High bandwidth, extreme latency

[A Bad Day]

I can download a HD Youtube video at a reasonably fast speed except in the late evening (when the broadband connection is on par with dialup speed), but online gaming?

http://www.pingtest.net/result/61866157.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/61692036.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/61636050.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/61433937.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/61433145.png

Bandwidth test, one of them has very high ping with high bandwidth:

http://speedtest.net/result/1915457794.png
http://speedtest.net/result/1915455939.png
http://speedtest.net/result/1844474133.png

This had been plaguing me for the past few months, but it appears to have gotten worse. The high ping typically strikes when my parents are using the wireless router, despite having apparently large bandwidth. The router is TEW-432BRP, and it doesn't support WPA2.

So much for having plans about purchasing Starcraft II.

 

[Emerald]

have you test the speed when connected directly to the modem or to the router via network cable?

 

[A Bad Day]

I am connected to the router via Ethernet. However, due to the distance, there is an Ethernet-to-Ethernet connection piece for the two pieces of cables.

Windows 7 seems to have trouble recognizing the modem, but I think I can fix it soon enough.

EDIT: It's not possible for me to be directly connected to the modem even if I can get it to work. The ping spike hits when my parents are using the wireless router, but it drops back to below 100ms once they're no longer using the router.

 

[sk1939]

It means something on their computer is using most of the resources. I would find out what it is, because if they're not downloading anything the other possible explanation is malware.

 

[Emerald]

not all RJ45 Coupler (Ethernet-to-Ethernet) are CAT5e compliant, make sure yours is.

are your parents streaming while they are online?

 

[A Bad Day]

The coupler is a $1 Cmple 182-N Inline Coupler RJ45, CAT5e compliant (or so it claims).

Both of my parents do watch films online. But if I'm getting over 1 Mb/s speed while playing Youtube videos, why would there be such high ping?

 

[sk1939]

Depends on what your internet package is. If you subscribe to 5 Mbps down 1 mbps up, then the streaming at 1mbps takes up 1/5 of the bandwidth alone. Streaming Netflix HD uses about 3.8 Mbps. Regardless though, your latency is ridiculously high.

 

[A Bad Day]

ISP: Mediacom
Download speed: 12 Mbps (never seen it go that high)
Upload speed: 1 Mbps (rarely exceeds .6 Mbps)

Here's the connection status when I'm the only one using the router:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1922922998.png
http://www.pingtest.net/result/61891534.png

 

[sk1939]

It could be that your just facing congestion as well, since it is a cable connection. I can't think of a good way to fix it really.

 

[A Bad Day]

I ran another test. I doubt congestion is a problem as I'm getting a download speed fairly close to the advertised speed (upload speed not so much).

http://www.pingtest.net/result/62301462.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1935375833.png

I contacted the ISP, they said that the high ping is perfectly normal for cable and that gaming should be fine. Bullcrap.

 

[sk1939]

I ran another test. I doubt congestion is a problem as I'm getting a download speed fairly close to the advertised speed (upload speed not so much).

http://www.pingtest.net/result/62301462.png
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1935375833.png

I contacted the ISP, they said that the high ping is perfectly normal for cable and that gaming should be fine. Bullcrap.

Perfectly normal for them perhaps, you have to consider your providers network as well.

 

[A Bad Day]

Well, the high latency problem seem to have disappeared after we replaced the router with a Belkin N150 and added WPA2 encryption.

 

[tha_vice]

I'm guessing your parents caught on to the fact they had un-secured wirless?

 

[sk1939]

I'm guessing your parents caught on to the fact they had un-secured wirless?

Sounds like it.

 

[A Bad Day]

I'm guessing your parents caught on to the fact they had un-secured wirless?

They haven't figured out yet, kinda hard to explain to them just because we live in a suburban middle-class area doesn't mean that it's perfectly safe to have unsecured WiFi.

I'd like to thank Belkin for setting WPA2/WPA encryption as factory default, and yell at Treadnet for selling "WPA2 compatible" wireless routers that didn't have the processing power to handle WPA2 encryption and are easily bricked by their own firmware updates even through standard installation.

 

[A Bad Day]

Okay, I lied. The problem wasn't the router.

http://www.pingtest.net/result/62988078.png
http://speedtest.net/result/1957355722.png

 

[smethrony]

Bandwidth and Latency both are independent but Bandwidth is not same as latency. If we need high speed connection then we have to reduce latency. Latency is depend on Congestions, connection medium and distance. Bandwidth refers on the ability to communication line channel to deliver or receive data.

 

[johnsonma]

Sounds like your cable provider put too many people on your line and then during peak hours it bogs down.

 

[A Bad Day]

The problem went away after I turned off the ICMP Ping blocking (from 1000+ ms ping with 1-31% packet loss to 40-70 ms ping with no packet loss). The router's info says that it prevents hackers from determining if something is available on the IP address thus increasing security, though there's no feature to set exceptions for games.

EDIT: The 1000+ ms ping is back. Apparently the fix didn't work.