Latency spikes every 20-30 minutes

[ruddy101]

I am getting large latency spikes every 20-30 minutes, every day; afternoon into the evening. We are on the m500 broadband package and this has been happening for several months now. My virgin media hub is setup in modem mode with an asus router. I then have a wired connection to an unmanaged switch which in turns connects to my gaming PC.

I have checked the asus router, updated the firmware and even attempted a custom wrt firmware in case the router was the problem. I setup QoS on the router for my gaming PC but none of this has made a difference.

Seeing lots of similar posts on this forum, I thought I would use BQM and create a post to try and get this resolved. I have had BQM running for over a day and the latency matches the problems I am getting in game. The spikes make it almost impossible to play online games. If anyone can help, I would really appreciate it. And if you need any more information from me then please let me know. Many Thanks

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/broadband/monitoring/quality/share/8acc1d5fec7bf063d923dd7b0420eecc80cded48-19-12-2021

[Andrew-G]

Most likely a component fault somewhere on the local coax network, since the BQM looks like a steady cycling, which would usually be capacitive or thermal.

Unless forum staff can confirm an already know area fault, then you do need to isolate the Asus to show the problem is on VM's equipment.  Easiest way to do that is to leave all connected as is, but temporarily put the Asus in access point mode and put the hub in router mode.  If the fault shows up in router mode it is certainly VM kit at fault.  If it goes away, but then returns with modem mode, then that suggests the Asus may be part of the problem.

[ruddy101]

Thank you for your response. I will do what you suggest and monitor, over the next couple of days if the issue persists.

Many Thanks

[ruddy101]

I have swapped my hub back to router mode and attached the asus router as an access point only. But I am having problem getting BQM to work with the hub 3.0. There is no option under the ping settings to Respond to ICMP echo requests sent to WAN IP or any tick boxes at all. I've been through all the settings and even have disabled the firewall (begrudgingly) and still not displaying on the BQM. Do you have any suggestions?

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

Hub 3 always responds to ICMP.  I should have mentioned that your IP address changes when you switch hub mode, so you need to see what your current external IP is, and then edit the settings of your Thinkbroadband BQM. 

[alphaomega16]

>then you do need to isolate the Asus to show the problem is on VM's equipment

There is no need, the quality graph goes as far as the superhub equipment and thats it, no further, you can have nothing connected to the modem and it would still work.

[legacy1]

I do hate the saying "to show its a VM problem put the hub in router mode" 🙄

[ruddy101]

I have added a new BQM with the hub as our router and after a couple of hours this evening it's seems the spikes have gone. I will keep this running a couple of days and see if things changes.

I had a similar problem with my old Netgear router with the same hub in modem mode. Is there any chance it still could be hub but only on modem mode?

I do still actually have my old router, so should I try in a couple of days to connect that router with the hub in modem mode and see if the problem persists with that configuration.

Thanks all for the help and advice so far.

[legacy1]

You could connect a PC to the hub in modem mode and allow inbound ICMP for BQM of the firewall.

[Andrew-G]

---

@alphaomega16 wrote:
>then you do need to isolate the Asus to show the problem is on VM's equipment

There is no need, the quality graph goes as far as the superhub equipment and thats it, no further, you can have nothing connected to the modem and it would still work.

---

That's 100% incorrect.  The ICMP response is generated by the active router (or solitary device if there is only a single PC connected), so in the case of my mesh system, the BQM includes the ethernet connection from the hub and the performance of the primary mesh unit. If there's nothing connected to a hub in modem mode, then the BQM will register 100% packet loss as no ICMP requests will be responded to.

Problems caused by the customer's own router are rare, but they do sometimes occur, added to which VM staff can't interrogate the hub's status data (which is only of the coax network connection) if the hub is in modem mode.