Hey all I've been trying to figure this out and it's starting to confuse me, so maybe you can help me understand/fix this. Now, I play on wireless since I can't run a cable to my desktop, and my internet is relatively good (5GB/s around). Usually gaming is fine on steam games and I maintain a good ping. But whenever I go to play BF4/BF3, I'll start out at around 50-60 ping and maintain it for about 5-10 min. before it shoots up to 999 and stays there until I either leave or am kicked for the worst ping possible. Do any of you have an idea what is causing this and what could help to fix it?
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any number of things really. When you say Wireless are you talking about a cellular network, or a WiFi router connected to a dsl/cable/fibre modem?
If you're using a cellular network, they're almost certainly going to throttle you. They don't take too kindly to long sustained loads on their network (gaming would be this)
If we're talking landline internet, It is possible that your wireless access point/router is overheating or something from the load placed on it by the game traffic, but I find that realllllllly unlikely. Usually they don't overheat except under sustained heavy load (which gaming isn't really).
More info about your hardware/ISP/setup would be useful.
If you're using a cellular network, they're almost certainly going to throttle you. They don't take too kindly to long sustained loads on their network (gaming would be this)
If we're talking landline internet, It is possible that your wireless access point/router is overheating or something from the load placed on it by the game traffic, but I find that realllllllly unlikely. Usually they don't overheat except under sustained heavy load (which gaming isn't really).
More info about your hardware/ISP/setup would be useful.
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Although there may be a ton of other variable such as time of day, nic, etc the most likey thing i can think of is the total amount being sent across a line.
a small packet going occasionally across a weak network is fine but if you increase the packet size or the amount of packets being sent in any given second that leaves room for issues. With wireless your computer will attempt to send the packet and wait for a response back saying it's been received, if it doesn't get that response it'll try again and again... this can cause queuing and therefore artificially increase latency
other things could be: is there a kitchen / metal / other wireless devices between you and your router?
a small packet going occasionally across a weak network is fine but if you increase the packet size or the amount of packets being sent in any given second that leaves room for issues. With wireless your computer will attempt to send the packet and wait for a response back saying it's been received, if it doesn't get that response it'll try again and again... this can cause queuing and therefore artificially increase latency
other things could be: is there a kitchen / metal / other wireless devices between you and your router?
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I don't see this manifesting itself as latency after a set amount of time though. Repeated transmission would decrease throughput, but latency should only be minimally affected. If you are failing transmission/recept long enough to spike latency to the moon for extended periods of time, i'd imagine you'd see connection errors, or dropped connections.
@OP, does your machine only exhibit this behavior in online games? In BF4/3 only? on certain servers only? etc.
Also, kinda random, but I would check that your anti-virus/firewall software isn't the culprit. Perhaps try playing around with whatever AV and Firewall you use disabled, and see if the issue persists.
The kitchen is sortaish in the way, it's not directly in the way, but it's like right beside the direct path.
@reflex99
it's only on BF3/4, it doesn't do it to me on gmod, tf/cs, or any of my other games.
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That might be it. What server do you play on? and have you tried multiple servers back to back to see if the ping issue happens on both?
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To me this would suggest that it is a problem with Battlefield itself and not the hardware. I am not an expert in troubleshooting Battlefield games. Does your router have some sort of Quality of Service feature that could be de-prioritizing Battlefield's connections? In my experiences, the QoS functions available on consumer-grade routers are generally total crap and cause more problems than they solve. Perhaps you can check to see if you have something like this enabled by accessing your router's admin interface (the same software you use to set WiFi passwords etc.)
