Inconsistent ping - bad ping some days, good ping others

[Terence B]

So basically, I play Minecraft and when I do, I used to get a stable 260ms latency to servers based in the US. Now, however, my ping has gotten worse and in the morning it goes from anywhere between 300-600ms with constant spiking. Although, later in the day, for some reason, it seems to get better (although not much better) to a 280-320ms with intermittent spiking. I use AIS as my ISP with about 75 download and 35 upload so internet speeds shouldn't be a problem - this has been occurring for the past few months although it has recently gotten worse. Until about 2 weeks ago, I would have gotten the nice, stable 260ms for a while then for a few days, get really bad ping with constant spikes but eventually for some, unknown reason it will relieve itself back to its 260ms. It's almost been 2 weeks now since this new issue has arisen and I have no clue as to how to fix it despite the many hours of research for a fix I have put in.

 

Is this a Thai/AIS frequent internet issue or just a personal one? Any feedback/advice is appreciated, thanks.

[Relocated]

Internet and ping?????????????

Retard timing or add some coolant. 

Time changes, something new everyday. 

[KhunBENQ]

From 260 to 320 does not look unusual.

But 600 is indeed over the top.

It's unlikely that it is a problem at your site.

To find out more you would have to use the "traceroute"/"tracert" command to see which route the packages go.

All I can contribute for now is a result from my 3BB connection.

West coast:

Quote

Pinging ucla.edu [2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25: time=255ms

East coast:

Quote

Pinging columbia.edu [128.59.105.24] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 128.59.105.24: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=232

Edited May 10, 2020 by KhunBENQ

[Pib]

What DNS are you using?  If you don't enter one in your gaming/computer hardware setup you will be using your ISP's (i.e., AIS) DNS service which may not provide the best routing/lowest ping.  Ditto if using a VPN and using the VPN provider's DNS servers.  

 

If using the AIS DNS servers maybe change to CloudFlare or Google DNS servers to see what happens.  Cloudflare is faster than Google as Cloudflare has DSN servers in Bangkok but Google's closest DNS server is Singapore.

 

Personally, I use Cloudflare as my primary IPV4 and IPV6 DNS servers and Google as my secondary.

 

 

Quote

 

These are the IP addresses to set up Cloudflare's consumer DNS service on a computer or router.

IPV4

1.1.1.1

1.0.0.1

IPV6

2606:4700:4700::1111

2606:4700:4700::1001

 

**********************************************

 

Google Public DNS IP addresses

The Google Public DNS IP addresses (IPv4) are as follows:

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

The Google Public DNS IPv6 addresses are as follows:

2001:4860:4860::8888

2001:4860:4860::8844

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by Pib

[Pib]

9 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

From 260 to 320 does not look unusual.

But 600 is indeed over the top.

It's unlikely that it is a problem at your site.

To find out more you would have to use the "traceroute"/"tracert" command to see which route the packages go.

All I can contribute for now is a result from my 3BB connection.

Pinging ucla.edu [2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25: time=255ms

 

Pinging columbia.edu [128.59.105.24] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 128.59.105.24: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=232

 

Here's what I get...I'm on AIS but setup to use Cloudflare/Google DNS.

 

Pinging ucla.edu [2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 2607:f010:3fe:fff1:0:ff:fe00:25: time=206ms

 

Pinging columbia.edu [128.59.105.24] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 128.59.105.24: bytes=32 time=260ms TTL=236

 

 

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

1 hour ago, Pib said:

What DNS are you using?  If you don't enter one in your gaming/computer hardware setup you will be using your ISP's (i.e., AIS) DNS service which may not provide the best routing/lowest ping.  Ditto if using a VPN and using the VPN provider's DNS servers.  

 

It's not as simple as that unfortunately. A DNS query happens once, until the lookup expires (usually hours). Once the lookup is complete, the route to the target IP is entirely down do peering and routing at the mercy of carriers in between your home and the target server. DNS has absolutely nothing to do with ping times, and certainly won't help with routes. The only thing it will effect is the very first ping i.e. while it waits for the DNS lookup, which is a separate thing.

 

OP, when you say you are using AIS, is this fibre or 4G?

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2020 by NilSS

[Terence B]

I am using AIS fibre internet for home.

