lag spikes during games and skype conversations

Question

I do not know if this is the place to ask this question but im gonna give it a go!

We have a very basic network setup at home but when i play games/skype aka use internet as streaming, im having massive lag spikes. The people i talk to cant understand me and gaming is also horrible.

My setup:

Modem --> router --> router(without dhcp) (--> desktop (old setup)) LAG

modem(same as the other one) --> desktop NO LAG SO FAR

The downstairs router is a sitecom X6 N900 and the upstair router a N300.

More detail about the lag:

Whilst skyping people suddenly drop and come back after 2/3 sec this is the same in teamspeak. In gaming like counter strike global offensive im rubberbanding, teleporting etc.

I did a factory reset multiple times on both routers, i reset them by turning off power on all devices etc. And im at a loss. My dad thinks the internet is fine because he can open his emails but that is total different type of internet usage.

Directly connecting my pc to the modem seems to fix the problem but havent tested it properly yet.

troubleshooting

Solution

Lag spikes on a congested network are almost always caused by a well-known bug called bufferbloat.

The fix for bufferbloat is to use network middleboxes (modems, gateways, routers, APs) that don't have the bug. That is, you only want to use equipment that does "smart queueing", which latency-aware active queue management (AQM). The AQM algorithms that qualify as Smart Queueing are CoDel/FQ-CoDel and PIE.

Since it's not always possible to replace all your network middleboxes with ones that do smart queueing, one workaround is to place one smart-queueing-capable router at the head of your home network, and enable traffic shaping in that box to make it an ever-so-slight bottleneck so that the Smart Queueing can kick in before bloated buffer queues build up on any other devices on your network.

An off-the-shelf solution to do this is the IQrouter by evenroute.com. Or you can go to bufferbloat.net and read up about how to roll your own using aftermarket router firmware such as OpenWrt (now LEDE), DD-WRT, etc.

A lead engineer of Speedtest by Ookla (speedtest.net) wrote up an article on how he combatted bufferbloat on his own home network: http://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/maximized-speed-non-gigabit-internet-connection/

Comments

[DavidPostill]

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[Robbert]

If i run the same cable to the modem i get 0 lag but there is only 1 ethernet port and if i want to use that noone in the house has internet except me. I talked to my provider and there is no way for them to open another ethernet port or something so im basically screwed, she told me, maybe my router isnt capable to run multiple devices but its a pretty good router and i doubt that. Also she gave me alot of option on how to maybe fix it but i tried 99% of them. Also i ran a cable to my computer and there are no electrical cable around and i still had lag.