Ping spikes on wifi

greedy123 · 23 Jul 2016 at 07:50

For a number of months now I've been getting ping spikes over wifi. This is most noticable when playing games online and I get ping spikes of 500ms to servers. From what I can tell it is a local issue as I also get a (smaller) ping spike just to the router:

Does anyone have any ideas for how to diagnose/fix this issue? I've already bought a new wifi adaptor (went from a USB one to a PCI one) with no change. The problem seems to go away in safemode if the only thing I've worked out so far so I think it may be software related.

Steveocee · 23 Jul 2016 at 09:12

Is there any chance of temporarily running a network cable between them and seeing if the spikes carry on through that?

**As you're only at Nottingham, if you need/want a long network cable let me know as I have tonnes knocking around.

greedy123 · 23 Jul 2016 at 13:33

Hi thanks for the reply!

Thanks for the offer, very kind of you. I have tried replacing the wifi connection with ethernet and that removes the problem from what I can tell. I should have said so in the OP, my bad.

It's hard to tell how frequent the spike occur as I only notice them during gaming. When I run ping tests without gaming, I can go ages without seeing any. I'm wondering if it's something like steam trying to run update checks while I'm playing or something.

I've tried running a ping check from my ipad at the same time and there are no spikes that coincide so I don't think it's a router problem.

Rroff · 23 Jul 2016 at 13:35

You'll always get something like that with WiFi between the way it scans for networks and especially in areas with lots of WiFi congestion - you can try messing about with disabling Wireless Zero config or whatever but it probably won't do much.

May or may not be applicable: https://www.reddit.com/r/GlobalOffensive/comments/3ahg59/fix_for_wireless_ping_spikes/

greedy123 · 23 Jul 2016 at 15:21

That's what I feared, Rroff! I've tried disabling the scan as per the link but made no difference. Thanks for the suggestion though.

I may just have to move the phone point to my study and then network to my pc via ethernet instead. Such a pain!

KIA · 23 Jul 2016 at 17:24

greedy123 said:
I've already bought a new wifi adaptor (went from a USB one to a PCI one) with no change.

Different chipset?

greedy123 · 23 Jul 2016 at 18:27

KIA said:
Different chipset?

Think so, USB was TP-Link TL-WN821N and the PCI is a Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I

Steveocee · 23 Jul 2016 at 19:01

Check local wifi to make sure there isn't anything close and on the same channel. Moving away may help but stick to the "normal" channels (1,6 & 11).

greedy123 · 23 Jul 2016 at 23:00

I've tried all the channels in the past to no avail. I live in a suburban area so there are about 10 wifi signals in range.

Steveocee · 24 Jul 2016 at 07:31

Yes however sometimes in range can mean only just and the channel be quite clear for your use and sometimes you could be co-channeled with your neighbour in every direction. It's worth checking what's about.

Are you using 2Ghz or 5Ghz wifi?