Lag Spikes

[aiden4462]

I've been experiencing high ping and packet loss on an ethernet connection. Speeds are fine, however these issues make online gaming pretty much unplayable. Going by the patterns shown on the BQM, I'm guessing my issues are related to over utilisation? Would like some help in getting this fixed please.

3.0 Downstream channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	331000000	0.7	40	QAM 256	25
2	139000000	0.7	40	QAM 256	1
3	147000000	0.8	40	QAM 256	2
4	155000000	-1.1	40	QAM 256	3
5	163000000	-1.3	40	QAM 256	4
6	171000000	-1.3	40	QAM 256	5
7	179000000	-1.4	40	QAM 256	6
8	187000000	-1.3	40	QAM 256	7
9	195000000	0.8	40	QAM 256	8
10	203000000	0.9	40	QAM 256	9
11	211000000	0.8	40	QAM 256	10
12	219000000	-1	40	QAM 256	11
13	227000000	-1.2	40	QAM 256	12
14	235000000	-1.3	40	QAM 256	13
15	259000000	-2.1	40	QAM 256	16
16	267000000	-1.2	40	QAM 256	17
17	291000000	0.7	40	QAM 256	20
18	299000000	0.7	40	QAM 256	21
19	307000000	0.9	40	QAM 256	22
20	323000000	0.9	41	QAM 256	24
21	355000000	-1.1	40	QAM 256	28
22	363000000	-1.7	40	QAM 256	29
23	379000000	-1.9	40	QAM 256	31
24	387000000	-1.7	40	QAM 256	32
25	395000000	-1.9	40	QAM 256	33
26	403000000	-1.8	40	QAM 256	34
27	411000000	-1.9	40	QAM 256	35
28	419000000	-1.7	40	QAM 256	36
29	523000000	-2.2	40	QAM 256	37
30	531000000	-2.3	40	QAM 256	38
31	539000000	-2.1	40	QAM 256	39
32	547000000	-2	40	QAM 256	40

3.0 Downstream channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	40	0	0
2	Locked	40	0	0
3	Locked	40	0	0
4	Locked	40	0	0
5	Locked	40	0	0
6	Locked	40	0	0
7	Locked	40	0	0
8	Locked	40	0	0
9	Locked	40	0	0
10	Locked	40	0	0
11	Locked	40	0	0
12	Locked	40	0	0
13	Locked	40	0	0
14	Locked	40	0	0
15	Locked	40	0	0
16	Locked	40	0	0
17	Locked	40	0	0
18	Locked	40	0	0
19	Locked	40	0	0
20	Locked	41	0	0
21	Locked	40	0	0
22	Locked	40	0	0
23	Locked	40	0	0
24	Locked	40	0	0
25	Locked	40	0	0
26	Locked	40	0	0
27	Locked	40	0	0
28	Locked	40	0	0
29	Locked	40	0	0
30	Locked	40	0	0
31	Locked	40	0	0
32	Locked	40	0	0

3.1 Downstream channels

Channel Channel Width (MHz) FFT Type Number of Active Subcarriers Modulation (Active Profile) First Active Subcarrier (Hz)

159

94

4K

1840

QAM 4096

1108

3.1 Downstream channels

Channel ID Locked Status RxMER Data (dB) PLC Power (dBmV) Corrected errors (Active Profile) Uncorrectable errors (Active Profile)

159

Locked

42

-0.5

13138044

0

3.0 Upstream channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

0	49600000	47.3	5120	QAM 64	1
1	43100000	47.3	5120	QAM 64	2
2	36600000	46.8	5120	QAM 64	3
3	30100000	46	5120	QAM 64	4
4	23600000	45.3	5120	QAM 64	5

3.0 Upstream channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

0	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
1	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	1	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	0	0

3.1 Upstream channels

Channel Channel Width (MHz) Power (dBmV) FFT Type Modulation

6

10

41.5

2K

QAM 256

3.1 Upstream channels

Channel Channel Type Number of Active Subcarriers First Active Subcarrier (Hz) T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

6

OFDMA

200

74000000

0

0

[IPFreely]

Yuck. Looking at that you'd be spot on. That's horrendous. 

