So, what my issue is here is that my dad has a laptop. Every single time he connects to the internet with that laptop, the network ping skyrockets to 500ms - 1000ms, and the Jitter goes up to 20ms - 60ms. This is literally rendering all gameplay on any online game almost impossible due to the unpredictable ping jumping around every single value known to man. I am pretty sure it is his laptop that is causing this issue though, as the issue stops whenever he closes his laptop, or shuts it down. The router I am using is one given by ISP CenturyLink: C1100T with 200Mhz clock speed. Our speed atm is 10Mbps Download and less than 0.5Mbps Upload. This is the best we can get in out area as CenturyLink is the only ISP in our area. But what I am trying to figure out here is: How can one laptop cause so much Jitter on the network, and could it be fixed by changing routers or is there some other way to diagnose why his laptop is causing this issue to begin with and fix it?
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Are both of your devices connected to the router via Wi-Fi, or via Ethernet? Does the laptop produce a large amount of traffic?– grawity_u1686Commented Dec 21, 2018 at 5:25
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The laptop was originally connected via Ethernet, so tried swapping it to Wifi. That fixed the issue for maybe 3 minutes, then it started getting bad again. My PC is always on Ethernet, so idk why something on Wifi would cause so much crud. Idk anything about the traffic, as my router is crap and can't check the usage of bandwidth with it. But I would assume the laptop has a lot of traffic, even though all he uses it for as far as I know is watching videos or facebook.– Skyro468Commented Dec 21, 2018 at 6:44
2 Answers
Those are the classic symptoms of bufferbloat.
Run http://dslreports.com/speedtest and post a link to your results page showing your bufferbloat grade.
If your bufferbloat grade is poor, load OpenWrt on your router and enable Cake (which includes FQ-CoDel).
If you can't or don't want to load OpenWrt, consider buying an evenroute.com IQrouter, which is a turn-key solution for fixing bufferbloat (I haven't used one so can't fully vouch for it).
Some people wrongly assume that a congested network link automatically means that latency will spike. As it turns out, that only happens when bufferbloat is present.
Some people wrongly advise using QoS to prioritize gaming traffic over streaming or downloading traffic. That's just robbing Peter to pay Paul. And if your gaming traffic by itself congests your network, you'll still see the latency spike. QoS is a hacky/klugey way of shifting the symptoms. It doesn't fix the root cause. Smart Queue Management (like FQ-CoDel) fixes the root cause.
You can read more at bufferbloat.net.
It may not be helpful to change the router. If you see facebook or online video, it will generate high traffic, which will lead to increased network delay. It is recommended to find operators to improve the overall bandwidth of the network.
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This is just propagating a bad false myth. Congestion only leads to high latency when your router is dumb about queue management and ends up with bufferbloat. The solution is to use Smart Queue Management such as FQ-CoDel. Read up at bufferbloat.net.– SpiffCommented Dec 21, 2018 at 15:37