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noturbogt's avatar
noturbogt
New Contributor
4 years ago

Occasional ping spike causing in-game lag

Hey guys, I'm hoping you can help me out here.. I have been having an awful connection issue across my PC. At any random time throughout the day my connection seems like it will instantaneously like "drop" and come right back up. It's not enough to take me totally offline. It is not enough lag to kick me from a game, not enough to kick me from discord. My counter-strike games the ping will spike from 30 to anywhere from 50-90. My discord will go from 3 green bars to 1 red one. It is just like the connection briefly drops and picks right back up. What is weird is that ping that it spikes to normally itself isn't ever "laggy" for me, but when my ping spikes to that it is an insane amount of lag like it would be at 300+ ping. I have Cox Communications as it is the only provider available for decent speeds around here. I get 150 down and 15 up. I do not have that many devices on my network. A laptop is on here and there, an Xbox here and there, same with streaming devices. My Vivint security system is as well. I am playing on a wired connection, I have not been able to notice it over Wi-Fi. I am firmly believing this is a provider or house issue in itself at this point, not equipment. I am hoping you guy's can provide me with a little help before I have to pay someone to come out and diagnose/fix it. I have tried playing on wired and wi-fi and still experience it. When the connection is working without drops it is awesome.

I am unsure if there is any more coax splitters coming from outside the house to where it connects to my modem other then what I can see. The cable is in the ceiling of the finished basement so I am not sure how I would check anyways.

I have attached my modem logs and levels in imgur pics here: https://imgur.com/a/EDQb4yk, my router log does not show anything but these below all going to different mac addresses:

[DHCP IP: (192.168.1.7]] to MAC address (misc address)

[DHCP IP: (192.168.1.8)] to MAC address (misc address)

[DHCP IP: (192.168.1.9)] to MAC address (misc address)

I have done the following myself in an attempt to diagnose/fix my problems -

  • I have restarted my modem and router.

  • Ran speed tests to insure speeds

  • Purchased a new ethernet cord

  • Insured all drivers and whatnot are up to date and router/modem is up to date.

  • Removed a splitter from the coax cable to the modem

  • Capped all open jacks in the house that could of potentially caused any interference?

  • I actually upgraded my PC completely recently, so I know it is not a hardware issue on my end.

  • Called Cox Communications to have my modem flushed and verified everything was good on their end (they said it was).

  • Googled many of the router/modem errors and I was unable to find a solution (I have tried so many things I cannot remember at this point).

Please if there is anything else you would like/need from me or anything I could try, let me know. Thank you very much!!

  • noturbogt's avatar
    noturbogt
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    EDIT - I have tried this over WIFI and still has the same results. Also tried using QoS for no luck

  • Allan's avatar
    Allan
    Moderator
    4 years ago
    @Noturbogt, I recommend sending us an email with your full name, address, and a link to this thread to cox.help@cox.com so we can assist you with this ongoing internet concern. -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator.
  • Kalebkk890's avatar
    Kalebkk890
    New Contributor III
    4 years ago

    I have been battling Cox on these issues for just under a year now since COVID started. The problem is nearly all of their nodes that your modem is directly connected to are well over 100% utilization which causes incredible packet loss and spikes. The internet speeds usually aren't effected but the latency and packet loss is definitely noticeable. There are two things you can do and that is to file an FCC complaint about the packet loss and you will be able to talk to their actual engineers who are "diligently" working to split these nodes to help with saturation. They will probably give you some date that is months and months away when your node will be fixed and they get away with this without even a slap on the wrist because they have a "plan" to fix it. The ISP monopoly has been a travesty for years and COVID has only made it much worse and noticeable. The second thing you can do is go to https://fairshake.com/ to ask for a settlement to reduce your bills or pay you back for their service they aren't able to reliably provide. Don't take the first offer because it will be very low for what they actually deserve from this country wide failure.