High ping / packet loss after 4pm

[izuomaki]

Hi, I've been experiencing really bad ping times and packet loss recently. But the thing is it only happens around 4pm. (When people in my neighborhood start using the internet.) I ran a few WinMTR tests on 2 different IPs and here are the results (see attached images), is this normal? The issue could be the neighborhood node being overloaded. But I don't know who to call to talk about something like this.

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/MPnNdia (First ss is to Cloudflare's public DNS, second is to a Riot Game game server.)

Anyone had a similar experience? If so, any solution? 🙂

[SamusAran]

I see no real packet loss on your first screenshot.  The 4th router does not answer to all the ping requests probably because it prioritizes the normal packets over the ping requests so it chooses not to answer your pings.  If there was a problem there we would also see packet loss and constant high ping averages to all the other routers after it.

The second one however is very weird once you get to the Riot games network.  We see the same routers many times in the route like they are going back and forth with your packets : er01, er02, er01, er02....  It looks like a routing problem on thier side.

[izuomaki]

I'm having issues with the "modem.cable" ip, which I'm guessing is my neighborhood's node. During the day it's absolutely fine but during the evening it gets super laggy and I can't play online games without constantly lagging.
So what you're saying is, the node isn't answering to my ICMP requests because it's overloaded?
That's exactly my point, if my node is overloaded can't it be upgraded or something?

Bell just installed Fiber Optic in my neighborhood anyways so I probably will switch to Bell if I can't get this issue resolved.

I just want to be able to play Call Of Duty without rubber banding all over the **blip** place.

[izuomaki]

Wait could the modemcable IP be my Zyxel Modem? I thought the Helix router was the router and the modem at the same time. If I get a new modem could it maybe fix my issue?

[SamusAran]

10.0.0.1 is your router

modemcable.mc.videotron.ca is your modem

It is a bit weird that your modem answers in 40 ms.  while not that high, it should be around 10-20 ms

If you have Helix, both the modem and the router are in the Helix Gateway but they have seperate IP adresses.

Take a look at a traceroute to 1.1.1.1 with my Helix gateway :

WinMTR statistics

Host	Loss %	Sent	Recv	Best	Avrg	Wrst	Last
10.0.0.1	3	41	40	1	2	6	3
modemcable000.000-000.000.mc.videotron.ca	0	45	45	8	13	22	10
10.170.193.82	0	45	45	9	14	25	25
216.113.125.81	39	18	11	10	17	48	14
one.one.one.one	0	45	45	8	16	24	19

[SamusAran]

However, even if you modem had a ping under 20 ms, that would not fix the problem with the riotgames routers.  I seem to have the same weird routing with riotgames as you.  I'm not sure if Videotron can do anything about that since it's far outside the Videotron network.

Here's my traceroute to 104.160.131.1 : 

WinMTR statistics

Host	Loss %	Sent	Recv	Best	Avrg	Wrst	Last
10.0.0.1	0	53	53	1	2	8	2
modemcable000.000-000.000.mc.videotron.ca	0	53	53	9	14	22	17
10.170.193.82	0	53	53	10	16	25	18
216.113.126.234	0	53	53	17	23	32	18
riotgames.torontointernetxchange.net	67	15	5	28	35	41	28
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	50	18	9	0	32	41	28
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	72	14	4	0	34	35	35
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	67	15	5	34	36	39	39
No response from host	100	11	0	0	0	0	0
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	60	15	6	0	36	41	36
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	84	12	2	0	36	37	37
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	50	18	9	0	34	38	37
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	60	15	6	0	32	36	36
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	57	16	7	0	33	39	27
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	67	15	5	0	33	37	28
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	67	15	5	28	32	36	29
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	84	12	2	0	32	35	35
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	50	18	9	0	34	43	37
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	91	11	1	0	34	34	34
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	72	14	4	0	31	37	37
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	84	12	2	35	35	36	35
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	67	15	5	0	34	38	35
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	72	14	4	0	37	43	36
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	53	17	8	0	32	39	34
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	84	12	2	36	39	43	43
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	72	14	4	0	35	37	37
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	57	16	7	0	32	43	35
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	72	14	4	0	32	36	35
ae1.er02.chi01.riotdirect.net	77	13	3	0	35	37	35
ae1.er01.chi01.riotdirect.net	91	11	1	0	34	34	34