spiking ping

[#1]

hello - i have just joined plus net and i signed up for the plus net pro gaming product. This is after many months of very high pings (ave 250) with virgin.
however my account went active this week. my pings are 50 or less woopee - however when i try to do any online gaming - they keep spiking at above 300 sometimes leading to nme being booted from the server.
this is very annoying indeed. I'm sure this has nothing to do with MY PC or router what could it be

[#2]

i have not tried wireshark - maybe tomorrow
i have only tried BF2142 demo so far

[#3]

Hi there,
I've tried running some tests on your line, but they're not displaying because you're currently not logged in.
Could you let us know when you are so that we can try again?

[#4]

well i'm logged in now!!!!
sunday evenening from 6 till midnight?
just patched up BF1942 2 and same problem is occurring

[#5]

Hi,
your ping is how fast a transmission will go from your PC to the gaming server. The lower the ping the better. In BF2142 my ping varies from about 16ms to around 29ms on 64 player UK servers depending on what is happening in the game.It is normally around 20ms.
For decent game play you need a ping of up to 30ms.
30ms to 50ms is fine unless you are a very good player with fast reactions.
50ms - 100ms is not so good any you will find yourself getting beaten by players with lower pings.
100ms + is a big problem and you will get all sorts of problems.
To reduce your ping first of all make sure when you start your game nothing is using the internet in the background e.g. downloading, updating etc
Secondly assuming you have a firewall running turn off all AV software as this can slow down the game and increase pings. DO NOT TURN OFF AV IF YOU ARE DOING ANYTHING ELSE BUT GAMING.
Third use a hardware firewall like the ones built into internet routers. Software firewalls run on your PC. Due to this they increase ping times and put extra load on your PC. If you have a hardware firewall you do not need a software on for gaming.
Fourth connect to the internet via ethernet (network cable) and not wireless. This gives a lower ping and a more reliable connection. Using an internet router and not a udb modem also provides better experience.
Finally, if your line is OK ask Plusnet to turn of interleaving and this will further reduce your ping.
Hope that helps 

[#6]

thankyou for reply.
I am still having the same problem of pings spiking constantly from 30 to 300 !!!
I have been told the traffic routing is correct. - there is no software firewall to turn off. my router is a U.S. Robotics 9106 which i have never had a problem with like this with other ISP's
i will try with the ethernet lead tomorrow at least that will test if the problem has something to do with my wireless set-up
to be honest i'm about to give up on plusnet

[#7]

Its unlikely to be a PN issue, and much more likely to be as a result of your line characteristics. If this is the case, your woes will likely follow you to any ISP who provides DSL over your BT phone line.
I'd expect that MTU tweaking might resolve your problem, if the ICMP pakets are being returned within acceptable times, the fact that gaming packets are not would seem to indicate some form of fragmentation. (ICMP packets are 32 bytes for example, whilst gaming packets will likely be much larger)
Using ethernet might solve your issue, as the problem may just be retransmission of packets over your wireless network if you are suffering interferance or weak signal for example.
If ethernet makes no difference, and neither does MTU tweaking, its worth trying alternative hardware.
All electronic equipment downgrades over time, particularly with modern equipment with tiny conductive paths within it. (Not so much with a valve radio by comparison)
It may also be worthwhile double-checking your router set-up, ensuring that PPPoA is selected for example (PPPoE does work on some exchanges, but can give seemingly random performance issues)

[#8]

I don't seem to be having much luck here.  I've tried testing your connection again and you're offline - presumably because you are at work.
I work Monday to Friday 9-6.  Is there any chance of you being online during this time period?

[#9]

i recently changed ISP from virgin media and the ping there was just rubbish all the time, i.e. never much less than 250ms - it did not jump around so i dont think that my line has inherent problems, particulalrly as about a year ago which was the last time i was gaming regularly, at the same address with the same BT line I would get consistent pings between 50-100 ms which was at least playable
as for my robotics router - they told me to do some port forwarding - did that - did not help a bit which didnt surprise me as i used to play BF1942 without port forwarding.
as for being online 9-6 - come on I have a job that affords me to pay for plusnet evey month - which currently is proving to be a waste of money?
as for losing packets - swooosh over my head i'm afraid but i have tried conencting the router up via ethernet and again that has made no difference