Random upload speed - going crazy over this

[delsaber]

Hi Great people of toms hardware.

I live in a house with four other students and we have BT broadband option 3 (their BEST package apparantly)

we have a line est at 15-17mbps and a limit of 100gb per month.

we use the internet all the time for various things but mainly to play games (cod, css etc) , stream tv and download films/ music.

Our broadband has not been right since we moved in (4 months ago).

Although the download speed is normally great we have a high ping when playing games online over the last 4-6 weeks.

I downloaded a bandwidth tester and when the high ping is there the bandwidth tester says we are uploading at 200-700kbps but when the ping is low the upload speed is low or 0. This is the obvious reason i can see for the lag spikes.

BT seem to think everything is fine even though i keep calling to complain. They have done tests on the line but with no avail.

I make sure no one is downloading while we play games etc so i know its not that.

I am wondering if there is some sort of virus uploading our music or films?

could this be possible?

 

[Psychoteddy]

Run a tracert to google. Post results here.

 

[delsaber]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert www.google.co.uk

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [209]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 64 ms 99 ms 100 ms BThomehub.home [192]
2 16 ms 16 ms 17 ms 217
3 18 ms 18 ms 18 ms 217
4 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms 213
5 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms 217
6 22 ms 23 ms 22 ms 217
7 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms acc1-10GigE-11-3-0.sf.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109]
8 27 ms 27 ms 27 ms core1-te0-13-0-2.ealing.ukcore.bt.net [109]
9 29 ms 28 ms 28 ms core4te0-0-1-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [109]
10 28 ms 27 ms 27 ms 195
11 29 ms 29 ms 29 ms 209
12 43 ms 43 ms 44 ms 209
13 44 ms 43 ms 43 ms 209
14 51 ms 53 ms 56 ms 216
15 44 ms 43 ms 43 ms 209

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Ben>

 

[delsaber]

thanks for the response. this tracert is after i have reset the router so the upload speed is fine currently.

If the speed goes again later tonight which it normally does ill do another report and paste it

thanks

 

[Catsrules]

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Ben>tracert www.google.co.uk

Tracing route to www.l.google.com [209]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 64 ms 99 ms 100 ms BThomehub.home [192]
2 16 ms 16 ms 17 ms 217
3 18 ms 18 ms 18 ms 217
4 22 ms 22 ms 22 ms 213

C:\Users\Ben>

How are you connected to your router?
That first hop is your router, it should be less then 1ms if you are wired.

what ping response if you just ping your router?

 

[Kewlx25]

I agree

"1 64 ms 99 ms 100 ms BThomehub.home [192]"

for me, this is about 0.001ms.

The ping to your home router is about 100,000 times higher than mine.

It may not be P2P directly, but your router probably can not handle all the open connections. a NAT must keep track of every active connection. If the CPU on your router is not powerful enough and/or not enough memory, your internet will suck a big one.

 

[delsaber]

thanks for the info kewlx25. are you saying we might need a new router? we have been tempted to buy a new one like a netgear or something maybe?

we have really high ping at the moment so ive done another tracert test to google. here are the results


Tracing route to www.l.google.com [209]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 73 ms 99 ms 99 ms BThomehub.home [192]
2 40 ms 27 ms 38 ms 217
3 20 ms 22 ms 36 ms 217
4 45 ms 45 ms 21 ms 213
5 31 ms 22 ms 30 ms 217
6 32 ms 39 ms 22 ms 217
7 24 ms 30 ms 30 ms acc1-10GigE-1-2-0.sf.21cn-ipp.bt.net [109]
8 39 ms 36 ms 46 ms core2-te0-13-0-2.ilford.ukcore.bt.net [109]
9 30 ms 31 ms 38 ms core4te-0-7-1-0.telehouse.ukcore.bt.net [62]
10 30 ms 30 ms 29 ms 195
11 38 ms 30 ms 30 ms 209
12 45 ms 45 ms 44 ms 209
13 44 ms 44 ms 44 ms 209
14 56 ms 44 ms 45 ms 216
15 46 ms 44 ms 50 ms dy-in-f99.1e100.net [209]

Trace complete.

