Seems like the further away something is the higher the ping?

I’ve been 350ms ping according to speedtest.net lately, but when i turn my router-modem thing on off i get 11ms ping, so seems like router-modems can cause bad ping.

Anything else?

  • Helix 🧬
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    2 years ago

    Anything else?

    There is a whole array of devices between you and the target server daemon, so any of those can be slow. Usually it looks like this from your browser to the website:

    • Browser
    • Network Manager
    • Operating System (OS)
    • Network Card
    • Cable / WiFi (aka WLAN)
    • Switch or Access Point
    • Router
    • Modem
    • Wall Plug
    • box in basement (either active, like with most DOCSIS installations, or passive with VDSL)
    • copper or fibre cable
    • box on street containing ISP network devices
    • fibre channel to local ISP backbone
    • local backbone network devices
    • more centralised peering point
    • Central Internet Exchange (CIX)
    • another CIX
    • peering point
    • data centre uplink
    • data centre core modem
    • core router
    • core switch
    • rack switch
    • hypervisor’s (HV) network card
    • HV OS and virtualisation software (e.g. XCP-ng)
    • virtual machine (VM) network interface
    • VM OS
    • server daemon for reverse proxy on VM (e.g. HAProxy, Envoy)
    • VM OS, network interface, HV, rack switch, another HV, another VM’s network interface and OS
    • web server daemon (e.g. nginx, Apache2)
    • backend server daemon (e.g. Apache Tomcat, node.js, PHP FPM, Django, Golang binary)
    • the actual application’s routing library (e.g. Nio, Gorilla)

    usual suspects for slow connections highlighted.

  • Helix 🧬
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    52 years ago

    Seems like the further away something is the higher the ping?

    Yes, the Round Trip Time (RTT), which most people call Ping because the program used to measure it via ICMP is called Ping, is dependent on the time it takes for a round trip.

    Ping sends a network packet to the destination, which then sends one back. Ping then measures the time this took.

  • @federico3
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    2 years ago

    It’s called latency or (rarely) RTT, not “ping”, and network congestion is almost always the reason for such high values.

    • Helix 🧬
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      2 years ago

      Network congestion doesn’t lead to very high RTT if QoS is done correctly and there is no buffer bloat.

      I’m a network engineer and my colleagues and I all say ‘ping’ instead of RTT since that saves us two syllables and everyone knows what we mean ;)

      You’re correct of course, the ping tool measures RTT through ICMP.

  • Helix 🧬
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    22 years ago

    I’ve been 350ms ping according to speedtest.net lately, but when i turn my router-modem thing on off i get 11ms ping

    This usually means there is some problem with either the modem-router (I had software lockups on these things, desync issues etc) or the uplink.

    Which model of modem-router is this? Did your ISP (Internet Service Provider) provide it to you? If so, call your ISP, have them fix it.

    Many times, your ISP tells you to reboot your router, because that gets rid of any software lockup or synchronisation issues. However, this is a workaround and not a fix. You can look into the log entries of your modem-router to find out what your router thinks the problem is.

    Usually, these devices have a web interface for that. You can often find the web interface if you look at your IP address (Linux: ip a, Windows: ipconfig) and substitute the last number with a 1. Your local IPv4 either starts with 10. or with 192.. So if your IP is 192.168.1.102, the router might be reachable at 192.168.1.1. The default private IPv4 network is often also documented in your device’s manual.

    Sometimes there’s also a sticker on the bottom of your modem-router which tells you the default IPv4. Most of the time a sticker at least tells you the make and model number.

    • @meloo@lemmy.perthchat.orgOP
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      12 years ago

      My roommate was downloading world of Warcraft and when he stopped, the ping went back to normal. I tried watching Peertube while checking the Ping, and ping went from 12 to like 17. My internet provider said that downloading shouldn’t affect ping. What do you think?

      • Helix 🧬
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        62 years ago

        My roommate was downloading world of Warcraft and when he stopped, the ping went back to normal.

        Then it’s probably a mix of simple congestion and buffer bloat, along with some QoS issues.

        My internet provider said that downloading shouldn’t affect ping.

        It shouldn’t, but it still does. They have obviously no idea what they’re talking about, since they’re hotline agents and no network engineers. Always understand that distinction so you don’t yell at the wrong people.

        • @meloo@lemmy.perthchat.orgOP
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          12 years ago

          They have obviously no idea what they’re talking about,

          Haha i called them a few times today to ask them about what router settings exactly mean and they had no idea

            • @meloo@lemmy.perthchat.orgOP
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              22 years ago

              hitron coda 3482. I turned on band steering and airtime fairness, which hopefully helps.

              Does airtime fairness take into account device distance to the router? If you know.

              • Helix 🧬
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                2 years ago

                Airtime fairness just gives equal time to all connected clients. Air is a shared medium, you can’t send at once with multiple clients, they have time slots. So if client A sends first, then client B sends, it might look like AAABBBAAAAAAABBBAB without airtime fairness and like AABBAABBAABBAABB with airtime fairness. It’s a good idea to have this enabled when you have wifi congestion, well done. Please still consider using Ethernet cable for stationary PCs or workspaces, since it’s simply faster and less prone to errors.

                That said, your Hitron Coda 3482 modem-router has an Intel Puma 7 chipset. Puma chipsets are notorious for having bad ping and other packet processing related issues in home routers. Consider getting a new modem-router if that’s possible.

                At least check if your firmware is current. If not, your cable provider has to update it. This might happen automatically if you completely disconnect the modem from both power and coax cable, then wait for 5-10 min and reconnect it again. It will take a loooong time to boot and sync, be patient and don’t disconnect it from power in that time.

                If that didn’t get the firmware to the latest version, tell your ISP to do an update. They might also be able to do a CMTS reset.

                You might also want to check if your provider gives you DS-Lite. If that is the case, tell the ISP you have problems with your company’s VPN and your admin told you to tell the ISP they have to enable proper Dual Stack instead of DS Lite. They should do this free of charge since this is a defect in their infrastructure.

                • @meloo@lemmy.perthchat.orgOP
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                  22 years ago

                  If I increased my plan from 10 Mbps to 25 Mbps, do you think that’ll make a difference? I reckon that they’ll use up the extra 15 Mbps and it won’t make a difference?

                  Since increasing costs an extra amount monthly, it might be cheaper to just buy a router that can set priority or limits or something?