@andy_w1 your graphs seem to show the issue but in theory the BT side of the ping issue has been fixed so if I was still with BT I'd look at checking your internal setup in greater detail.
@andy_w1 , @Ian72 , Some potential ideas which you may or may not have done ?
1) Don't test with Wifi, only wired, in other words assume Wifi is your problem, even if you believe it isn't your problem. If it means ordering some long Ethernet cables and stretching over the floor or replace Wifi with power line adapters then I'd do that, just get Wifi out of the equation for testing. Turn Wifi off, it it's on then it's receiving packets and maybe having some impact - fully rule it out. Using Wifi for gaming and a good ping is like trying to hold water with a paper towel, it might work for a bit but you'd just not do that, you'd use a cup 🙂
2) What device are you streaming with ? different devices will saturate your network in different ways, although seeing a 200 ms ping shouldn't be possible with a standard / reliable FTTC connection, there's definitely something wrong there.
3) Don't test your ping on the same PC / device that you're streaming from, in other words the issue could be internal with your PC you're testing with i.e. testing with 2 different devices gets you a 2nd opinion. Switch over as well, ping from lets say PC1 and stream with PC2, then stream with PC1 and ping with PC2, you need to see the same results, if not then start looking at why. Try to use a reliable way of pinging, DOS prompt and 'ping bbc.co.uk -t' is my favorite, it gives reliable results, pings running inside a browser might not be as reliable - part of trouble shooting means ruling things out.
4) If you're fully wired and no Wifi turn your attention to your DSL connection / DSL modem, you need to see your error rates, if you can't get this information then I'd invest in a 3rd party router / modem. Load up your connection with a speed test or download and check your errors, you might just be getting errors when your connection is loaded resulting in your ping spikes.
Remember the DSL connection to the cabinet is an analogue system over copper wire that in effect uses different frequencies / tones to represent digital data, which mean interference / cross talk can have a major impact on errors / disconnections etc. Look into DSL vectoring, is it enabled on your cabinet ? does your router / modem support it ? enabling it may help reduce any errors / stabilize your ping.
5) Don't use the BT home junk, which may also be offering your connection as a BT Wifi hotspot, replace with a decent 3rd party router and / or router modem, look at Draytek or Billion or Asus. If you've got the cash try a couple of different modem vendors, different modems use different DSL chipsets, one might offer a better connection than the other, all depending on how far you're from the cabinet and what chipset is used in your cabinet - do a bit or research, look into chipsets. As said look into vectoring, although most up to date decent router / modems support it. Most decent router / modems allow you to change DSL parameters such as the SNR, possibly by pushing this up and settling for a little less speed but lower errors (if you're getting errors) would be the way to go. If you've already got a 3rd party router, look at some of these settings, don't be afraid to play around with them, make sure your router / modem firmware is up to date.
6) If you've had engineers visit then almost certainly they've looked at your phone master socket / wiring, if not then either get an engineer to visit and / or make sure your master socket is up to date. Don't plug your modem into a phone extension line - only the master phone socket.
7) Look at investing in a separate router and modem setup that allows proper queue management so that your connection is never saturated, yes you'll get less speed to your PC / gaming console etc but you sacrifice this to allow head room for your gaming packets to get through / a stable ping. I currently use an Ubiquiti Edgerouter and an ASUS DSL-AC68U for my modem, I can do a speed test on my PC and my ping only jitters 1 or 2 ms because I've setup queue management. That means anyone on my LAN can do anything they like, download, stream anything etc it won't affect my ping or gaming. Mikrotik also have a similar queue management but Mikrotik can be on the harder side to setup / deal with compared to an Ubiquiti Edgerouter. Having said that when I had the ping spike issue limiting connection load only had limited success, yes it reduced the level of ping spikes but it never got rid of them.
😎 Ultimately if you've checked everything from top to bottom, tried different router / modems and you still believe the problem is external and with BT the only other option I can think of is to swap to a different ISP that hasn't suffered past or present with a ping spike issue, which is generally any ISP that isn't BT 🙂
You'd probably want to avoid cheap ISPs and any ISP that's owned by BT such as Plusnet, EE, obviously any ISP that's just a re-branded BT internet, obviously based on the assumption the ping spike issue is still out there / not been fully fixed. If you want an ISP that offers a quality of connection for gaming, which means next to zero jitter, no packet loss, obviously no jitter means no ping spikes, no peak time issues, then I've got no problem 100% recommending Leetline. Obviously Leetline is the pinnacle of gaming ISPs, if you just want a reasonable ping quality and some casual gaming then possibly an ISP such as IdNet, Zen or Sky would do the job.
@Ian72 Indeed BT locking you into another contract and promising a certain connection quality is appalling, I think though you'll be in for a hard time to leave without fees, ping isn't part of the broad band picture as far as Ofcom is concerned, only speed is. You could try to move your broadband and keep your phone with BT, that way you're still under contract with BT but you're just moving 1 of the services away - check it out...
