Games Unplayable Because of Ping

[Drikkink]

Every game, mainly League but also WoW to an extent, is now unplayable for me because of ping spikes every few minutes. It started when I got this new fucking modem/router monstrosity from Comcast because my family insists that we need to stay with Comcast for some reason. I spoke to Comcast customer support and I swear they had no idea what I was talking about. They seemed to think that my internet was going down or slowing down. That's not really the case. It slows down momentarily, but it still "works" for all intents and purposes. They sent a refresh signal to my modem/router but it did nothing.

Example traceroute:

Tracing route to riotgames-17.ext1.lax.pnap.net [216.52.241.254]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  10.0.0.1
  2    13 ms    11 ms    19 ms  68.44.60.1
  3    13 ms    16 ms    13 ms  xe-4-1-0-sur01.mtlaurel.nj.panjde.comcast.net [6
8.86.221.157]
  4    16 ms    15 ms    15 ms  ae-16-0-ar03.audubon.nj.panjde.comcast.net [68.8
5.62.113]
  5    23 ms    18 ms    19 ms  he-3-11-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [6
8.86.166.109]
  6   105 ms    17 ms    17 ms  he-0-10-0-0-pe07.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net [6
8.86.83.66]
  7    17 ms    18 ms    24 ms  ae-16.r06.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.66
.49]
  8    17 ms    18 ms    15 ms  ae-6.r20.asbnva02.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.7.2
4]
  9    85 ms    99 ms    84 ms  ae-2.r21.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.5
5]
 10    90 ms    87 ms    92 ms  ae-2.r05.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.5.8
6]
 11    89 ms    94 ms    85 ms  ae-0.internap.lsanca03.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.25
0.203.98]
 12    86 ms    85 ms    83 ms  riotgames-17.ext1.lax.pnap.net [216.52.241.254]


Trace complete.

The ping spike on the traceroute will always be either at one of the ashburn.va jumps (5 and 6) or one of the last 2 riotgames jumps (11 and 12). The ashburn.va spikes are more frequent and I'd think the riotgames spikes are more riot's side than comcast's or mine.

Example ping to one of those comcast servers:

Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=29ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=75ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=250
Reply from 68.86.83.66: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=250

Ping statistics for 68.86.83.66:
    Packets: Sent = 37, Received = 37, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 75ms, Average = 20ms

[Samfisher]

75ms is unplayable for you...? Try 200ms playing from Asia.

Also are you on WiFi? Windows by default does a scan of nearby networks every x minutes (I forgot whether it is 1 or 5 minutes).

[Drikkink]

75ms is unplayable for you...? Try 200ms playing from Asia.

Also are you on WiFi? Windows by default does a scan of nearby networks every x minutes (I forgot whether it is 1 or 5 minutes).

90 is my baseline. In league, I get a spike up into the 700s which gradually goes back down to my baseline. When running traceroutes, I rarely see a spike higher than 250, but I do occasionally lose a packet when tracing to riot's servers, somewhere around the 6th jump.

It's WiFi, but this only started since I "upgraded" my modem to this terrible "gateway" modem/router combination.

[MyndZero]

75ms and your COMPLAINING? We, in Australia, had 200-250 ms on league for the longest time before they implemented oceanic servers, and guess what. ITS STILL PLAYABLE. This is the same on WoW. Obviously there is a delay but it's not game breaking, and in leagues case you can still play the game, even ranked, and be AT LEAST gold (or the one higher).

You really do get used to the delay and it doesn't phase you after you are. (As hard as that may be able to fathom to a lot of people, but it's true for the 200ms range)

[Ghostile]

It's WiFi

There's the source of the problem.
Plug a cable and report back.

[Yunru]

Wifi signal spikes and gets interupted all the time.
Try removing some things araund wifi device. (anything that deflects the signal)

[Drikkink]

75ms and your COMPLAINING? We, in Australia, had 200-250 ms on league for the longest time before they implemented oceanic servers, and guess what. ITS STILL PLAYABLE. This is the same on WoW. Obviously there is a delay but it's not game breaking, and in leagues case you can still play the game, even ranked, and be AT LEAST gold (or the one higher).

