Forum Discussion

EfromAZ's avatar
EfromAZ
New Contributor II
10 months ago

Ping Spikes (Chandler, Arizona)

Hello, hoping someone could shed some light and possibly help me with something I've been dealing with lately..

I've been experiencing an issue that I can't seem to fix on my own so far. While playing games online, there are frequent lags that result in everything stopping for a short period of time (it's almost always about 3 seconds), and then quickly speeding to catch up. The intervals are quite inconsistent. Sometimes I can go 40 minutes without one, other times they happen 4 times in a 5-10 minute interval. Obviously, this is very disruptive. I initially made sure it wasn't the game I was playing, and once I did that, I ran a ping test which shows very consistent ping at 20-25ms typically, then every so often it will spike to very high levels. I actually ran the test concurrently while I played the game, and of course, the ping spikes shown in the test perfectly lined up with me having connection issues in the game. So, I know for sure this is a network issue now. I've never had this happen to me prior to a couple weeks ago when it started. I've had disconnections, sure, outages, sure, but this particular issue is very strange and not something I've seen. I have a technicolor CGM4331COM which has been very good up til now. Can anyone please offer some suggestions on what could cause this, or what could fix it? This is not happening during peak times. Currently it's 12:55AM on a Tuesday and I am having the issue. This is also not something that's likely being caused by bandwidth overload on my modem. I have two devices connected to my modem, and only use one at a time. No one else has any access to it. I've reset the modem multiple times on Cox's website to no avail. I'm very unsure on what to do at this point, mostly because the issue is so odd. If it was just flat out disconnecting, I've dealt with that and I'd assume it's just normal outages that happen. But the nature of this issue really makes me wonder what could be causing it and what could possibly fix it. Thanks in advance for any help you could offer. The attached pictures were part of the test I ran that show what's happening in terms of the stable ping spiking to really delayed levels. 

 

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    10 months ago

    Welcome to the forum. First, are you testing with a wired or wireless connection? Wired is better. Next, what are you pinging when you run that test? Try typing "tracert [IP or domain]" and show those results. Or if the spike is intermittent then download and use Pingplotter to run the trace. That is easier too because you can share(File> Share > Create share page) the data without having to take screenshots.

  • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
    WiderMouthOpen
    Esteemed Contributor
    10 months ago

    Welcome to the forum. First, are you testing with a wired or wireless connection? Wired is better. Next, what are you pinging when you run that test? Try typing "tracert [IP or domain]" and show those results. Or if the spike is intermittent then download and use Pingplotter to run the trace. That is easier too because you can share(File> Share > Create share page) the data without having to take screenshots.

    • EfromAZ's avatar
      EfromAZ
      New Contributor II
      10 months ago

      Thanks for the reply. Saw your comment earlier and I decided to test on my phone before taking the steps in your comment. I didn't get any delays on my phone. I also realized I wasn't getting the ping issues when I was not using my Bluetooth headset. I researched and found out that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi run on one of the same frequencies (2.4gHz for those who weren't aware), and that having Bluetooth in close proximity could cause interference. Seemed unlikely as the cause because I run Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on my phone all the time without issue, but at this point the issue had been going on for days and I was tired of it. I went into the Cox backend system and disabled the 2.4gHz band entirely, so my modem will only run 5gHz. Have not had a single issue since then, despite barely being able to make it 5 minutes without the issue coming up the past few days. Somehow, it seems as though this was the problem. Thanks for the help, wish I'd have known about this prior to asking but it never came up in any of the searches I did for solutions before today, so I apologize for the inconvenience but thanks again for the help.

      • WiderMouthOpen's avatar
        WiderMouthOpen
        Esteemed Contributor
        10 months ago

        Glad you solved the problem. When it comes to latency, wireless can cause all kinds of issues. Disabling 2.4Ghz is a good work around but I would think you would need it for the longer range it gives. If Cox had a way of changing the channel, I think that might help but I think they changed to a automatic channel selection system with the new(white) DOCSIS 3.1 Panoramic gateways. If you want full control of your wireless network, I suggest getting your own router. You can still use the gateway as a modem but putting it in bridge mode but I can provide more detail if your interested. If your happy with your solution though, great!

  • GrumpyOG's avatar
    GrumpyOG
    New Contributor II
    10 months ago

    You must have posted this while I was working on my own post:

    I used a couple of tools to narrow down my issue - perhaps you might try something similar?

    Best of luck, friend!

     

     

    • EfromAZ's avatar
      EfromAZ
      New Contributor II
      10 months ago

      Thanks for this! Will absolutely refer back to this if I notice any packet loss or further issues similar. I ended up figuring out the cause of my issue was Bluetooth interference with the 2.4gHz Wi-Fi signal, strangely enough. I appreciate the reply and link though. Was getting to my wit's end dealing with the problem in my original post.