Internet Speed and Ping Consistency Issues

[alduin]

So we have had this new ISP for a few months, and it has been really good up until a few weeks ago. I am getting this annoying problem where my speeds will plummet to under 1kbps from a stable 8Mb. This happens as often as every 5 minutes, but usually not that bad. The lag spikes last anywhere from a few seconds to a minute, then they slowly speed back up over the course of about 30 seconds. This is noticeable when downloading, torrenting, or just browsing the web when pages refuse to load. This is also a major problem as I cannot play any online games now. I usually get anywhere from 40 to 80 ping, which stays fairly consistent until it spikes up to 999, and I either get disconnected or I just can't move my character at all. The same thing in this case, the spike lasts anywhere from 10 seconds up to a minute if I don't get disconnected from the server. I have scanned for viruses using Microsoft Security Essentials, MalwareBytes, and ESET NOD32, with nothing found. I had someone on another site say it could be my ISP throttling, because of my high torrenting usage (135Gb past 31 days), so I decided to not do any torrenting the past week, and the problem persists (even though my ISP claims no bandwidth caps whatsoever). I have also tried connecting my computer direct into the cable from the receiver, with no luck (so the router is not the problem). Here is a link to my ISPs site if that might help. If anyone has any suggestions on how I could possibly get this resolved that would be great, thanks!

 

[eibgrad]

One thing I did notice is that this is a WISP (Wireless ISP), which means your "receiver" is connecting over wireless. And that means you're sharing the wireless freq. w/ many other users. It's no different than your own wireless router and its freq. As you add more concurrent users, throughput drops dramatically since access is always queued. Whenever one user is accessing the wireless freq., all others must WAIT. So as a general rule, wireless doesn't scale very well.

That said, I don't know what the underlying technology is here. For all I know, it could have provisions to improve throughput that I'm unaware of. But knowing the basic principles of wireless, it wouldn't surprise me to see this type of problem under heavy loading, whatever the technology. It's just a fundamental limitation of wireless.

 

[Kewlx25]

you need to remove as many variables when debugging. Disconnect all other devices and plug directly into the modem and see if it continues. Slowly add one thing back in at a time, like the router/firewall, then another network device.

Keep testing each time until it comes back, assuming it ever goes away.

 

[alduin]

One thing I did notice is that this is a WISP (Wireless ISP), which means your "receiver" is connecting over wireless. And that means you're sharing the wireless freq. w/ many other users. It's no different than your own wireless router and its freq. As you add more concurrent users, throughput drops dramatically since access is always queued. Whenever one user is accessing the wireless freq., all others must WAIT. So as a general rule, wireless doesn't scale very well.

That said, I don't know what the underlying technology is here. For all I know, it could have provisions to improve throughput that I'm unaware of. But knowing the basic principles of wireless, it wouldn't surprise me to see this type of problem under heavy loading, whatever the technology. It's just a fundamental limitation of wireless.

That could be it since this ISP is fairly new in the area, and they have been gaining more and more customers so that would increase the load. I should mention that I have tried in the dead middle of the night a few times at 3 or 4AM, while the problem still persists. That is the only reason I am not sure the wireless factor is the cause.

 

[alduin]

you need to remove as many variables when debugging. Disconnect all other devices and plug directly into the modem and see if it continues. Slowly add one thing back in at a time, like the router/firewall, then another network device.

Keep testing each time until it comes back, assuming it ever goes away.

I have tried it with no router in the mix at all, with my machine plugged directly into the cable coming from the receiver. I have not tried disabling the firewall yet, should probably try that, thanks!

 

[alduin]

Just wanted to update. I disabled the firewall a week or so ago and now everything seems to be fine. How would I go about figuring out what part of the firewall settings to change so I don't get this problem. When I was troubleshooting before, I made sure I had my games all set to allow incoming and outgoing. Is there maybe a better alternative to Windows Firewall that I should look at?

 

[alduin]

Best answer selected by alduin.