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Having large lag spikes on WiFi every 10-15 seconds
Good day forums, I finally made the jump to a mesh network last month with the RBK50, one additional satellite, and one plug in satellite. So far it has been great- I have a large old home with thi...
When the PC is wired directly to the Orbi router, gaming operates as you expect, but when using WiFi, there are regular interruptions about every 15 seconds. And, both the PC and a Mac have the same problem on WiFi. How did you arrive at the measurements of 22ms vs. 2500ms?
The obvious conclusion is that something is affecting your WiFi signal every 15 seconds. Many WiFi analyzer apps are set to sweep once per second. When you watch the "moving graph" of the signal levels of access points (yours and others nearby), does your router signal drop every 15 seconds. (The analyzer on my Android phone app calls it "Time Graph".) It is normal for WiFi signals to "appear and disappear", but a regular pattern may indicate that some neighbor's system is affecting yours.
With a house full of devices, there is a chance that you have inadverdantly created a network loop that is allowing broadcast packets to create a "storm" that overwhelms the WiFi signal. Some networked sound systems have been reported to have issues when connected to the home WiFi network and their own private WiFi network at the same time.
When you connect to the Orbi "debug page" (usually 192.168.1.1/debug.htm), what does it show for CPU load? (i.e. every time the screen pops up, immediately refresh the screen. For example, my Orbi reports values from 6% to 45%, but is typically between 10% and 20%.
Agree with CrimpOn that it can be some of your attached devices which is impacting the performance of Orbi.
What other wired devices do you have connected to Orbi? Do you have any wired mesh speakers? Any IPTV services?
Ugh, man this is killing me, these 2500 spikes are destroying my expereince.
Connected Devices -
2 Nest Thermostats
5 Nest smoke detectors
1 Ring Doorbell and 3 Ring cameras
1 Smartlock
4 Google Home speakers
1 Apple TV
50+ Smartlights
Important to note, nothing is actually running through a direct connection to the router or satellits, everything is wi-fi enabled. I moved my channel to one that was not occupied by my neighboorhood as well.
So, I would try this, factory reset and setup from scratch. This time, set up a different SSID name. This will prevent current wifi devices from connecting to the system. Lets isolate the system from everything else. Wire connect just one PC to the system.
Check for spikes.
Add just 1 wireless device, start with a phone.
Check for spike.
Let us know what you find here. I'm wondering if there are spikes with mimimal devices connected.
You can change the SSID back to what you had been using.
Destructormode wrote:
Ugh, man this is killing me, these 2500 spikes are destroying my expereince.
Connected Devices -
2 Nest Thermostats
5 Nest smoke detectors
1 Ring Doorbell and 3 Ring cameras
1 Smartlock
4 Google Home speakers
1 Apple TV
50+ Smartlights
Important to note, nothing is actually running through a direct connection to the router or satellits, everything is wi-fi enabled. I moved my channel to one that was not occupied by my neighboorhood as well.
Sorry, I got in a hurry and didn't finish. I would refresh the Orbi debug screen for at least a full minute (maybe two), hoping to catch at least a couple of those 15 second spikes. (Sounds like a long time, but my screen takes six seconds to refresh. I also have no idea what Orbi is reporting for CPU Load. Is it since the last report? The last six seconds? No idea.) If the CPU hits over 90% about every 15 seconds, that might be part of the problem. On the other hand, if the CPU never goes over 50%, whatever is happening is not affecting the Orbi.
Back in my networking days, we would occasionally get ourselves into a "spanning tree" problem where there multiple paths through the network to the same device. If the device decided to repeat a broadcast, that same broadcast would come back around and it would repeat it again, faster and faster until the network would just die. Sophisticated network switches employ a "spanning tree algorithm" to detect and prevent that. (Here my memory has gone blank.) The "bottom line" is that Ethernet networks although surprisingly robust, have distinct vulnerabilities.
I am tempted to suggest capturing some traffic, but I am not convinced that would be productive. (There is another option on the debug screen to "Enable LAN/WAN Packet Capture." Let it run for two minutes, save the file to the PC, and look at it using Wireshark. (1) This may be more technical than you are comfortable with, and (2) I am not confident that it would show anything. The LAN interface does not seem to be affected by whatever is happening.
Another suggestion is to turn some things off and see if the problem goes away. Using a binary search, for example, you could turn off half of the WiFi devices in the house and see if the problem goes away. If not, probably none of them are the cause. If so, then restore half of the devices and check again. I would start by powering off the sound systems.
I refreshed the debug screen a number of times in a row, and here are my values:
17
25
17
14
43
12
48
19
47
14
14
43
28
19
37
15
This was done after I confirmed the spikes were actively happeneing.
When the spikes occur, what network are you on? 5G or 2.4?
If you can test to see if the spikes are on only one band that would be useful. If it is on both bands, it would indicate either the backhaul is having issues or the Orbi itself is problematic.
There is a new version of firmware in beta testing that has resolved some backhaul issues as well as some others... perhaps it would be faster for you to join the beta, update your firmware and see if that resolves the issue.
The beta test link is here if you want to try that approach
Destructormode wrote:
I refreshed the debug screen a number of times in a row, and here are my values:
17
25
17
14
43
12
48
19
47
14
14
43
28
19
37
15
This was done after I confirmed the spikes were actively happeneing.
These results seem to confirm that your Orbi is not significantly different than mine as far as CPU load is concerned.
I read through this topic again and cannot find how you are measuring the lag that is usually 22ms but jumps to 2500ms every 15 seconds and is only present when the PC is connected using WiFi (and not when using Ethernet cable).
I am not aware of a (consumer, free) tool that can be used to measure WiFi radio congestion. It almost sounds like there is some appliance that is wiping out WiFi every 15 seconds. I also did not see a response to the question: "Is your PC connected at 2.4G or 5G?" (Sorry if I missed it.)
After many random samples taken under normal network conditions:
My RBR50 CPU load varies from 6-60%. Average was about 21
My RBS50 #1 ethernet backhaul CPU load varies from 8-49% Average was about 23
My RBS50 #2 ethernet backhaul CPU load varies from 10-45% Average was about 22
My RBS50 #3 wireless backhaul CPU load varies from 14-62% Average was about 33
Destructormode CrimpOn both have normal loads compared to mine. Note the wireless backhaul always seemed higher -- even with about the same number of devices.
CrimpOn wrote:
When the PC is wired directly to the Orbi router, gaming operates as you expect, but when using WiFi, there are regular interruptions about every 15 seconds. And, both the PC and a Mac have the same problem on WiFi. How did you arrive at the measurements of 22ms vs. 2500ms?
Destructormode I didn’t see a reply to this question, sorry if I missed it, how do you make this lag measurements? Using ping?
Can you also please confirm that the issue occurs always and periodically, every 15 seconds?