[Kath_P]

Hi aiden4462, 

Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

We're sorry to hear you're having an issue with your broadband connection. Checking things here, our diagnostics on your home network and Hub have not found any issues that could account for the issues you've mentioned. All upstream and downstream power levels are optimal and the hub is showing an average speed of 535mb over the last month with only 1 disconnection. We've run a check on the overall area and there are no open faults which could be affecting you either. 

Can you confirm, are you having any issues on other devices or is it only on the device you're playing games on? 

What game is it that you're playing and what device is this on?

There is nothing to suggest high utilisation on your cable and based on the checks we've run, it's pointing to a device issue instead.

Please keep us updated so we can help further.

Thanks, 

[aiden4462]

I appreciate the checks you’ve run on my network. However, I want to clarify that this isn’t a device-specific issue. The problem occurs consistently during peak hours (from around 5pm onwards), where the connection quality significantly deteriorates. The BQM I’ve linked in my original post shows a clear pattern of increased latency and packet loss during these times.  If it was a device issue, wouldn't we expect to see a consistently bad connection?

The issue isn't with my upload or download speeds—they are generally fine when tested. The concern I raised is about connection stability, particularly high latency and packet loss, which heavily impact online gaming. This problem is noticeable across any game I play, regardless of the device used, due to the sensitivity of gaming to fluctuations in connection quality. General activities like browsing or streaming aren’t affected as much, which might explain why your diagnostics haven't flagged anything unusual.

Could you please look into potential congestion or routing issues during peak hours? A deeper investigation into this would be greatly appreciated.

[aiden4462]

Over the past week, the connection has been consistently poor throughout the day, not just during peak hours, though it does tend to worsen during those times. I think the BQM speaks for itself here, the connection quality is well below an acceptable standard. Could we please investigate this further?

[jbrennand]

It is beginning to look like an overutilisation issue though not as marked as the one below - but we need to see more data.

Can you post up some more BQM's perhaps ones over the last weekend as well - to see any differences to the working week. 

Posting a link to the "live BQM" would be helpful too.

Look at this too... as you will see VM didnt accept it was OU but never gave any explanation for the horrendous BQM's.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Forum-Archive/Is-my-area-overutilized/m-p/5219803#M3245581

[Matthew_ML]

Hey aiden4462, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear you are having some connection issues.

I've taken a look and I can see you've spoke to the team about this, did they manage to get this sorted out for you?

[aiden4462]

No, this issue has not been resolved. A technician visited earlier today and informed me that all the stats looked fine from their end. However, when I asked about the latency spikes clearly shown on my BQM, they were unable to explain the cause and simply claimed it must be an issue on my side—without providing any evidence or a plausible explanation for this assertion. In the end, they didn’t do much beyond moving my ethernet cable to a different port, run a few speed tests and tell me that there was nothing more they could do.

I am confident the problem is not on my end. The BQM consistently shows significant latency spikes, which are clearly indicative of an ongoing issue. Despite this, the technician seemed more focused on pointing out that my upload and download speeds were "fine." This completely misses the point, as the problem I reported was never related to speeds but to latency and packet loss.

[DannyEvans]

I'm currently 18 months into trying to get mine sorted. Virgin told me i needed to upgrade which did nothing. Was told because I installed a free game on the PlayStation that's why my Netflix on the chromecast kept dropping....

Waited nearly a month for a cable replacement as apparently the cable outside was faulty. That gone done yesterday and it's still the same. 

Went back onto live chat " all looks good our end" try to explain your BQM is recording the spikes but they are just not interested. I've got BQM set on thr neighbours ip too which is spiking aswell but no doubt I will get another engineer come and check my hub and say it's fine

 

[legacy1]

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@aiden4462 wrote:

However, when I asked about the latency spikes clearly shown on my BQM, they were unable to explain the cause and simply claimed it must be an issue on my side—without providing any evidence or a plausible explanation for this assertion. 

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Yes VM you went to all the trouble of router mode so that BQM would ping YOUR equipment only to still show a problem how ironic.🤔   

The problem is upstream and Docsis not so good at fair bandwidth scheduling timing for everyone in the area in fact I wouldn't put it past VM to make the scheduling so thats it bandwidth over latency and let the upstream buffer to hell