Ping spikes

[Davosi]

Hi, 

I have the bt smart hub 2. Since December whenever I connect any devices to the WiFi, phones, tv, laptop… they cause my pc and PlayStation to be unstable online. Consistent ping spikes making online gaming unusable. We’ve had bt internet for 3 years and never had any issues until December. It’s a small flat and there’s only two of us. I’ve had three new routers, changed just about every setting possible. 

to me it seems like the WiFi devices are hogging all the bandwidth, but this has never been an issue before. Any help with fixing this would be appreciated. 

we have 70mb connection fttc 

[countrypaul]

Our eldest teenager was complaining earlier this evening about terrible ping times (around 200ms) when playing online, we to have FTTC around 70Mb/s We traced it to my wife's PC having been rebooted and M$ Onedrive trying to update everything. As soon as it was paused the ping times for gaming returned to normal (around 10ms).

All our PCs are hard wired via Gb ethernet rather than WiFi so a slightly different setup but could you have something similar taking place over your WiFi? 

Have you tried a reset on your SH2 (rather than just a reboot)?

[Davosi]

Hi. 

Thanks for the reply.

The thing is, every smart device connected individually causes these spikes. If I turn off the WiFi and just use my pc or PlayStation online there are no issues and the ping is very stable. It’s not a combination of all these devices being used at the same time either. 

I’ve even checked the speed of the internet whilst I’m having the problem and it’s not less than I would expect. So I can’t see how these devices are causing ping spikes if the download speed is fine and not being maxed out. 

I haven't reset the router because I got 3 new ones which havnt helped unfortunately. 

[countrypaul]

Have you got a WiFi Analyzer? I installed one on my laptop when chasing a problem and found it very helpful.

If there is interference on your WiFi it may help track down what is causing it. Obviously interference is only one possibility but could result in retransmissions or just eat up CPU cycles on the SH2.

Does the problem show up on both 2.4 & 5GHz ? If you disable each in turn and see whether it happens (I am assuming you have some 5GHz devices) it may give a clue as to what is happening.

Unless someone else has seen the same or similar it may be a case of trying systematically to track the problem down.

Do you have DV, if not can you try a different hub (not an SH2 but a different make) just to see if it is specific to the SH2 or your environment? If you can't borrow a different hub (I assume you don't have n old one lying about) can you try an access point with WiFi on your hub disabled (you may want to set the SSID & Pwd on the AP to the same as your SH2 to avoid updating everything else. 

[Davosi]

I don’t have one of those, also forgot to mention that the pc and PlayStation are both plugged in with an Ethernet cable.

yea I tried the 2.4 and 5 ghz Chanel’s on and off and it’s didn’t help. 

I think my next move is a new router, which is very annoying. 

[countrypaul]

Since you have tried 4 routers already I would be suspicious of it simply being the router. Given how many SH2 routers are out there I would have expected to have heard lots of identical problems being reported if that was the case.

If you do go for a different router make sure you can return it if not happy. If the problem appears on a completely different router as well as the SH2 you will have to check out the WiFi in more detail.

Just to be clear:

1) With all WiFi disabled on the SH2 no problems with ping times.

2) If 2.4 GHz is turned  off on the SH2 but 5GHz is turned on, the ping problem appears is that without clients connected or only with?

3) If 5 GHz is turned  off on the SH2 but 2.4GHz is turned on, the ping problem appears is that without clients connected or only with?

[Davosi]

Hi, 

Yea that’s right, with no devices connected the ping stay completely stable at 5-9ms 

Ive tried with 2.4 and 5 ghz on and off but it has no effect.

It seems to be any sort of video streaming that causes the main issue. Instagram reels, Netflix or similar, if they are on the connection the ping is very unstable. Again this is even if only one device is connected. Last night my partner was using bbc iPlayer, nothing else and the ping was spiking. As soon as she paused it, it stopped. I’ve also done a speed test while Netflix or bbc is running to see if the download is effected but I’m still getting a good download speed. 

[countrypaul]

What is your upload speed like? I ask as if your upload speed is low then it could be that outgoing packets are delayed which would show up as an increased ping time but make little difference to downloads. For reference our upload shows as 17.5 Mb/s.

Does the problem show up if you have something simple like a single WiFi smart switch connected rather than something that continually communicates?

What version of firmware is your router using? 

[Davosi]

The upload speed sits around 17-19mb. Even when streaming video content. 

Sorry I’m not sure what a WiFi smart switch is. I’m Just using the router. 

the firmware is v0.41.01.10137

ive just downloaded pingplotter and whenever i press play Netflix, pingplotter goes crazy. It starts from the first jump after my router address and then goes like a wave to the other servers. 

[countrypaul]

Looks like its a "new feature" in the SH2 & you're no the first to find it:

Firmware Update v41 causing gaming issues - BT Community

Sorry I should have checked for that earlier.