I've been dealing with internet issues intermittently for a couple of years now. I often experience stuttering or lag while gaming. When I run a ping test using 'ping google.com -t', I see a mix of ~30 ms pings and frequent "request timed out" messages. I've reached out to my internet provider countless times, but they claim everything is fine on their end. Recently, I decided to ping various IPs, including a Discord voice server, Walmart.com, and a World of Warcraft US Central IP. Here's where it gets confusing: the Discord voice IP and one Google IP showed no packet loss, while the WoW server, another Google IP, and Walmart.com had significant packet loss during the same tests. I've tried all the usual fixes like rebooting my modem and router, and checking for firmware updates, but nothing seems to help. My PC specs shouldn't matter since the problems are consistent across multiple wired devices and Wi-Fi. My modem is an ARRIS SB6183, and my router is a TP-Link AX1450 Wi-Fi 6. I'm really at a loss here—any advice would be appreciated!
2 Answers
Are you using your ISP's DNS, or are you on a better community DNS? Sometimes switching to something like Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS (1.1.1.1) can help with connection stability.
It seems like the DNS server you're using isn't the issue because DNS only affects resolving addresses. Since some IPs are fine while others aren’t, this is likely a routing or ISP-related problem. I recommend running a tracert or pathping test to both a good and a bad IP to show your ISP exact details about where the issue lies. It might also be worth pinging your router and modem to rule out local issues first.
That sounds like solid advice! I ran the tests, and even the clean IPs are timing out in the tracert. A friend of mine with the same ISP nearby is having the same issues on the WoW server. I'm not exactly sure how to interpret the tracert results, but it seems like there shouldn't be timeouts!
You got it! Makes sense to check those routes. You might get some useful info from your ISP to troubleshoot further.
I’m currently using 1.1.1.1, so I think that's a solid choice.