Forum Discussion

ChaiMasala's avatar
ChaiMasala
New Contributor
4 years ago

Periodic latency spike linked to Cox server through pathping

My internet will sometimes become unusable for a few seconds, every few seconds, like a switch being toggled. This lasts anywhere from half an hour or more and I never know what causes it to right itself or to start. It's most obvious when playing an online game. 

I performed a pathping, expecting it to be the game servers, and acquired this. 

First is from before restarting my Cox-provided modem. Second is from after. 

This is making online gaming impossible and sometimes causes webpages to fail to load as well.

  • Dave9's avatar
    Dave9
    Contributor III

    The packet loss you're seeing on hop 5 isn't true packet loss. If it were, you wouldn't be able to get any traffic to hops 6 or 7. Some routers drop ICMP packets and this can cause results like the one you posted. The most interesting thing I see in your post is the 363 ms RTT to your router. Are you testing this on wireless? If so, test on wired and see if there's any difference. I would expect the first hop to be close to 0 ms on wired and even on wireless it should be in the low double digits at most. 363 is very abnormal.

    The first step when troubleshooting any cable internet problem is usually to check signals and logs. Be sure that the modem has been running for at least 24 hours without being restarted. A lot of people restart their modem right before posting signals and logs. This makes the information useless as the modem has to run for a while before the results will be valid.

    If you don't know how to check signals and logs post your modem model and hopefully someone with that modem can give you step by step instructions.

    But as I said, this one might not be a cable internet problem. It looks more like a problem with your router or network.

  • Hi ChaiMasala,

    I suggest reaching out to our Tech Support Team. You can call on the toll-free number: 1-800-234-3993 (24/7), or online Live Chat: www.cox.com/.../contactus.html You may also reach out to our Social Media Team through Facebook or Twitter @coxhelp. You can even email us if you prefer: cox.help@cox.com

    Thank you,

    Mike J.
    Cox Social Media Support Specialist