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Recent switch to Plusnet, online gaming is almost unusable

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Recent switch to Plusnet, online gaming is almost unusable

 

Hi,

Apologies for the long post but I hope someone can offer some advice.

We've been on BT fibre for about 3 years getting 30 Mb down and just under 7 Mb up.

My son has always played online on his Xbox One and I have been gaming online on my PC and we have never had any issues.

Since we switched to Plusnet 4 days ago (14/9) online gaming has become terrible.

On his Xbox he is now suffering bursts of extremely high latency and lag which kicks him off sessions and sometimes stops him from joining parties all together.

He also gets extreme rubber banding almost constantly.

The main game I play on PC is Diablo III which is constantly connected and I am also noticing very bad lag and rubber banding.

We have a TP-Link VR900 fibre router so opted not to take the Plusnet Hub - previous experience with the BT Home Hubs being the reason I bought the TP-Link in the first place.

All I had to do to switch over at my end was to change the router profile setting from BT to Plusnet and enter my Plusnet credentials and connection was all good.

My house is hard wired for Ethernet with the PC connected to the router via a gigabit switch and the Xbox connected r via 3 daisy chained gigabit switches.

Other internet access seems to be absolutely fine - I have no problems with general browsing on my PC, we can stream HD movies from Amazon and Netflix.

Speedtest.net reports ~30 Mb up and ~1.8 Mb down with ~10 ms ping

So, I have a couple of questions!

Could the gaming issues be caused by the drop in upload speed?

Could it be because (according to geo-location) my IP address has moved from East London to Halifax?

Any other things it could be?

TIA

Shevek

28 REPLIES 28
hemlok666
Hooked
Posts: 5
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-04-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Hi Shevek, this is just my personal experience BUT, if I were you I'd look elsewhere and cancel while you still can, your speed is almost identical to mine (when it works) and I am in Lancashire my friend, I have been with plusnet since Feb and I have just had to have a 4th replacement one hub ordered by tech support as this one has mysteriously cut access to the 5ghz band.

 

We're gamers in my house too pc and xbox, the last time I tried to play destiny (this thurs) I got disconnected from the servers 3 times, unlimited super fast fibre my rosy red bum!

Hope your still in the cancel period I am stuck until a year Feb 😞

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

According to the email I got sent the 14 day cool off starts the day after ordering. 

 

I ordered 30th August so the cool off period ended on the day of the installation Sad

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

I also purchased line rental saver Sad

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online gaming is almost unusable

OK, so I just found this thread: https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/Lagging-while-online-gaming/td-p/1368909

According to the gateway tool I am on the Colindale PoP so it looks like I am suffering from this issue.

I am going to phone up tomorrow and see if I can get a static IP sorted which apparently will sort it.

SpendLessTime
Hero
Posts: 3,000
Thanks: 928
Fixes: 86
Registered: ‎21-09-2009

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

@shevek

Welcome to the forums.

As you have a decent router, I would suggest that you set up a Thinkbroadband quality monitor and look for packet loss.

This very long thread at https://community.plus.net/t5/Fibre-Broadband/High-packet-loss-and-other-DNS-issues/m-p/1354749#U135... details the issue that has been ongoing since August. It is worth discounting this extremely common problem as it was noticed first by gamers.

The basic conditions are

  1. High packet loss (which the quality monitor will show)
  2. You are connected to the Plusnet  new network (I'll explain how to test below for that)
  3. You have not bought a static IP address from Plusnet

How to check for the new network?

Look at http://users.plus.net/@gateway/ if the gateway name shown contains the letters "-IR" then it is the new network (this test works for non static IP users only)

 

edit: I was too slow in writing this while you were posting  Sad

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
hemlok666
Hooked
Posts: 5
Thanks: 1
Registered: ‎03-04-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online gaming is almost unusable

Best of luck hope you get sorted Wink

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

@SpendLessTime

Thanks for your reply. I have discovered that exact thread about 5 mins ago!

I set up the monitor and am now waiting for some data to plot.

 

The gateway tool reports pcn-ir01 so I am on the new network and I don't have a static IP so it looks like it may be this issue Sad

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

When I set up the monitor it did say:

"We have detected that your IP address (x.x.x.x) is dynamic.
We do not currently support monitoring of dynamic addresses."

Does this mean it won't work at all or will only work until I re-connect and get a new IP?

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

@SpendLessTime

ok, the chart is now plotting and so far it is 100% red Sad

 

So, what can I do?

Is there any way to switch away from Colindale? From what I read the only way to force it is via a static IP

SpendLessTime
Hero
Posts: 3,000
Thanks: 928
Fixes: 86
Registered: ‎21-09-2009

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Just ignore the message and go ahead anyway. (you should be able to)

the new network IP's are quite sticky so even a reboot of the router will probably give you the same IP address. Even if it doesn't then just go back to TBB and put in the new one.

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
SpendLessTime
Hero
Posts: 3,000
Thanks: 928
Fixes: 86
Registered: ‎21-09-2009

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Total red line normally indicates the router does not have ping enabled

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT
shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Yeah, I remembered that as soon as I posted that reply! Roll_eyes

 

I'm hunting around in my router admin page right now trying to figure out how to enable it. 

 

shevek
Grafter
Posts: 60
Thanks: 5
Registered: ‎18-09-2016

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Found it, enabled it... It was in a very odd place! Advanced / System Tools / Administration

 

 

SpendLessTime
Hero
Posts: 3,000
Thanks: 928
Fixes: 86
Registered: ‎21-09-2009

Re: Recent switch to Plusnet, online Xbox gaming is almost unusable

Security - Advanced security - clear "Ignore Ping Packet From WAN Port"

 

edit : same time posting again

Ex - Plusnet Customer (2009 - 2023) now with BT