Hi, just joined this sub to ask about an issue...
Problem: I have been having an issue for several months with my WiFi. I spend a lot of time doing online gaming at home, and roughly every 50 to 90 minutes I will get brief but very bad lag spikes. These often bring my ping (on a discord server, at least) from around 12-13ms to 700ms (and sometimes higher) for around 6-8 seconds at a time before the spike ends and my connections resume their normal speeds.
While this is not a world-ending problem, it's very annoying when doing online gaming.
Background: Due to the semi-random nature of the lag spikes, I have not been able to predict exactly when they will happen, but they happen during all times of the day during those same intervals, and with the same intensity.
I also live in a spacious suburb and with 2 other people who use the internet minimally. I do not suspect a concentration of devices in use on my network/local area or the time of the day is impacting my connection or WiFi.
I did recently move to the area I'm in now, however, and purchase a new router/modem when doing so. These lag spikes started a couple months after moving here, persisted for a while, and disappeared and stopped happening, but I do not know why. I then moved again (but only about 2 miles) to where I currently am, and the problem resurfaced after about a year, and has not stopped. During this time, I switched computers multiple times (laptop to laptop to desktop) and the issue remained present across all of these devices. To clarify, I did not switch routers/modems during this time, only when I purchased the router I first mentioned.
Due to the limited internet usage of the household and the fact I don't play online games/use live services on anything other than my computer, this problem has not been noticeable on anything aside voice calls and online gaming.
Devices Involved:
- My desktop (and any other computer I used for gaming). I am connected to the internet via WiFi.
- ISP: Verizon Fios.
- Router: Verizon Fios Router, Model #G3100.
After I moved to the current location, I also purchased a WiFi range extender, but this issue has been present before I got this range extender. Nonetheless, it is a Verizon Fios range extender, Model #E3200.
Attempted Mitigations:
- Restarted both my computer and the router multiple times.
- Factory reset the router.
- This router does possess self-organizing network. At first, I thought this was the issue and disabled it, but this did not seem to affect anything.
- I have called Verizon Fios customer service twice, and they ran some tests on my router, but were unable to find or diagnose any issues. I do not know what exactly they did.
Due to the fact that the router and my computer are on polar opposite ends of the house, I'm unable to use an ethernet cable.
Other than these things, I'm unsure what else to do.
If I'm missing any information, please don't hesitate to ask. I am relatively inexperienced with WiFi and how internet connections work in general, so more detailed explanations of things (if need be) would be appreciated.
Thank you for your time!