You really do get used to the delay and it doesn't phase you after you are. (As hard as that may be able to fathom to a lot of people, but it's true for the 200ms range)

Not reading is fun! My ping goes up to the 700s for about a second and a half. If I am fighting someone, I essentially lose that time. It then slowly goes back down to my baseline ping, which is manageable.

I've been on wifi for years. The issue just came up when I got the new modem. I have the exact same setup as before. It uses the same cables, is in the same place, nothing new has been put in the house to interfere and my computer is in the same place.

[Wries]

Not reading is fun! My ping goes up to the 700s for about a second and a half. If I am fighting someone, I essentially lose that time. It then slowly goes back down to my baseline ping, which is manageable.

I've been on wifi for years. The issue just came up when I got the new modem. I have the exact same setup as before. It uses the same cables, is in the same place, nothing new has been put in the house to interfere and my computer is in the same place.

So this new modem doesn't have built in wi-fi and you're using the same hardware wireless access point as previously?

[Drikkink]

So this new modem doesn't have built in wi-fi and you're using the same hardware wireless access point as previously?

It does have built in wifi. My old setup, I had a coax cable going into the modem. I had a splitter connecting multiple phone lines. Then, an Ethernet cable connected to the router. The new setup is the same except without the ethernet as the modem has wifi built in.

The only problem I can see is either hardware on the modem or something on the game servers (which seems unlikely as there are no real reports of similar occurrences). I don't see how interference can be an issue. I have the wifi set to the same channel as before. It is in the same place as the old router. There are no new appliances or electronics anywhere.

[Wries]

It does have built in wifi. My old setup, I had a coax cable going into the modem. I had a splitter connecting multiple phone lines. Then, an Ethernet cable connected to the router. The new setup is the same except without the ethernet as the modem has wifi built in.

The only problem I can see is either hardware on the modem or something on the game servers (which seems unlikely as there are no real reports of similar occurrences). I don't see how interference can be an issue. I have the wifi set to the same channel as before. It is in the same place as the old router. There are no new appliances or electronics anywhere.

It could simply have a worse quality Wi-Fi antenna, though. Either that or the modem/router hybrid has a much to weak processor or inefficient software.

I'd say your next step in terms of troubleshooting really should be to plug in a cable and see if the problem persists.

[Arbiter]

Yea I'd guess that it's just packet loss and signal interruption. Lots of things can interrupt the signal.

Could also be a combination of that with a shitty router/shitty wifi card. They do exist.

And you do have Comcast. Most problems can be blamed on them by default.

[Replica]

Change your wifi to channel 11, and turn off ipv6 and ipv4 QoS packets.

[Drikkink]

Testing when wired, same problem.

wifi channel is 11. ipv6 is disabled and I've disabled QoS packets on my side... there are limited config options on this godforsaken modem "upgrade". I can't even configure my god damn DNS.

And I'm stuck with Comcast because it'd cost about 200 more a month to discontinue Comcast's internet and pick up some other internet. We need to keep Comcast's TV service because Comcast owns the sports teams around here. Can't get them on TV otherwise.

[skitzin]

Disabling IPv6 CAN help, but won't always. If (read as: if and only if) your problem is caused by your router getting overloaded and dropping packets, and if your router does IPv6 routing in software instead of hardware, then disabling IPv6 MAY reduce the load enough to stop the packet loss.

If you have a newer router with hardware IPv6 routing, it won't help.

I think you should try another router that has hardware acceleration for IPv6. See if it helps.

If you issue is not IPv6 related or its an issue in routing between ISP and Riot then I got bad news for you

[Deleted]

Sent the router back and grab a new one. Don't cheap out, in case you did.

[Drikkink]

This thing was given to us by Comcast. There are no "other" models to get. This is it. It's "Wireless Gateway".

There is no cheaping out. It is a modem and a router, so I can't even use a router.

So the only option seems to be for me to replace the thing, which may or may not work.