[Terence B]

On 5/10/2020 at 10:11 PM, NilSS said:

It's not as simple as that unfortunately. A DNS query happens once, until the lookup expires (usually hours). Once the lookup is complete, the route to the target IP is entirely down do peering and routing at the mercy of carriers in between your home and the target server. DNS has absolutely nothing to do with ping times, and certainly won't help with routes. The only thing it will effect is the very first ping i.e. while it waits for the DNS lookup, which is a separate thing.

 

OP, when you say you are using AIS, is this fibre or 4G?

 

 

 

 

I am using ais internet fibre service.

[ChakaKhan]

Some Ping is better than NO ping......jk

[NightSky]

And there I was thinking this thread was going to be about someone’s girlfriend called ping 

[RichCor]

On 5/10/2020 at 10:11 PM, NilSS said:

Once the lookup is complete, the route to the target IP is entirely down do peering and routing at the mercy of carriers in between your home and the target server.

Yep. And if the route between the peers is congested, all those packets get to queue up in a router buffer and wait their turn through that or those portions of the route. (Which partially explains why some extra ping times can be predicted during certain parts of the day).

[Stadtler]

Amateurs. Old Stadtler is a pro! Your problem is routing and is not in your control.  Old Stadtler has found that AIS Fiber does not do very well with VOIP as it gets packets out of order.  Try a friend's ISP and see if you get a better route.

 

Latency is not your friend.

 

Google isn't your friend either.

 

 

[Pib]

I've been on AIS Fibre since around 2016 using multiple VOIP services like Magic Jack, NetTalk, Google Voice, etc...all work fine.  Calls between Thailand and the US sound just fine.

[Stadtler]

4 hours ago, Pib said:

I've been on AIS Fibre since around 2016 using multiple VOIP services like Magic Jack, NetTalk, Google Voice, etc...all work fine.  Calls between Thailand and the US sound just fine.

Proving what exactly?  You may be the only user.  I have several in the condo and the router does not prioritize packets.

[Pib]

4 minutes ago, Stadtler said:

You may be the only user.  

Probably not.

[Stadtler]

4 minutes ago, Pib said:

Probably not.

Can you be more definitive in your answer?  Are you, or are you not?

[Pib]

Just saying...VOIP between Thailand and the US has always worked fine for me....worked fine when on TOT ADSL....worked fine when on True DOCSIS/cable....works fine on AIS Fibre.

 

[Terence B]

So is this just a personal problem or what, I had an AIS technician to come to my apartment and all he did was test my speeds and tell me my router was fine. He didn't really understand my English when I tried to explain my lag in games and that download & upload speeds weren't the problem, any recommendations as to what I can do next because I believe I've just about done everything I can, the only thing I can do now is just switch ISPs...

[RichCor]

10 hours ago, Terence B said:

I had an AIS technician to come to my apartment ... I tried to explain my lag in games and that download & upload speeds weren't the problem ...

 

If you have certain requirements and expectations then you'd normal fork out for a "business account" or a "Private Data Line" where the service conditions are spelled out in the contract. "Consumer" accounts are written as providing "Up To" conditions, so no real guarantee of service or even quality of service, and most users 'luck into' whatever great service they have. This is why the technicians were probably ignoring your concerns.

 

And please note: once the data exits the local Internet Service Provider's infrastructure and their "peer agreements" by extension the ISP have no control over what happens. The "Internet" as a whole is an open shared service where everyone is supposed to pitch in to allow cross connection (and doing so with a hodge-podge of equipment -- I'm surprised it works most of the time).

 

[Terence B]

So how come this never happened until recently then? I don't believe what you are saying is true @RichCor. The only reason he was ignoring my concerns was likely because he couldn't understand English technology terminology.

[RichCor]

How recent is recent?

The Internet has seen a 50% increase in usage since countries started initiating stay-at-home orders.

 

Fastly: How COVID-19 is affecting internet performance (link)

 

CloudFlare: Internet performance during the COVID-19 emergency (link)

 

 

 

My suggestion to you would be to come up with a latency test you can carry out and ask people with various ISPs to participate so you can see what latency there currently is and what ISP might have the lowest averages (knowing there's no guarantee that you'd get the same low average if you switched to that ISP). 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by RichCor
adding links and pics