Need help troubleshooting extreme network latency

[TooMuchStarbucks]

Hello guys. First post here and it's definitely a doozy I would really appreciate some guidance on. Simply put over the past week or so the quality of our wireless network has shown problems. At first I believed this to be random but I've noticed that latency and even complete disconnects happen more frequently while the entire family is active on the network.

I'm going to be frank, I'm nowhere near knowledgeable on how to troubleshoot an issue like this, and like I said any help is much appreciated.

• ISP – Comcast, 75Mbps down-10Mbps up (confirmed speeds at Speedtest.net and Measurement Lab)
  
• Cable Modem – ARRIS SURFboard SB6183
  
• Router – Asus RT-AC87R (latest firmware)
  
• Devices connected to network:
  • Wired (2):
    • 1 Laptop
    • 1 Printer
  • Wireless (10)
    • 4 Smartphones
    • 1 Tablet
    • 3 Laptops
    • 1 Desktop
    • 1 Xbox One
• Issues experienced recently:
  • When these issues first started our wireless networks (both 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz) became unresponsive and required resetting router to factory settings to restore. Wired devices such as the laptop when connected worked fine.
  • Intermittent connectivity with wireless networks from wireless devices (drop in and out of wireless network coverage)
    
  • Significant lag experienced, especially while streaming content or gaming.
    
    
• These issues again are fairly recent, and before we were perfectly fine with all devices concurrently connected and utilized.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ylin0811]

What happens when your ap becomes unresponsive? Does all clients lose its association even if it's right next to the ap (within 5 feet)? If it does, it would point to the ap radio not outputting any radiowave or the snr would be below 15db = wireless router needs to be replaced

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

When it did become unresponsive both phones and laptops were unable to detect or connect to any of our wireless networks. This was only a one time thing though and seems like it serves as a prelude to the huge latency we're experiencing now.

 

[ylin0811]

Use a tool called pingplotter (free trial for 14 or 15 days) on a laptop that's placed within 12 - 15 feet of the access point, and ping the wireless gateway constantly from the pingplotter.

Use the wireless as usual. When the issue occurs again, do a quick ping to the wireless gateway, and observe the round trip time. Compare the rtt with the rtt on the pingplotter. If the round trip time is higher than 100ms (low snr or interference), then it could be caused by the router not powering the radio in accordance to the milliwatt setting.

If that is the case, I would recommend one of the following...

1. see if your router is compatbile with dd-wrt or tomato. If it is, flash it to the open source firmware and manually set the mw to the highest mw supported by the radio.
2. Replace the device.

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

Use a tool called pingplotter (free trial for 14 or 15 days) on a laptop that's placed within 12 - 15 feet of the access point, and ping the wireless gateway constantly from the pingplotter.

Use the wireless as usual. When the issue occurs again, do a quick ping to the wireless gateway, and observe the round trip time. Compare the rtt with the rtt on the pingplotter. If the round trip time is higher than 100ms (low snr or interference), then it could be caused by the router not powering the radio in accordance to the milliwatt setting.

If that is the case, I would recommend one of the following...

1. see if your router is compatbile with dd-wrt or tomato. If it is, flash it to the open source firmware and manually set the mw to the highest mw supported by the radio.
2. Replace the device.

Sorry for the.. delay. I actually thought the issues fixed itself cause they haven't occurred up until now.

Right now I'm experiencing some insane lag on my desktop (which is around 15-20 feet from the router, literally separated from just a wall). Getting around 3500ms ping on WoW just for reference. Other sites are taking forever to load as well, and I haven't yet tried other games.

When using Pingplotter and pinging the gateway I'm getting this now.

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

Just tested H1Z1 and I was lagging like crazy there as well. This is what my plotter looked like.

EDIT:

That seems like a lot of red.

 

[XavierMace]

That last screenshot is the only one showing anything unexpected for wireless. But you're saying you're getting 3k plus pings to game servers at the same time as those screenshots. So you need to test all of the wait out to an external site to see where the issue lies.

 

[ylin0811]

How long was the duration for the 3000ms rtt? Does the time match with the red graph's time interval?

If the 3000ms ping occurs while the ping to 192.168.1.1 stays below 60ms, that would rule out the router's wireless and internal ethernet common bridge interface.

