Latency

[CrimpOn]

What tools are available to you to investigate latency?  The "latency issue" came up on the forum last March, and I performed some experiments that concluded (in my case) that latency was partly a function of the WiFi firmware on devices.  I also had an arsenal of tools available to me:

• Windows 7 Desktop for the test machine
• Windows 7 Desktop as a test subject
• Windows 10 Lenovo Laptop as a test subject
• (old) Acer Laptop running Linux Mint as a test subject
• Raspberry Pi 3B+ as a test subject

I installed hrping, which generates ICMP requests (ping) with high precision. https://www.cfos.de/en-us/download/start-download.htm?file=/hrping-v507.zip 

I used hrping from the command line to send 5,000 ping requests to each of the test subjects, over an ethernet connection to the Orbi and when they were WiFi connected to the Orbi.  What I found was that (in general) WiFi takes longer than ethernet as I expected.  And, that the Linux Mint ethernet and WiFi drivers on that old Acer laptop are not great:

I also did some ping tests with the Pi connected to my Orbi satellite, both wired and WiFi, and with the satellite connected to the Orbi with WiFi backhaul and ethernet backhaul.  (This is where that 50ft ethernet cord came in.)

So, my conclusion last March was that MY Orbi did not exhibit excessive latency for three test computers, but did for one test computer.

A lot has changed since March.  There is new Orbi firmware (2.3.5.30 and now 2.5.1.8) and there have been software updates to all of my test computers.  Even have a Raspberry Pi 4B that I did not have before.

Sorry to ramble on.  My point is, "What tools are available to you to confirm that the Orbi is the source of the latency issue?"  Are there other devices in the house that will respond to ping (desktops, laptops, other?)  Do you have a computer that can generate and record pings?

[James_Wheelz]

I have 2 laptops and a desktop. How would I generate and record ping? Well tomorrow morning I'm going to plug my big gaming laptop into the modem since it's the only portable thing I have that has ethernet.

[CrimpOn]

If I were doing this, I would start with this:

• Download hrping to the gaming laptop and extract (unzip) the files into someplace where you can open a command prompt.
  hrping is a "DOS program" run from a command prompt (C:).
  For example, I have a folder on the C: drive so I can open a Command Window and do a "cd c:\folder".
• Unplug the modem and connect the laptop directly to the modem.
• Verify that the laptop "works" on the internet.  It should get the same IP address as the public IP address that the Orbi system had.
  Test by opening a web browser.  Should work like normal.
  Do a Speed Test (i.e. http://speedtest.net  or http://fast.com)  All is good, correct?
• Open a command prompt as an administrator, change to the directory where the hrping program is and type in:
  hrping -n 10 8.8.8.8
  This will ping the Google DNS server 10 times.  The speed that it reports is the best you will ever get.
  (You could ping 100 times and see if there is any substantial change.)
• At this point, if there is substantial latency, you are SCREWED.

Now that the raw internet speed and latency are established, unplug the laptop and plug the Orbi back in.

You can do the same test, from the gaming laptop when it is connected to the Orbi (ethernet, WiFi, or both).
Try to ping Google, the desktop, the X-Box, whatever else you have that will respond to ping.
I would do at least 500 pings (maybe 100 for Google).  (The 5,000 pings I did in my test took so long I would go have a shower or eat breakfast while they finished.)

If anything that goes through the Orbi, to anywhere shows high latency this is not good.  In my case, only the one old laptop was slow.

This may not be the sort of thing you want to spend time on or enjoy.