Smart hub 2 Wifi latency jitter

[chapers]

I just wanted to first say usually BT are great with their customer service they sent someone to check my wifi router during covid 19 however my original issues involving the smart hub 2 are not resolved so i thought instead of calling during this stressful time i would ask this community to see if anyone had a fix. 

i keep getting large jitters in my latency/ping. i play online video games frequently which many have connection indicators integrated into. i have the same problem for all of them where the connection speed is great when i alone am using the wifi however when one or more people use the wifi the ping mainly stays good but every few seconds for about 3 second intervals i get a very high latency and my in game character lags. this consistently happens over the time period of playing making it unplayable. i carried out my own internet speed test involving latency, upload speed and download speed when no one was using the wifi and it was always very good with latency of about 7ms. i then did this again but with a youtube video running at 1080p and it seemed to be always good but every few tests it would suddenly become poor with 90ms ping and low download and upload speeds. i dont know if this indicates the jitters but thought i would say my findings. as my wifi is usualy good i have no trouble with day to day tasks like streaming videos or searching things on the internet but these jitters effect the enjoyment i have playing games. i use wireless connection to my computer which i am aware effects packet loss rates and latency however i am 2 meters from my router in the next room through a thin wall. with my previous older BT wifi i used the exact same computer i use to this day and the same wifi wireless dongle in my computer and never had any latency jitters when others were using the wifi. at the exact point the wifi was changed to the smart hub 2 i had jitter issues when others used it so i doubt very much that my wifi dongle is to blame. i also want to make it clear that i am aware that when others use the wifi latency is likely to get worse and i see a slight increase in the constant latency which is fine. however i do not understand how i have these huge jitters which i never had on the older more obsolete hub when others were using the wifi and i am desperate for help to make my games playable again. 

Please if you read through this can i get any response i am open to any ideas on how to fix my issue with sudden high jitters when others use the wifi which i never had on my old hub.

Thank you, stay safe

[pippincp]

Put the old hub back in if you still have it.

[Sennen_1234]

We switched to BT a few days ago and are getting exactly the same issue as described here, did you manage to fix the issue? Thanks

[chapers]

Hey, 

Sadly I have not resolved the problem and I just play when my family are not using the wifi which is annoying. 
I believe it isn’t actually an issue in the BT smart hub but instead a purposeful technique used by it. I believe that the smart hub prioritises requests sent by the devices on its network so at each given time it is concentrating on a singular device and not so much for others. This may be why there is a rapid jitter in the latency where it is going back and forth between devices. This is great for internet use when you don’t need continuous good connection such as streaming videos etc. But for gaming it is terrible. Clearly the ‘smart’ in smart hub is misleading. 

I don’t think BT care to resolve this issue because they don’t need to for the majority of the users but it also means that if you have a technician over to check the hub they will say there are no issues, because there aren’t any.  

[Keith_Beddoe · Accepted solution]

That is the nature of Wifi, only one device can transmit or receive on a wireless channel at a time, each one has to wait until there is a short gap when there are no other devices transmitting. 

The more devices connected to the wireless on that channel, the longer the delay for each device to communicate, its nothing to do with the home hub, or your broadband connection.

The answer is not to use wireless, but use either a direct Ethernet cable connection, or powerline devices which extend the Ethernet connection over the mains.

[licquorice]

Mu-mimo overcomes that restriction.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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@licquorice wrote:

Mu-mimo overcomes that restriction.

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And its not enabled https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/SMart-Hub-Mu-Mimo-now-enabled/td-p/1843515

Unless its changed?

[licquorice]

I have no idea if it is enabled or not on the HH2 or how you can tell.

It was just an observation that not all wifi is single user.

[Sennen_1234]

I have resolved the issue by installing powerline adapters to the gaming pc. Everything else works fine via the WiFi. 

The thing that I disagree with from keith_beddoe is that this issue can't be because of "the nature of WiFi". Up until a few months ago I was on Virgin Media fibre and my son used to game without issue via WiFi (even when everyone else was connected). The problem only appeared when we switched to BT.

I can only assume that the BT WiFi router manages traffic differently? But that's just a complete shot in the dark. Anyway £25 spent on powerline adapters and the issue was resolved for me. 

[licquorice]

BT Smart Hub 2 Ultrafast Dual-Band MIMO 802.11 AC AC 1733MBPS Wireless Router

• Features Gigabit LAN ports and integrates an ADSL2+, VDSL2 and G.fast modem and FXS port (phone).
• Two DECT antenna and the functionality to enable any DECT CATiq 2.1 compliant phone to work with the hub without needing a base station.
• supports 802.11 b/g/n/ac 3×3 MIMO on 2.4 GHz, and 802.11 a/n/ac 4×4 MIMO on 5GHz, has four Gigabit LAN ports, a single USB 2.0 socket and a modem that works with ADSL2+ and VDSL2 services.
• Smart Hub Box contents: Setup Guide, Power Supply, Wireless Card, RJ11 and Network Cable and Filter.