How do I troubleshoot/solve jitter problems?

[Novirius]

I am playing an online game (Final Fantasy XIV) and am experiencing problems with jitter. My current setup is an Asus Onhub router upstairs with the respective PC downstairs (Apartment) using a Netgear A6200 wifi adapter. I have enabled port forwarding as seen here. The problem primarily affects me during US primetime (5PM-1AM EST). You can see the results in this image. I am unsure if the issue is related to the game's servers, specifically, because I notice occasional connection problems while playing other games as well. Some have suggested that the only solution is to go wired, but running a wire from the top floor to my room is a long way and would be troublesome for people traveling along the stairs. It's also a decent investment for something that may not work. The other solution I thought about, but was unsure if it would work, was to create a mesh point by placing another Asus Onhub in my room and running a wire from there. However, like I said, I don't know if that would improve the situation.

 

[coxhaus]

Have you tried playing closer to the router? Are the problems gone?

 

[Novirius]

I haven't tried that since the other coaxial outlets here did not work when we settled here and Comcast wanted to charge us like $70 or something ridiculous to fix it. I could try moving the PC up there one night and seeing if it works, but it's a fairly large case + monitors, so I am hoping to avoid that type of testing if possible.

 

[Easy Rhino]

What's your internet service from your ISP? how fast? What brand/model cable modem or DSL modem?

here are other things I would think about before buying another router or extender or access point:

1) Cable modems with an Intel Puma 6 chipset have increased lag and jitter problems. There's lots of complaints about this floating around the web, and I confirmed it on my own two cable modems.

2) Do you have other people in the house using the internet during that same time? (gaming, streaming, etc). if so, setting some QoS settings might help to prioritize gaming. I don't know what kind of QoS settings the onhub has. but it's worth checking.

3) Since it tends to happen prime time, it may just be bad luck coming from Square's servers, out of your control.

4) Your A6200 adaptor, can you tell if it's got a broadcom chip (v1) or a realtek chip (v2), I have an adaptor that uses a cousin of the realtek chip (RTL8812BU instead of RTL9912AU), and man, it's flaky. You can try updating drivers or trying to switch bands (5ghz instead of 2.4ghz or vice versa), and seeing if you get improvement

How much bandwidth do you get per speedtest on your computer downstairs? If it's less than the full bandwidth from the ISP (less than half as a rule of thumb), then it might be worth investigating ways to 'fix' your wireless connection.

4) At this point I would recommend either moving the computer upstairs, or running a long ethernet cable, as a diagnostic tool. If the lag/jitter goes away, then you know you should be futzing with the wireless connection.

You can get an app like netgear wifi analytics (or inssider for your desktop), and use it near your desktop, and see how strong the signal is from teh routher (like -70db or whatever). If the signal is really week, then inserting an extra extender in the middle could help.

The onhub is a 3x3 wireless device, your a6200 adaptor is just 2x2, so there's a chance that you'd get the best improvement if the repeater is somewhere in between halfway to closer to the desktop.

My personal hunch? it's not your wifi.

 

[Novirius]

Sorry for the late response!
1. I am using an Arris SB6183, so the chipset is BCM33843.
2. I do have other people using streaming services (PS Vue), but I have my PC set to priority device at those times.
4. I looked it up, but I'm not sure how to tell if this one is using realtek or broadcom chip.

My download speed to my phone is 214 (Modem speed test is 284) with 1ms jitter. My PC only gets 70Mbps down (jitter not shown on website).

I used the app and it showed -48dBm.

 

[Klueless]

I like @Easy Rhino 's idea. Grab a 50' length of Ethernet cable and just loosely lay it out so you can test running your game over Ethernet.

My download speed to my phone is 214 (Modem speed test is 284) with 1ms jitter. My PC only gets 70Mbps down (jitter not shown on website).

Was your phone in the same location as your PC? (Some PC Speed Tests will show you jitter.)

You can see the results in this image.

Not sure what I'm looking at here. Looks "bad" but it also looks like an ad?

The problem primarily affects me during US primetime (5PM-1AM EST).

So you're thinking there might be a carrier load problem during primetime? Try Ping Plotter or something like that. It runs continuous "pings" and "trace routes" reporting everything it finds throughout the day in easy to read charts and graphs. What it will sometimes show up is a bad/overloaded device between you and your target site.

 

[Novirius]

The phone was next to the PC when I tested it. I reinstalled the wifi adapter's drivers and redid some of the settings and seem to be getting much better/comparable speeds. With the website you linked, it was around 200Mbps down and 2ms jitter. I have downloaded Ping Plotter and noticed issues at an ashburn and san jose node. So, I'm thinking it's unrelated to my wifi.

 

[Easy Rhino]

so now we're at the most practical solution: move to an apartment next door to the game's server

 

[ColinTaylor]

I have downloaded Ping Plotter and noticed issues at an ashburn and san jose node.