 

[delsaber]

How are you connected to your router?
That first hop is your router, it should be less then 1ms if you are wired.

what ping response if you just ping your router?

thanks for response mate

im connected via a cat5e ethernet cable so looks like that timing is too high then.



I just did two pings as im not sure of my routers ip. (btw im deleting end of ip as not sure whats safe to post or not lol)



C:\Users\>ping 192

Pinging 192 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

C:\Users\>ping 192

Pinging 192 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\>

 

[delsaber]

right now the bandwidth tester says we are uploading at 700kbps!!

its killing my gaming ping. shooting from 50 upto 190 ping in games

 

[Catsrules]

hmm what happened on that first ping?

The next ping and alot better under 1ms that is more like it.

Is there anything by your router that could heat it up, like in sunlight or by a heater.

 

[delsaber]

hmm what happened on that first ping?

The next ping and alot better under 1ms that is more like it.

Is there anything by your router that could heat it up, like in sunlight or by a heater.

think i used the wrong IP for the first one lol

the router is in a hall with no sunlight or heat near it.

BT have told us today they think its the high usage as theres five of us either downloading/gaming or streaming so they are sending us a new router. But the problem occurs even if only 2 of us are online and not downloading!

there is two people downstairs that never get disconnected and the three of us upstairs do!

the whole situation is so strange that i dont know where to start.

They are sending us a new router but if the same occurs we will buy a better router ourselves.

What would you suggest?

I wonder if maybe our ethernet cables are bad r contradicting each other somehow :S

 

[Catsrules]

think i used the wrong IP for the first one lol

there is two people downstairs that never get disconnected and the three of us upstairs do!

Hmm that does seam like a suspicious coincidence, you might be right about your wiring. I haven't had a wiring problem personally so I don't know the exact symptoms of it.

Is everyone wired, or are some people wireless? If they are wireless, are they having problems as well. If they are all wired, are they all going directly in the router or is there a switch in between.
How are the wires run? (In walls, Ceiling, Air vents?)
Is there any power lines next to the cat5e wiring?
Is there any fluorescent lighting by the wires (like with in 1-2feet)
How far are you from the router. (Max is 100 meters for cat5e).
Do you know if it is shielded twisted pair or unshielded twisted pair?
Do you have two boxes? Router and a modem, or is it just one box. If it is two, plug a computer directly in to the modem and see if the problem continues.
If you have a laptop, try to plug in as close to the router as you can with a short cable, see if that fixes it.
If your know the names or the ips of the other computer on your network, try to ping them and see how fast the response is. (Note: some firewall will block this and your will not get a response)

 

[delsaber]

Hmm that does seam like a suspicious coincidence, you might be right about your wiring. I haven't had a wiring problem personally so I don't know the exact symptoms of it.

Is everyone wired, or are some people wireless? If they are wireless, are they having problems as well. If they are all wired, are they all going directly in the router or is there a switch in between.
How are the wires run? (In walls, Ceiling, Air vents?)
Is there any power lines next to the cat5e wiring?
Is there any fluorescent lighting by the wires (like with in 1-2feet)
How far are you from the router. (Max is 100 meters for cat5e).
Do you know if it is shielded twisted pair or unshielded twisted pair?
Do you have two boxes? Router and a modem, or is it just one box. If it is two, plug a computer directly in to the modem and see if the problem continues.
If you have a laptop, try to plug in as close to the router as you can with a short cable, see if that fixes it.
If your know the names or the ips of the other computer on your network, try to ping them and see how fast the response is. (Note: some firewall will block this and your will not get a response)

Lots of questions!

well four computers are connected wired and two laptops are connected wirelessly. Sometimes more but useually theres only one laptop and 3 pcs connected.

They wiring goes along the floor for the three of us upstairs and the two downstairs having wiring that leads up the stairs. We are all students so presentation doesnt bother us lol.

The cables are 15 metres but there is some extra cable left as most of us are only 5-10 metres from the router. The router is in the hall with nothing near it to interfere.

im not sure if its twisted pair or not. will that make a big difference?

They are all plugged in directly. theres no extra boxes or anything. The router is supposed to do everything.

Im going to try ping the other computers tonight and see what results we get