lag spike from computer to modem?????

[Squa190]

Well the problem I am having is that while gaming I get this cyclical lag spike that lasts for 3-4 seconds. After trying different games, graphic settings, and connection it dosn't look to be any of these. To give you an idea of my experience, while playing Warrock (a fps that is definitely not all that intensive compared to WoW and the like) I will go from 128 fps to 4-5 fps every 15-20 seconds or so. Time of day doesn't matter, number or ping of other players doesn't change it. The cable company has come out and tested the connection and it is good on all levels they tested. I'm on a 8 down 2 up connection. I was searching through Vista forums and found a method for finding where the spike might be, computer to modem , or after modem. After running "ping -t" in the command prompt to my default gateway there were 2 things apparent. First the normal ping time was 6-7 ms when it should be like 1 maybe 2. I think this is because of Windows Firewall but that is not my real issue. If i let it run every 15 seconds or so I get a ping time of 17ms. Any idead what coud be causing this spike. I figured it might be some service although besides those that are default installed for Home Premium Vista 64 bit only one or two have been added since I got the computer and they deal with the the AntiVirus I installed. For those that may ask, the spike occurred with several different anti-V's and when they were disabled as well. I hvae heard of a similar issue with WiFi connections as Vista was re-identify/researching for the Wireless connection but nothing for wired connections which is what I use. Below are my specs and connection info. Please let me know if you have any ideas?

AMD 6000+ 3.0 Ghz
ASUS M3N78-EMH HDMI, GbLAN mobo
eVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX+
Nspire 650W Modular PSU
4 GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz (2x2)
Sound Blaster Audigy SE
Western Digital 500GB 7,200 rpm Caviar Green 16 MB Cache
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit w/SP1
Comcast Cable 8 down 2 up (average for various speed tests is above 8/2)

[couttsj]

How are you able to ping your modem? Modems don't normally have a IP address unless it is incorporated with a NAT router as well.

A ping is not a very good tool for testing speed. Not only is a default ping packet very small, but many networks (and some modems) give the ping the lowest priority of all packets. The best way to check network speed is to use an actual FTP program (not Web FTP) such as WS_FTP and connect to an unrestricted (not throttled) FTP server on your supplier's network. My supplier provides an FTP site restricted to its own users that contains several different sized test files (2, 4, 8 MB), and I am sure that Comcast must have something similar.

J.A. Coutts

[IH8U]

How are you able to ping your modem? Modems don't normally have a IP address unless it is incorporated with a NAT router as well.

I can log into my cable using an ip address.


Is Warrock the only game you have issues with? It very well could be the Warrock servers that are giving you issues. My friend plays Warrock all the time and said he lags and has other connection issues every now and then. Are you connected to the cable modem through a wired or wireless connection?

[couttsj]

How are you able to ping your modem? Modems don't normally have a IP address unless it is incorporated with a NAT router as well.

I can log into my cable using an ip address.

What kind of IP address does your computer have? Is it a public address (Internet ready), or a private address (192.168.xxx.xxx/10.xxx.xxx.xxx). Ipconfig /all will tell you.

J.A. Coutts

[IH8U]

I can log into my cable using an ip address.

I meant cable modem. To access the diagnostics screen address is 192.168.100.1 on a RCA DCM425 cable modem. My router is 192.168.1.1 - Netgear WPN 824. My main computer has a fixed local address of 192.168.1.5.

[couttsj]

I meant cable modem. To access the diagnostics screen address is 192.168.100.1 on a RCA DCM425 cable modem. My router is 192.168.1.1 - Netgear WPN 824. My main computer has a fixed local address of 192.168.1.5.

I would be guessing, but your net mask would probably be 255.255.255.0. That would define your private network as 192.168.1.0/24 with 254 addresses using 192.168.1.255 as the broadcast address. Your router will have 192.168.1.1 on it's LAN interface, and an Internet ready address on the WAN interface. The Internet ready address is probably supplied by DHCP. There are any number of places on the Internet that will tell you what your real IP address is. My own Web site provides that info but is down right now because of DNS problems, but one such site would be http://www.lawrencegoetz.com/programs/ipinfo/ . How do they do that? Your Web request provides quite a bit of information about you, including your IP address and the type and version of browser you are using. It is a simple matter of finding that information and sending it back to you.

Cable and DSL suppliers often use a private network on the modem side to allow for maintenance. It is a bit unusual that they allow you access to it, but their main router must be programmed to route your requests back to your modem. Either that or they take your requests, find the answer by interrogating the modem, and send the results back to you. 192.168.100.1 is not a routeable address and would be dropped as soon as it got out onto the Internet. In order to gain access to my own DSL modem, I had to reset it to factory defaults and reprogram it with my own password. There is nothing illegal about this, as the modem is mine (I was once an ISP).

J.A. Coutts

[Black Viper]

FPS is not dependent on the internet connection. It sounds as though your whole system is slowing (which could also explain why a local network connection takes an extra ordinary amount of time to respond...)
Check your task manager and see what process is taking up the CPU cycles during the FPS drop.

[IH8U]

This totally got way off topic. couttsj I already know the information you're providing me, I was just making a point that my cable modem has an ip address, which I am able to ping, although it is totally useless to ping it.

Squa190, I talked to my friend some more and he says he gets "stutters" in Warrock as well from time to time. How often are you experiencing this?

[couttsj]

This totally got way off topic. couttsj I already know the information you're providing me, I was just making a point that my cable modem has an ip address, which I am able to ping, although it is totally useless to ping it.

Yes, you're right. It did get way off topic and I apologize for that. But the point I was trying to make was that the modem does not have an IP address per say. I suspect that you are pointing your Web browser to 192.168.100.1, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that it could not be a real address. If it was, you should be able to access any modem on the network by using a different address, and that would restrict the network to less than 256 x 256 = 65,536 modems. It is using a Web server that is using the generic address of 192.168.100.1 to interrogate the modem by some other means. Squa190 would be far better off to ping the first router on the network, although I still suggest that the ping is not a very good tool for the purpose of testing speed.

J.A. Coutts