Don't be too concerned about any intermediate hops, the only thing of relevance is the final destination figures. It's not uncommon for intermediate nodes to not respond quickly (or at all) to ping requests. The intermediate figures are only useful in identifying an issue if one of the nodes and all of the subsequent nodes show the same poor response times.

 

[coxhaus]

You need to run your game attached to your router with wire with no other connections.. Then that will determine if your problem is in your network or outside.

If it is your problem then you need to test one at a time to determine where the problem lies.

 

[sfx2000]

You need to run your game attached to your router with wire with no other connections.. Then that will determine if your problem is in your network or outside.

If it is your problem then you need to test one at a time to determine where the problem lies.

I would agree - temporarily cable up with ethernet and check there...

WiFi is always going to be a bit bursty - it's a shared medium...

 

[Novirius]

I have a wire coming in from Amazon, so I'll be able to test that when it happens. In the meanwhile, this was the Pingplotter result: https://i.imgur.com/i1mB9to.png

Not sure what I'm looking at here. Looks "bad" but it also looks like an ad?

I realize I missed this. That image is from a tunneling service called wtfast.

 

[Klueless]

My compliments on your follow through!

I have a wire coming in from Amazon, so I'll be able to test that when it happens. In the meanwhile, this was the Pingplotter result: https://i.imgur.com/i1mB9to.png

Ouch, that's a tough one to read.

Don't be too concerned about any intermediate hops, the only thing of relevance is the final destination figures. It's not uncommon for intermediate nodes to not respond quickly (or at all) to ping requests. The intermediate figures are only useful in identifying an issue if one of the nodes and all of the subsequent nodes show the same poor response times.

Ping (ICMP) is the Rodney Dangerfield of IP, it gets no respect. Some devices will totally ignore ping and others will answer a ping if they've nothing better to do.

Typically if a device is bad then all the devices after it will also show as bad. Hop 10, with hop 11 following almost meet that criteria but then hop 13 says, no, I'm working (hops 14 & 15 aren't displayed).

One could argue that hops 10 & 11 could be under some randomized stress. Try sliding the sample window back through the history and see if it shows anything more definitive.

Nice job on tweaking your PC, your efforts should pay off in the long run. What about your friends who play the same game? What are their experiences?

I look forward to hearing how things go when you get your test cable (you could connect directly to your modem to isolate other variables).

Are we having fun yet?

 

[Novirius]

The one closest to me does not experience any issues (But he has FiOS if that makes a difference), but the rest are in Canada or other stretches of the US, so it's difficult to compare (Some in Canada report issues). One thing is common though -- all of us require some tunneling service to play the game. I'll try to get another sample to scale through tonight, but I will need to wait until prime time to be most accurate. I actually didn't realize I cut out hops in that image before closing the program.

 

[Klueless]

Tunneling you say? That's a layer of complexity I've never played with. Some tunnels "encrypt" which can be a performance bottleneck on some devices. Did you enable VPN on your PC or on your router?

You could run/test through non-prime and prime time; might make for an interesting comparison. Just slide the sample window back through time ...

 

[Novirius]

It should tunnel on the PC I believe. Example programs are Wtfast, Battleping, Mudfish, and Pingzapper if that helps clarify the products I mean.

Morning hours by comparison: https://i.imgur.com/Ml5IHTh.png

 

[coxhaus]

Wow. Tunneling a game.

 

[Klueless]

It should tunnel on the PC I believe. Example programs are Wtfast, Battleping, Mudfish, and Pingzapper if that helps clarify the products I mean.

Yep, sounds like ...

Morning hours by comparison: https://i.imgur.com/Ml5IHTh.png

Wow, ping times are half and almost no packet loss. I'm becoming swayed that you've been right all along. Hope not because then how does one fix someone else's problem?

Maybe have one of your friends run a trace route (tracert) from the Windows command line? Do you have any hops that are in common? We are beginning to look at hops 10 & 11 as "points of interest". Do your friends pass through them? If not maybe you can try a different tunnel partner? It might send your packets along a different path?

 

[Novirius]

Here are the wired results (prime time): https://i.imgur.com/7fKgffP.png

When the player nearest to me logs on, I'll ask them to run a tracert and see what happens. Thus far, I have tried Wtfast, Noping (Sketchy, so I removed it), and Mudfish. I would like to try Battleping, but I'll probably want to borrow someone else's account to do that instead of paying (15min trial isn't enough imo).

 

[Klueless]

Aargh ... how frustrating.

• The PC works during non-prime time plus you've tweaked it.
• Same problems when it's hardwired.
• Hop 10 looks "suspect" but not in the "traditional" way, high packet loss starts there but doesn't carry through. On the other hand high latency starts there and does carry through.
• Tried different tunnel partners in the hopes of bypassing hop 10 but that doesn't work either.
• Other players/customers work fine.

I'm at a loss, maybe the tracerts from your friends will show something.