Lag during peak times

[#1]

Even if I am on interleaved will disabling it fix my lag problems? I don't mind having a 40ms ping so long as its stable. I was playing quake today from 1-3pm there was no lag spikes at all, I loaded it up just now and its lag spikes galore.
  1    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms  menu [192.168.1.254]
  2    72 ms    56 ms    49 ms  lo0-plusnet.ptn-ag2.plus.net [195.166.128.53]
  3    68 ms    58 ms  105 ms  gi2-2-204.ptn-gw02.plus.net [84.92.3.93]
  4    43 ms    60 ms    92 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.
Oh well at least theres football on tonight......

[#2]

Doesn't look too good from here
Tracing route to ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    3 ms    1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    40 ms    39 ms    39 ms  lo0-plusnet.pcl-ag04.plus.net [195.166.128.134]
  3    43 ms    41 ms    38 ms  gi1-6-604.pcl-gw02.plus.net [84.92.0.229]
  4    38 ms    38 ms    38 ms  te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net [212.159.0.190]
  5  205 ms  220 ms    74 ms  te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
  6  111 ms  205 ms  197 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  7    39 ms    38 ms    38 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.

[#3]

Doesn't look too bad from here - then again, I am currently on a PTN gateway...
Tracing route to ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    45 ms    31 ms    31 ms  lo0-plusnet.ptn-ag2.plus.net [195.166.128.53]
  3    45 ms    28 ms    25 ms  gi2-2-204.ptn-gw02.plus.net [84.92.3.93]
  4    25 ms    36 ms    29 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.

[#4]

That is odd - I am seeing three more steps and 2 of those are the laggy ones

[#5]

belive we see more hops due to sparkzero being on the ptn family gateway so the is no jump needed to get to this hop
4    19 ms    17 ms    18 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
21cn
Tracing route to ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1     3 ms     1 ms     1 ms  10.0.0.1
  2    18 ms    17 ms    18 ms  lo0.plusnet.thn-ag2.plus.net [195.166.128.93]
  3    17 ms    17 ms    18 ms  vl604.thn-gw1.plus.net [84.92.4.169]
  4    19 ms    17 ms    18 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  5    17 ms    17 ms    16 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
only 1 in ten tracerts give me a lag on the thn-gw1
Tracing route to ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
1    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms  10.0.0.1
  2    19 ms    18 ms    18 ms  lo0.plusnet.thn-ag2.plus.net [195.166.128.93]
  3  165 ms  212 ms  211 ms  vl604.thn-gw1.plus.net [84.92.4.169]
  4    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  5    17 ms    17 ms    17 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]

[#6]

Let me know when interleaving is turned off and I'll try you on the improved traffic option (on ADSL2+).
I'm seeing lots of examples that are suggesting exchange congestion on both 20C and 21C at the moment - I've been collecting threads about the same topics.

[#7]

Quote from: Jameseh

Let me know when interleaving is turned off and I'll try you on the improved traffic option (on ADSL2+). I'm seeing lots of examples that are suggesting exchange congestion on both 20C and 21C at the moment - I've been collecting threads about the same topics.

How can I tell when interleaving is turned off? My router still stays fastpath but my pings are still the same (40+). Can you check if its been disabled yet?

[#8]

Yep.  It seems to be off.
What are your traceroutes looking like?  Bearing in mind that your traffic is travelling from Scotland to London and then back to Scotland again, it won't be as good as ASBO DOG's as he's in the English midlands.

[#9]

Traceroutes are ok at the moment:
  1    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms  menu [192.168.1.254]
  2    41 ms    41 ms    39 ms  lo0-plusnet.pcl-ag02.plus.net [195.166.128.39]
  3    40 ms    39 ms    40 ms  gi1-2-904.pcl-gw02.plus.net [84.92.0.141]
  4    39 ms    40 ms    39 ms  te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net [212.159.0.190]
  5    40 ms    41 ms    39 ms  te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
  6    40 ms    39 ms    40 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  7    41 ms    41 ms    40 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.
I'll do another one at peak time to see if the lag is still happening. I know my pings are not going to be as good as people who live closer to london but surely 40ms 2nd hop is a bit high? I'm not in the highlands

[#10]

It's a bit higher than I'd expect, but it's not enormous.
There's not a massive amount I can do from this end, because your connections not dropping and your not dropping traffic.

[#11]

Being a gamer....thats disappointing. One of the reasons I went with plus.net is because on the Pro package you advertise "Low ping and latency". Oh well I'll get over it so long as my pings stay stable all the time.

[#12]

To be honest, we're already prioritising all of your gaming traffic, you're on max premium which means that all of your traffic is prioritised over the BT network so it should be as good as possible.
I'm surprised it's not slightly better.

[#13]

Pings still stable touch wood. 
  1    1 ms    1 ms    1 ms  menu [192.168.1.254]
  2    40 ms    42 ms    41 ms  lo0-plusnet.pcl-ag02.plus.net [195.166.128.39]
  3    40 ms    41 ms    40 ms  gi1-2-904.pcl-gw02.plus.net [84.92.0.141]
  4    41 ms    42 ms    39 ms  te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net [212.159.0.190]
  5    40 ms    42 ms    41 ms  te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
  6    40 ms    39 ms    39 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  7    40 ms    40 ms    39 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.
Thanks for all your help jameseh much appreciated.

[#14]

Return of the lag....
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    1 ms  menu [192.168.1.254]
  2    58 ms    44 ms    43 ms  lo0-plusnet.pcl-ag02.plus.net [195.166.128.39]
  3    39 ms  145 ms    43 ms  gi1-2-904.pcl-gw02.plus.net [84.92.0.141]
  4  173 ms  204 ms  202 ms  te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net [212.159.0.190]
  5    50 ms    42 ms    42 ms  te2-3.thn-gw1.plus.net [212.159.1.57]
  6    50 ms    44 ms    58 ms  ae0-102.ptn-gw01.plus.net [212.159.1.53]
  7    39 ms    78 ms    100 ms  ptn-games01-if1.games.plus.net [212.159.6.211]
Trace complete.
Got a plan B Jameseh? 

[#15]

Interim high pings, which are followed by low pings are not *usually* a cause for concern - it means that the router is doing 'more important' things than responding to pings (like routing traffic).
When doing a tracert, if there is a router where pings elevate substantially, and all following pings are also high then that may indicate a problem.
That being said, it does seem like your pings are not stable, and the fingers are pointing to backhaul contention.    It seems like you are on ADSL and *may* benefit from ADSL2+ (the backhauls are different) so perhaps that is an option?
B.