Ping Spikes every minute (gaming) Windows XP wireless

elliotth

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Apr 14, 2010
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I know this problem has been documented, but I'm not sure it has ever been extinguished.

My wireless card: Ralink rt2860 wireless LAN

OS: XP Service Pack 3

Using the RaConfig Utility Not using Microsoft Wireless Zero Configuration

When I am gaming, about every minute, like clockwork, I receive a very unwelcomed spike in my ping (from about 30ms to 1500ms).

Most people believe this occurs when the wireless card "looks" for other available networks. I am confident that the problem lies somewhere between my wireless card and its proprietary software, and the microsoft zero wireless configuration.

I have shut off the microsoft zero and the Windows auto update but the problem persists. Under my "wireless network connection 4 advanced" set to "access point (infastructure) networks only" and have the box unchecked for automatically connect to nonpreferred networks.

I'm sure there's some switch that would instantly take care of my problem, I just don't know where that switch is. For reference, to test if the problem is still present I ping www.google.com about 300 times. 299 pings are consistently under 40, 1 is always higher than 800. Driving me crazy.

Any help is appreciated.

What's the best wireless utility config to use with my ralink card?
 
You don't want to be ping anything on the internet there is not way to be sure if the problem is someplace outside your house. You want to ping your gateway like 192.168.1.1 or whatever. It is big jumps in the ping time on this that would indicate a issue. 1 ping here and there does not mean a lot icmp is considered low priority and if a router is busy doing something else it will delay responding or sending any ping/icmp packets
 

elliotth

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Apr 14, 2010
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18,630
After Pinging my gateway:

Ping statistics for
Packets: Sent = 300, Received = 300, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 897ms, Average = 5ms

I'm running some virus/malware scans now currently as well. Before biting the bullet and upgrading to Windows 7, it'd be great to find the root of this problem. Since the problem is so repetitive, I'm confident that it has something to do with the software. Either the Ralink software or the Microsoft wireless software. Although, I wouldn't dismiss some type of malware interrupting my connection every minute.
 

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