Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
Seppukuma37
Newbie

Hey guys and gals,

I've been a Verizon FiOS customer for a few years now, and upgraded my internet service speeds to 100Mbps up/down, and I live alone. I have such a high bandwidth plan because I'm an avid online gamer, and couldn't really be bothered with lag. I have a Verizon Quantum router (Model G1100), and am getting the speeds I pay for, according to bandwidth tests (sometimes the upload speeds come back a little low, but the download speeds are consistently around 100Mbps). The reason I'm posting here is because I'm at my wit's end as to what's causing my issue, and it's basically a last resort before I have the FiOS serviced removed from my home permanently.

As for what's going on, the basis is that I have a buddy I game with on the Playstation 4 online, who lives in Connecticuit (I'm in NY, Long Island to be more specific). In total, no more than 50 miles apart, if even that much. Whenever we play, we experience these absolutely unplayable lag spikes. Seriously, completely and utterly unplayable.

A couple of things to note/consider:

* We can both play people from similar areas to eachother, also further away with little to no lag.

* My PS4 has DNZ enabled, is hardwired to my router, set up on a Static IP, and has had the ethernet cable replaced. Additionally, every other arrangement was tried (DHCP, wireless, Firewall adjusted multiple times) to establish a better connection.

* I've disabled both wireless bands on my router, as well as made sure IPv6 is disabled in an attempt to isolate my issue with no success. My PS4 is the only thing connected to my router at this time, with nothing else causing strain, updating, or using bandwidth of any kind. 

*The lag spikes happen intermittently, regardless of what game we play. Sometimes we can play for 15 mins without an issue, other times it'll spike 15 times in under 5 mins. There doesn't seem to be a consistent pattern whatsoever.

*My buddy is also hardwired, using Optimum service, getting 150Mbps up/down. His internet is shared, however, the issue we experience happens when there's no strain on his network either.

*This issue occurs at all hours, but seems to be much less severe in the wee hours (2AM-5AM)

*Both my buddy and I are in the IT field (He's a Network Admin, I'm a Help Desk Technician).  We've seen quite a lot, and we're both scratching our heads. 

Now, we've come across what appears to be the issue, but we can't figure out a way to resolve it as it appears to be out of either of our hands, and into Verizon's.

Performing 2 seperate Tracert commands, 1 to my buddy's public IP, and 1 to google.com, yielded very different, very concerning results.

Due to fear of this entire post being scrapped, I'm not going to post a link or a pic of my tracert, but I do have them saved (will send if necessary to an admin or a technician), and can discuss what it shows.

Hops 1, 2, and 3 to my buddy average around 8 ms, hop 4 times out, hop 5 averages at 108 ms, hop 6 at 136 ms, hop 7 at 30 ms, hop 8 is back up to 138 ms, hops 9 and 10 time out, hop 11 at 118 ms, then hops 12 through 30 all timed out.

Tracert to google is much faster, showing the highest hop's ping at 25 ms, resolving in 9 hops. The average of all 9 hops is around 8 ms.

It seems to be on Verizon's side, because it's after the router. It appears to be how it's routed, but I don't know how to get an issue like this resolved without Verizon acknowledging the issue is on their end. 

Only other thing I believe it can be would be some sort of bottlenecking due to other people using the internet in my area with FiOS. My issue with this answer is that I still have fine connections to other people, in which my buddy does too, during the same hours. 

If, for any reason, anyone needs more info, has any insight, or can help in any way, please feel free to reach out. I truly need this issue resolved, and see no other option but to switch ISP's to Optimum if it can't be. 

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
Anthony91
Enthusiast - Level 3

well nobody here can give you a exact answer im sure you know already but as for advice on how to fix it you going have to call front line to get it escalated possibly to a Network tech, but they going to get you to do trace routes on a PC not a playstation yeah i know something you would think wouldnt matter but the network techs wont even consider looking at the case if the first part of it starts with its on a console. 

but they going to look at hop 1 - 5 which is what they consider *verizon* network after that it could still be another equipment of verizon possibly if you see Verizon gni on it otherwise if its another company they will try to escalate it to the NT and they will either say we will escalate to that NOC  or B its not our issue. 

but you going need to start soon with the holiday 

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
Seppukuma37
Newbie

Thanks for the reply.

The tracert tests were done on a hardwired laptop, not the console. 

Also, as transcribed earlier, hops 5 and 6 is where the high latency starts.

I'm just afraid of getting the response "it's not us". 

Thank you again

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
jonjones1
Legend

You know through all that story the one thing you did not say you did was call

1-800-VERIZON and select tech support for Fios (that number also doubles for wireless and home phone now so don’t panic. Use the phone tree for Fios internet)

also I would call between 8 am till 5 pm EDT for American support from Virginia USA

they have to test your set up and then will contact an engineer since customers cannot or are not allowed to speak directly to them.

a network operations center (noc) will not speak or write to you from within Verizon or any other service provider.

If you feel the service is that bad as you posted you can always go with optimum online.

but if the same happens again what then?

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
Seppukuma37
Newbie

Thank you for your response.

  

Yes, I've waited on hold for over an hour before any of the steps that I've listed above were taken. I've spoken to a tech and gotten this escalated with no resolution.

If the same thing happens with a different ISP, then I'll know it's not Verizon's network routing. Plain and simple.

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
jonjones1
Legend

@Seppukuma37 wrote:

Thank you for your response.

Yes, I've waited on hold for over an hour before any of the steps that I've listed above were taken. I've spoken to a tech and gotten this escalated with no resolution.

If the same thing happens with a different ISP, then I'll know it's not Verizon's network routing. Plain and simple. 

You state how great optumn online is and say you may switch. Then switch and find out if it is Verizon’s problem or your equipment or congestion etc. 

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Re: Absolutely unbearable lag spikes/high latency
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

On the 100Mbps plan, the upload should be running somewhere around 110-120Mbps. Verizon doesn't overprovision on the download, just the upload, with that tier. If your upload is much lower than that, consider having Verizon check your light levels from the ONT. Also have the provisioing checked, and have them look at the PON and transit links back at the central office.

It sounds like you've done due diligence to check cabling between the router and ONT, and your devices (or otherwise have verified Wi-FI is fine). But be sure to stay on top of that.

On that note, is the Gigabit FiOS plan available to you? If it is, that's usually a sign that your PON isn't filled with high tier users. But it also means you're probably not connected to old Juniper equipment in the central office or dealing with Gig-E links at the OLT.