XR1000v2 Random ping spikes at modem AND router, while wired?

Question

I have been seeing ping spikes for months and have been going back and forth with visits from my ISP trying to "solve" the problem and nothing they do seems to actually fix it.

They have replaced the lines outside on two separate occasions, different lines I guess, and keep saying that the signal is better that they are seeing but I'm still always seeing the random spikes through pingplotter and I'm sure it is interferring with gameplay cause I do see random ping ms changes on game servers that don't make any sense.

Both the modem and router are brand new. I've used the brand new ethernet included in both so I don't think it can be an ethernet cable issue or even the "hardware" since we haven't had storms to interfere with them.

I have the modem plugged in directly into the wall instead of the surge protector since I saw that suggested elsewhere in another thread but I physically can't do both the modem and router but I also tried just the router and the same problem persisted so I don't think that's it.

The only thing I haven't tried switching out is the coax cable from the wall to the modem or worse case the one from outside coming into the house that's in the walls which I'm hoping is the last resort problem.

It doesn't feel like it would be a coax cable problem simply because it's "randomly" happening in terms of spikes but constantly throughout the day regardless of time or bandwidth usage. There was even a time at like 3am where it was stable for the whole 10 minute pingplotter window which makes it more weird.

I have tested this while having the modem directly connected to the PC and I still see the same problem. And since I can see the ping on some game servers I even see it on PS5 so I don't think it's my PC issue either.

I also saw the same problem using a different modem and router previously because that was the whole point in me buying the new ones and they didn't solve it.

So when I do have the modem directly connected to the PC and I ping the modem in theory that should also remove the problem of it being the coax cables cause it's just looking at my home network between the two of them correct?

So I am at my wit's end trying to figure out what is causing this.

- Modem: Netgear Nighthawk CM2000
- Router: Netgear Nighthawk Pro Gaming WiFi 6 Router (XR1000)
- Speed: 300D / 20U

Netduma-Fraser · Answer

The interval of 1 second is too frequent on ping plotter, it can show issues that aren't actually present, change it to the default and then provide a full screenshot of the program please. What is the degree of the random ms changes in game exactly?

zeth07 · Answer

I attached a new one with it set to 2.5, I don't know if that's default but maybe it is. Also I think the 2nd hop is my modem/default gateway? so I blacked that out since I'm not sure if that's personal or not.

The first one I just did it to google but this 2nd one is to a game server that I know is in California just to see the discrepancy with what I KNOW should be around 100ms to CA compared to the first few hops which are supposed to be local and definitely not 160ms spike on a 2nd hop or 154ms spike on the 3rd hop.

But I also don't think I should be seeing a 12ms spike on my router but these spikes are less frequent compared to the 2nd hop ones.

In a game like Street Fighter 6 I have seen it drop me down to 3bars which I believe is above 75ms by their standards but also it would for whatever reason sometimes freak out the matchmaking lobbies recommend me to join EU servers even when I'm on the east coast USA.

Marvel Rivals lets me see actual ping to different servers directly and I keep seeing it flucuate from Green to Yellow. And when I do their own diagnostics it would say my ping to VA is like 75ms which seems high since I live in PA but then it would say the Optimal Server is Sydney, Australia with like 250ms and 50% packet loss even when the others are detected as better. Which I don't understand. So it keeps changing regardless.

This is all without the Geo Filter active because I tend to play with friends from across the country sometimes, so that's not really the issue since it's happening outside of games of course. I'm also not using a VPN or anything.

Netduma-Fraser · Answer

Keep in mind game servers don't always respond to pings so it could be giving you a false indication of a bad connection - it would be better to use a close server such as a local news site for example. The bottom part of the graph is what you want to focus on generally as the hops can just indicate that ICMP pings are treated as a low priority which isn't really an issue as it wouldn't actually be that bad with normal traffic.

Where is it exactly you're located? Are there not any close servers to you there? I would have thought you'd have a much better ping to local servers than 75ms generally. What times of the day are you generally playing and do you notice a better connection/lower ping when you play during times you wouldn't normally?

zeth07 · Answer

Oh I was just using that game server as a reference in terms of the actual distance just from previous experience with pinging servers I basically I know I should have about 100ms-120ms to CA because of where I live.Which is why when my local outbound connection is spiking above 100ms that's a clear problem. I live in Pennsylvania. Since I play a lot of online games and have a good frame of reference for ping based on distance I already have an idea of how bad things are or not.Even just testing from speedtests with the ping and seeing the distance, or other things like testing Twitch servers.Just as an example I started Marvel Rivals right now and have seen the Northern Virgina server have 36ms with a Green connection and then spike to 92ms randomly.I don't think there's a noticeable difference in time played because I've been doing the testing sometimes even at like 11am when no one is around and surely not any kind of peak time for the neighborhood.Fast.com also shows that I get rather high Loaded ms. Right now it says 70ms and normal speeds but the other day I tested it and had about half speeds with 11ms Unloaded and 158ms Loaded which is an insane number.Here is another pingplotter one that I did for a local news site instead.

zeth07 · Answer

Here is another direct example in Marvel Rivals, sorry for the actual photo but doing it through PS5 on a separate account so I don't have the screenshots options linked to my other account.The ping itself is reasonable but for some reason it has 95% packet loss, the other day when I checked it said 0% packet loss. But still you can see the same situation where it is saying my optimal server is Sydney with a ping of 227ms and 60% packet loss which makes no sense.I also don't know why it doesn't show the ping between other devices which I've seen other people post with about the Marvel Rivals diagnostic, like between My Device -&gt; Router and Router -&gt; ISP Gateway but maybe that's just a console thing and it won't show me anyway.But again just to reiterate this isn't a problem exclusive to Marvel Rivals I'm just showing this as an example.EDIT: I ran the network diagnostics again on Marvel Rivals and this time it got it at 94ms and 95% Packet loss still at Northern Virginia but at least this time it is telling me I'm already at the optimal node which is true but kind of silly to say that after it got worse. Makes no sense.

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XR1000v2 Random ping spikes at modem AND router, while wired?

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