High latency spikes when simultaneously gaming online & using streaming video services

[brad20]

Hi everyone,

Whenever someone uses streaming video services such as Netflix it causes high latency spikes every few seconds in online games making the experience unplayable. 

I have the fibre 1 connection package (averages 46-48 download, 8-9 upload speeds), Nothing unusual about the setup and connected to the router via ethernet cable .

I have had a BT engineer come out and look at the line but said it's all fine. I have tried using a third party router with QoS features but nothing seemed to help with this problem.

I have read through the forums and it seems like a lot of users experienced this problem in the past and a fix was rolled out by mods to those who requested it https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/Recent-online-gaming-ping-spikes-when-streaming... 

Any help, advice, suggestions would be amazing.

[brad20]

Here is a ping plotter example of just gaming and another with gaming + Netflix streaming at 1080p from a different device:

gaming(valorant deathmatch)gaming(valorant deathmatch) + netflix 1080p stream

[NigelB72]

This issue is not unique to BT or BT hubs but the BT hubs done help. It's well documented issue with streaming services sending and receiving large packets of data that causing gaming packets to get lost of muddled. It can be resolved by buying a 3rd party router with better personalised controls to set parameters on data packets.

www.google.co.uk told me this in a few seconds with a straight forward search...

[brad20]

"I have tried using a third party router with QoS features but nothing seemed to help with this problem."

[NigelB72]

In that case it could just be that Netflix etc is taking up a large chunk of your bandwidth and therefore restricting the bandwidth available to gaming or causing conflicts. Personally, we have 100mbps G-Fast and experience none of these issues even when streaming 4K HDR via Netflix etc... And that's using the Smart Hub 2... 

The only other recommendation would be to try on a clean connection, ie. Nobody else using the data for anything elsewhere whilst your playing games.

[brad20]

I don't think it's a bandwidth issue. I monitored the network and on average streaming on Netflix was using 4- 6 Mbps download & gaming was 1-3 so that's around 40 that is unused. 

Edit: refer to the ping plotter I posted here for your other suggestion

[NigelB72]

Wouldn't that be consistent with Netflix etc requesting batches of data in large-ish chunks rather than a continuous stream? 

[brad20]

Thank you for your responses so far @NigelB72,

Netflix internet connection recommendations recommend a connection speed of 5 Mbps for HD content & 25 Mbps for 4k/UHD and I assume it's similar speeds for other streaming video services. 

I think you may have been partly right with what you suggested earlier that video game traffic is getting stuck behind video content.

However, I think it may be because the two types of traffic are being given different priorities on BT's end, so that's why setting up QoS on a third party router on my end had little impact. Mods have rolled out a 'fix' to this to users that requested it in older posts, so hopium.

[JohnC2]

Hi @brad20, thanks for posting, sorry that you're experiencing high ping when streaming.

 The issue you're referring to was fixed about 2 years ago at the network level. So the cause here is most likely different.

When testing the ping is your gaming device directly to the Hub via ethernet? (not to use any powerline adapters or ethernet switches).

Cheers

John

[brad20]

Thank you for your response @JohnC2.

Yes, that's correct gaming device is connected directly to the hub via ethernet cable.