Next thing to try would be to rule out the ingress/egress forwarding on the interface that connects to your isp's modem. Have the pingplotter ping the google's dns farm at 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4, and pay attention to the rtt on the hop after 192.168.1.1. This should tell you where the issue is.

 

[NesuD]

How long was the duration for the 3000ms rtt? Does the time match with the red graph's time interval?

If the 3000ms ping occurs while the ping to 192.168.1.1 stays below 60ms, that would rule out the router's wireless and internal ethernet common bridge interface.

Next thing to try would be to rule out the ingress/egress forwarding on the interface that connects to your isp's modem. Have the pingplotter ping the google's dns farm at 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4, and pay attention to the rtt on the hop after 192.168.1.1. This should tell you where the issue is.

Blizzard servers were hit with a DDoS attack Sunday. That may account for your 3k ping

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

Lagging to hell right now. Even web pages are taking a lifetime to load.

Here are two images. One pinging 8.8.8.8 with no huge latency, and the other pinging 8.8.8.8 right now.

 

[ylin0811]

Have comcast phone support open up a trouble ticket with the comcast backbone group, and forward them the second screenshot that shows the packet loss and high rtt. The issue is inside comcast's network, and not your asus's router at this point.

 

[NesuD]

Have comcast phone support open up a trouble ticket with the comcast backbone group, and forward them the second screenshot that shows the packet loss and high rtt. The issue is inside comcast's network, and not your asus's router at this point.

Yup that is several hops upstream of you. its all on Comcast to fix it.

 

[John Connor]

I would also try smokeping to ping YOU. It's available at dslreports.com

WIFI is very flaky and that could be a router firmware issue as well. Make sure it's updated. Have you tried an Ethernet cable?

 

[JackMDS]

This the current Ping on a route from New York to Atlanta.

First notice that the local Ping Computer to Router is 0 msec. this is done form Wired Computer to a Giga switch on the Router.
Any other way to measure (especialy from Wireless) is self decisving.

The pure Internet pings are currently Excellent. That can be change any moment.

That said your Internet Pings are Horrible, I do not know if it is just a transient status or your ISP routing is to be blamed.


Hop IP Address Host Name Country Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 Average Time Error
1 192.168.1.2 router.asus.com Reserved 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms 0 ms
2 142.254.161.37 United States 11 ms 9 ms 12 ms 11 ms
3 68.173.212.25 tge-0-6-1-0.nycmnya-rtr2.nyc.rr.com United States 18 ms 13 ms 18 ms 16 ms
4 68.173.198.18 agg112.nyquny9101r.nyc.rr.com United States 19 ms 16 ms 19 ms 18 ms
5 66.109.6.76 bu-ether15.nycmny837aw-bcr00.tbone.rr.com United States 19 ms 20 ms 23 ms 21 ms
6 66.109.1.57 ae-1-0.c1.buf00.tbone.rr.com United States 18 ms 37 ms 18 ms 24 ms
7 50.248.118.181 be-202-pe02.111eighthave.ny.ibone.comcast.net United States 19 ms 14 ms 19 ms 17 ms
8 68.86.85.45 hu-0-3-0-3-cr02.newyork.ny.ibone.comcast.net United States 20 ms 15 ms 21 ms 19 ms
9 68.86.85.202 be-10305-cr02.350ecermak.il.ibone.comcast.net United States 42 ms 38 ms 42 ms 41 ms
10 68.86.91.98 et-1-1-0-0-ar01.d1stonemtn.ga.atlanta.comcast.net United States 60 ms 55 ms 60 ms 58 ms
11 162.151.88.138 United States 49 ms 45 ms 49 ms 48 ms
12 68.85.68.222 te-7-0-acr01.g3lilburn.ga.atlanta.comcast.net United States 48 ms 43 ms 47 ms 46 ms

P.S. My iSP is TWC and the current bandwidth is 26 Mb/sec.

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

I would also try smokeping to ping YOU. It's available at dslreports.com

WIFI is very flaky and that could be a router firmware issue as well. Make sure it's updated. Have you tried an Ethernet cable?

