]

There definitely something very weird going on. I have a post here
https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Massive-packet-loss-world-of-tanks-EU1-and-2/td-p/1822...
That is actually similar symptoms to me. The in game indicator is reporting packet loss and poor connection quality. Again can more or less be solved by using a vpn to reroute. Sadly that’s not an ideal solution. I was with plusnet about 5-6 years ago and ended leaving after spending 5 weeks and many many tech support calls and posts trying to diagnose the problem. Eventually I just gave up and left. The connection although 8 meg slower than sky has been great for 18 months until recently.

It will no doubt be problem somewhere in some node that will only be found once the problem because get complained about enough or becomes very obvious. I am going to be playing the bf 2042 test this weekend so it will be interesting to see the results with my net connection then.

Cheers

[#6]

Yeah this seems to be the issue.  I've run the same test over Nord and I get a little more latency but much more stability.  I've been with plus for a *very* long time now and would hate to leave over something like this.  Surely it must be possible to fix these issues?

[#7]

Thanks a lot for your response @_Jim_

While I can empathise with your frustration here, I have to reiterate my colleague @BD in that from our end, the line looks pretty solid. A KBD has found no issues on the line, which appears to be syncing at 67.0 Mbps and has been stable for the past  28 Days, and an RRt is now showing any line issues whatsoever.

Are you still using the Plusnet issued router? If so, have you thought about purchasing a newer one which might work better with gaming?

Latency is quite a tricky one to diagnose, as there are other factors beyond our control that can have an  effect on ping times. To be honest, we can't even see your ping times from our end.

KBD

GEA Test Detail
Circuit ID	NA	Service ID

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	67.0 Mbps
Upstream Speed	20.0 Mbps
Appointment Required	N
Fault Report Advised	N
NTE Power Status	PowerOn
Voice Line Test Result	Pass
Radio Frequency Ingress	Not Detected
Repetitive Electrical Impulse Noise	Not Detected
Cross Talk	Not Detected
Estimated Line Length In Metres	396.4
Upstream Rate Assessment	Very Good
Downstream Rate Assessment	Reasonable
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 High - 0.128M-20M Upstream, Error Protection Off
Time Stamp	2021-07-28T10:30:00

Parameters	MIN	MAX	AVG
Down Stream Line Rate	70.6 Mbps	70.6 Mbps	70.6 Mbps
Up Stream Line Rate	20.0 Mbps	20.0 Mbps	20.0 Mbps
Up Time	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec	900.0 Sec

[#8]

I was looking at grabbing an Archer AX50 to replace my slightly older router.  Will see if it has any effect.
Sorry to complain.  As I use gaming streaming services more it just becomes a little annoying when games deteriorate or drop out.  GeforceNow isn't too bad but as mentioned Stadia was completely unusable. 

[#9]

@adam945, there are a few of us experiencing the same issue with latency to certain sites and services, it does not appear to be related to any individual's connection. Please see my ticket 215630856 for additional details including traceroutes to affected servers, which is still not resolved but the ticket has been closed. Also my new open ticket 216835082 related to both dropouts and this ongoing latency problem.

[#10]

Thanks @Kansalis

Just to reiterate, when it comes to latency, we do sometimes find ourselves at a bit of a loss as well to be honest. While high latency and high ping times can be a symptom of an underlying fault, if our tests aren't coming up with anything, there's little we can really do other than raise the matter with Openreach. As I've said, our tests don't even pick up ping times.High latency can be due to external factors such as the site's you're trying to view and their servers.

[#11]

Just to throw my hat in the ring - I'm having exactly the same issues in the past 3-4 weeks. Connection has been reliably solid since February when installed but now getting pings ranging between 9-110ms to Google/BBC/ADSLGuide on and circa 10Mbit/s upload speeds when it used to be around 17Mbit/s (in South West Birmingham). Stats all look OK:

Stats recorded 12 Aug 2021 15:43:08

DSLAM type / SW version: IFTN:0xb206 (178.6) / v0xb206
Modem/router firmware: AnnexA version - A2pv6C038m.d24j
DSL mode: VDSL2 Profile 17a
Status: Showtime
Uptime: 0 hour 31 min 42 sec
Resyncs: 0 (since 12 Aug 2021 15:15:36)

Downstream Upstream
Line attenuation (dB): 14.4 0.0
Signal attenuation (dB): Not monitored
Connection speed (kbps): 78778 20000
SNR margin (dB): 6.4 9.6
Power (dBm): 1.6 1.6
Interleave depth: 1 1
INP: 0 0
G.INP: Not enabled Not enabled
Vectoring status: 5 (VECT_UNCONFIGURED)

RSCorr/RS (%): N/A 0.0000
RSUnCorr/RS (%): N/A 0.0000
ES/hour: 0 0

[#12]

Hi @adamvb, thanks for getting in touch and I'm sorry to hear you're having performance issues with your connection also as of recent.
I can't seem to find an active account using your forum details so if you could please drop us the username for your account or address where the services are set up to over private message then we can take a look into the connection from this side and see what's going on.

[#13]

Hi @BD 

Thanks for the reply - things calmed down around 19:00 last night and we're fine (8ms pings reliably to Google/BBC) until about 10:50 this morning and now we're back in the 10ms-90ms fluctuations again.

Best

Adam