lag spikes during games and skype conversations

Question

I do not know if this is the place to ask this question but im gonna give it a go!

We have a very basic network setup at home but when i play games/skype aka use internet as streaming, im having massive lag spikes. The people i talk to cant understand me and gaming is also horrible.

My setup:

Modem --> router --> router(without dhcp) (--> desktop (old setup)) LAG

modem(same as the other one) --> desktop NO LAG SO FAR

The downstairs router is a sitecom X6 N900 and the upstair router a N300.

More detail about the lag:

Whilst skyping people suddenly drop and come back after 2/3 sec this is the same in teamspeak. In gaming like counter strike global offensive im rubberbanding, teleporting etc.

I did a factory reset multiple times on both routers, i reset them by turning off power on all devices etc. And im at a loss. My dad thinks the internet is fine because he can open his emails but that is total different type of internet usage.

Directly connecting my pc to the modem seems to fix the problem but havent tested it properly yet.

troubleshooting

Answer 1

Lag spikes on a congested network are almost always caused by a well-known bug called bufferbloat.

The fix for bufferbloat is to use network middleboxes (modems, gateways, routers, APs) that don't have the bug. That is, you only want to use equipment that does "smart queueing", which latency-aware active queue management (AQM). The AQM algorithms that qualify as Smart Queueing are CoDel/FQ-CoDel and PIE.

Since it's not always possible to replace all your network middleboxes with ones that do smart queueing, one workaround is to place one smart-queueing-capable router at the head of your home network, and enable traffic shaping in that box to make it an ever-so-slight bottleneck so that the Smart Queueing can kick in before bloated buffer queues build up on any other devices on your network.

An off-the-shelf solution to do this is the IQrouter by evenroute.com. Or you can go to bufferbloat.net and read up about how to roll your own using aftermarket router firmware such as OpenWrt (now LEDE), DD-WRT, etc.

A lead engineer of Speedtest by Ookla (speedtest.net) wrote up an article on how he combatted bufferbloat on his own home network: http://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/maximized-speed-non-gigabit-internet-connection/

Answer 2

it might be that the patch (UTP) cable you are using is running near power lines. it is possible that because of this there is interference acros the cable.., unshielded UTP cables are susceptible to these issues. testing your internal connection to other devices acros the network to see if there is package loss.. or ping spikes internally might give you a better idea. if you cannot detect any problems when doing this.., another idea might be to test the working computer upstairs.., and vice versa.

Answer 3

The routers cannot internally cause such a problem because they have enough throughput for any end-user normal internet line.

If you have a faulty connection somewhere, you will be able to test it with a simple ping -t command.

• Ping the closest router, then the next router, then the provider gateway.

• Let all 3 run for a while and do what you usually do.

• When the problem first time occurs, check which of them have time outs.

• If all 3 have time outs, it means the problem is between PC and closest router.

• If the other 2 except closest router have timeouts, it means the problem is between the 2 routers.

• If only the provider gateway IP times out, it means it's their problem.

Other than this, make sure the routers are actually properly configured. Use different private classes for them (If you have 192.168.1.1 on the 1st one, use something different on the second, like 192.168.2.1).