Ok I've now done a load of testing with Twitch (which does seem to stream at a pretty constant speed, unlike Netflix for me) but I still can't conclusively say whether I have the same issue as you or not. It does seem to make my pings go a bit higher, which perhaps it shouldn't, but it doesn't seem to be enough to affect me, and nothing like the 100-200ms spikes that I get from Netflix and other download bursts.
But I've now got some screenshots to show what I'm trying to get at with the speedtest thing (I've just discovered the Android app has stored the graphs for all the previous tests I've done on my phone, which is very handy right now).
So first here's one from my laptop, with an Ethernet connection:
And an equivalent one from my phone (on 5GHz WiFi, near the router):
Same thing from a Plusnet connection which doesn't have the issue:
And finally here's one from the BT connection again, with EXACTLY the same setup as now, except that it was done last October (when there was no issue):
As you can see, in both of the last two screenshots the download speed jumps up to maximum pretty much straight away and continues in a straight line after that, whereas in the first two it starts lower and then ramps up (which happens quite suddenly when you're watching the speedtest live, but it smooths out the lines in the graph a bit). And the points where the speed ramps up tend to coincide with a high ping spike (or sometimes even complete packet loss) for me. So that's why I suspect it's related to the same issue as other people are seeing (and it's consistent with it starting around December).
So I would still find it very helpful if anyone else experiencing the issue could confirm whether or not they see the same behaviour/shape of download speed graph by doing a speedtest.
As you can see, in both of the last two screenshots the download speed jumps up to maximum pretty much straight away and continues in a straight line after that, whereas in the first two it starts lower and then ramps up (which happens quite suddenly when you're watching the speedtest live, but it smooths out the lines in the graph a bit). And the points where the speed ramps up tend to coincide with a high ping spike (or sometimes even complete packet loss) for me. So that's why I suspect it's related to the same issue as other people are seeing (and it's consistent with it starting around December).
So I would still find it very helpful if anyone else experiencing the issue could confirm whether or not they see the same behaviour/shape of download speed graph by doing a speedtest.
I have the exact same issue. Been affecting me since March-ish this year. I recommend you use dslreports test in the future, it has a few more details like bufferbloat.
I'm connected via ethernet and I also have anti-bufferbloat 'cake' QoS active.
Here's a test I did five minutes ago. You can see that the slow startup of the download stops the QoS from working. When it reaches max speed the ping stays the same despite the downloading.
BT said that they would be making some changes to my setup overnight so I thought I would run a quick test this morning. Unfortunately the spikes are still there but not into the red as they previously were although that could just be a time of morning thing.
Two noticeable differences were (1) the number of hops to the destination address was reduced and there was packet loss at a hop where there hadn't been before and (2) the speedtest result was better in that it pretty much shot straight up to maximum bandwidth rather than the usual low for a second or two then increasing.
This image is from 20 August:
This is from this morning:
Speed test from 20 August - you can see the gradual incline of speed:
Speedtest this morning was a lot quicker to settle at top speed:
I'll keep monitoring over the weekend and report any significant changes.
Personally I'd use the same speedtest server when running the test,by those screenshots your ping almost doubled.
And I gather that test was with netflix running?
For me every time I've a video running on Youtube or Netflix etc I get huge ping spikes always the same no matter what since December.
The screenshots I'll post are from this morning with one Youtube video running and only me using the internet so you can imagine how bad it gets when the whole family are using the internet streaming or even just watching Youtube.
I get ping spikes of over 250 when I'm gaming with someone watching Youtube!
Here's my pingplotter to google uk btw, whilst connection is idle.