First going to address this. After trying to smokeping I get an error saying that my IP isn't pingable. I tried following the steps for Windows Vista (which seems to also apply to 10), but it didn't fix the issue.

The firmware is updated and I've tried a laptop with Ethernet numerous times and it has not had issues. This is during times that my desktop connected wirelessly is having issue.

Now, a note about contacting Comcast. After doing so I was only told that they can't really diagnose problems on their end due to how I'm not using one of their modems. The model of the modem is listed in the OP.


Finally another issue worth noting is that I have yet to experience major lag while on the 2.4GHz band. All the lag I've experienced is on the 5GHz band. I switch over to the 2.4 band and I'm right as rain.

 

[John Connor]

If you are far from the router/modem, 5GHZ is a crapshoot.

It wouldn't be a Comcast issue if this is your own modem/router like you said.

You most likely need to allow pings in the router/modem for smokeping to work, but at this juncture I don't think smokeping is going to tell you anything. It's not Comcast, it's a WIFI issue.


5GHZ likes to bounce off walls instead of penetrating like 2.4GHZ.

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

If you are far from the router/modem, 5GHZ is a crapshoot.

It wouldn't be a Comcast issue if this is your own modem/router like you said.

You most likely need to allow pings in the router/modem for smokeping to work, but at this juncture I don't think smokeping is going to tell you anything. It's not Comcast, it's a WIFI issue.


5GHZ likes to bounce off walls instead of penetrating like 2.4GHZ.

The router is about 20ish feet away from my PC, but it is between a wall. Is this normal behavior for that distance and 1 wall?

 

[ylin0811]

Comcast isn't telling the truth. Their first tier have no idea how traceroute or cmts works.

Here is the list of certified modems that will work with comcast's cmts, and your modem is on that list:

http://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/

I would call them back and escalate to the second tier if the issue occurs again.

What you are experiencing at 5ghz might be a sign of interference. All wireless devices are based on half duplex transmissions. They will hold off on the transmission if the given spectrum if occupied with traffic. This might be what your issue is, but you won't be able to tell without using a spectrum analyzer.

 

[John Connor]

The router is about 20ish feet away from my PC, but it is between a wall. Is this normal behavior for that distance and 1 wall?

AT 20' I wouldn't think so. I'm suspecting hardware. Like the modem/router.

 

[John Connor]

I would call them back and escalate to the second tier if the issue occurs again.

What you are experiencing at 5ghz might be a sign of interference.

And this has what to do with the ISP again?

 

[ylin0811]

Two separate issues. The poster mentioned that he had no lag with 2.4ghz, but had lag with 5ghz. That tells me the lag is in between his sta and the internal gateway, and has nothing to do with the isp.

The isp problem is the 2nd screenshot that he posted last time.

 

[John Connor]

Two separate issues. The poster mentioned that he had no lag with 2.4ghz, but had lag with 5ghz. That tells me the lag is in between his sta and the internal gateway, and has nothing to do with the isp.

The isp problem is the 2nd screenshot that he posted last time.

If you're referring to those ping tests, that means nothing when it's a WIFI issue. If the hardware is crap, of course you're going to have poor WIFI. Ain't an ISP issue.

Plus, he states an ethernet cable works just fine.

 

[John Connor]

Toomuchstarbucks, why don't you just use 2.4GHZ? 802.11N is part of the 2.4GHz band as well. Do you need gigabit speeds?

 

[ylin0811]

the op didn't have issues with the 2.4ghz, as mentioned in his post of "I have yet to experience major lag while on the 2.4GHz band."

the wireless isn't crap if you know what to look for, otherwise all the wireless i've deployed and coached my rf engineers at taipei 101/largest data centers/skyscrapers will all have problems.

lastly, the second screenshot that op posted was indeed an isp issue. this was proven on the hop after 192.168.1.1 without any packet loss. you do have to understand the packets in the provider's internal network or external bgp peers don't necessary have to be symmetrical.

 

[TooMuchStarbucks]

Toomuchstarbucks, why don't you just use 2.4GHZ? 802.11N is part of the 2.4GHz band as well. Do you need gigabit speeds?

It's pretty much what I've been doing for the past few days, just to see.

I mean are there any performance benefits inherent when using the 5GHz band, even when you don't utilize the full gigabit speeds?