Router knowledge needed please

[mikedigitales]

So I've got a BT fibre connection at home, 500 down - I'm using the supplied fibre modem and Smart Hub 2 but with the wifi turned off (I use a separate TP-Link EAP650).
All of the family PCs in the house are on ethernet, and connect ok, with good speeds when downloading from Steam etc. The problem I've been having is with multiplayer gaming, especially Fortnite, where if more than two of us (all in the same house) team up our pings go from being 15 ish to over 120 on all the PCs. This happens very constantly, and feels like maybe our ISP provided router maybe the weak link?

Before I blindly try chucking money at the problem, could anyone offer any knowledge, my google-fu hasn't helped so far.

 

[GregI]

Don't get me wrong the Smart Hub 2 is bad but it shouldn't be causing such strange ping spikes. Multiplayer gaming is pretty low resources.

Just to make sure before more technical stuff is discussed, proper servers set to EU and not NA in Fortnite? If it is set to EU, what I expect is happening: someone is downloading at max speed while you play, a classic case of bufferbloat: https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat

Run that test and post the resulting link. If it is bufferbloat, your "loaded" ping should also be over 100. Thinking more, I could be wrong with this. Unless BT has really went downhill, your loaded should be no more than 30ms. If you are actually close to 100 loaded then it is very likely the Smart Hub 2 is the problem. Can discuss further options once that test is run but it will rule lots out.

 

[mikedigitales]

Just ran it and got this result https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat?test-id=79c571e3-b129-473c-867a-2d1314c8bdbd

I did run it last night after reading about it a bit and was getting a grade C or D too.

I'll double check the it's all set to EU on each machine too, but definitely nothing else going on at the same time, checked for background downloads etc. The download speeds always seem to be ok, but thinking about it we have had issues with online gaming with one of us playing and one watching youtube/iplayer.

 

[whitecrook]

normally a router will have a bit for entering your max line speeds. This should be just below the actual max, so the routers qos works and then it should mean that you will never 'cap out' you connection.

 

[GregI]

Really a tough one to diagnose. I do agree that it's probably not download but that upload is concerning. Don't think I've seen jitter that bad before but there is also no way that someone is hogging your upload bandwidth constantly as you play... unless they really like to back up to the cloud constantly.

It pains me to say it but you might have to think about replacing the SH 2. The Smart Hub Plus has a semi decent chip in it to actually handle FTTP speeds. BT really should have given one to you as they have been about since mid 2023 but the cheapskates they are...

"Smart Hub Plus" into the normal place. Seen some selling brand new for £30 and free postage. If you still have problems... out of ideas. Seems strange to blame the ONT but who knows. Sorry all I have.

 

[mikedigitales]

Ahh well it looks like the Smart Hub 2 is without any QOS features, so that's probably not helping. I'll have to start looking for something to replace it with, maybe something I can run opnsense or openwrt on.