For the past 9 days or so I’ve been getting bad lag spikes on WoW Classic. I eventually realize that my internet in general is messing up with high pings and lost packets. I’m trying to figure out where the source of this problem lies. At this point I’m 99% sure it’s my ISP. (Cox) However I’d like some second opinions on this. I’ve provided a Ping Plotter graph run over the course of an hour, connecting to the Central WoW server IP. The line graph is from Hop 2, the hop I believe to be the issue. Can anyone help figure out where the issue likely lies?
Checked out the PingPlotter screenshot and it looks like you are correct, this does look like an ISP issue. On the first hop which is your router (192.168.0.1) you can see the latency is low and there’s 0 packet loss, so the connection between PC and router is perfect.
However on the 2nd hop (10.128.96.1) you see around 3% packet loss and an average latency of 58ms which is pretty high for just the 2nd hop. This shows where in the path the issue lies, but it doesn’t tell us specifically what is causing the issue. It could be an issue with the router, a signal issue in the lines from your home, or an issue with the ISP’s junction box down the street. The 2nd hop is usually within your neighborhood or your city, so it would be somewhere local.
The best thing you can do is call the ISP and explain that you’re getting packet loss from your router to their local network. If you can speak with a technician that knows how to read PingPlotters and show them these results that’s even better. Most likely they will need to run some signal tests from their end, and they may end up having to send a technician out to check the lines and devices.
Once they’ve cleared up the issue I’d run the PingPlotter again for a while just to make sure you’re seeing 0% packet loss, and at that point things should be looking better in-game.
Wow, fast reply! This confirms my suspicions. Thank you so much! Also another question: Would a VPN work around the issue while they attempt to fix it?
It depends on what kind of issue is happening there. If it’s a hardware issue then a VPN may not help, but if it’s more of a software issue it could potentially help. You’re always welcome to try a VPN though and see if it makes a difference.
Thanks again, hopefully Cox will be willing to actually listen.
Something I forgot to mention which may or may not be relevant, this problem comes and goes at random. Sometimes my internet is fine for hours a day, sometimes only a brief period. It’s totally random with no real pattern behind it. Usually it’s fine at night, but a few days ago it was fine during the day, but horrible late at night.
Aw man, using a VPN messed up Hop 1! Yah, that’s not gonna work.
