Lag Spikes - MTR included

I also posted in the thread https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1934229. I noticed these frequent lag spikes a few days after I started playing again, which was a few days after the 3.0 patch. Aside from these spikes, the game plays rather smooth, which seems to be the experience of many at the moment.



Connection type is wireless, which I know is not the greatest for gaming, and AT&T certainly is not, especially considering they have us on VDSL. However, the only other online game type I have had issues with have been shooters like Quake Champions and Overwatch. Overwatch was more stable, though with particularly noticeable input latency issues due to the nature of shooters. I did not have issues with other games like Diablo 3 or Black Desert Online. Also, to reiterate, I did not initially have these spikes in this game. I would love to try a cabled connection, but if I could even try it, I'd be connected that way to begin with and permanently.

So on the MTR, I can see that there is a particular server belonging to AT&T that doesn't seem to like pings, but it also does not seem to disrupt the rest of the chain. The Avg seems good and the worst is obviously the worst. While playing it out in game, I can't say that I've seen any spikes that high, typically in the 300-400 range at the most and then back down to the 30s-40s on average.

I have tried different servers and California is the best one for me, not surprisingly. However, Texas and DC gave me the same spikes, just with higher average pings. I've done these tests also making sure that no one else is using the internet and with all other internet based applications closed. Those tests have some similar results.

Turn your router off for a few minutes and try the test again...the problem the results show is near 1k ms spike from the router carried through to the server.

I've already done that a few times over the past week while testing.

If an Ethernet cable is out of the question, could you maybe try a Powerline Adapter kit?

It won't be perfect but it should be a significant improvement over your current connection.

Here is another test, switched to Google DNS and 5Ghz band.



The 1k spike was probably the worst example of the connection and doesn't seem typical in the first place. I probably shouldn't have shared it.

Even with the lower pings here, you can see that there is still something going on as the averages are fine but there are some spikes that affect the game.

Some preliminary in game testing is showing some smoothing of the spikes, but not complete elimination of them. They feel smaller and a little less frequent. Some possible 2.4 Ghz interference going on here, though I'm not sure from what as we don't have many of Wi-Fi devices going at the moment.

Then there's the thread of others having a similar issue thrown into the mix. Possibly a combination of issues on both ends?