Asus AC68-U injecting +5-9ms into ping times?

[danielk]

So, Asus AC68-U, running through a bridged modem (recently replaced, newer docsis 3.1 routermodem). Everything is wired cat6.

Ive been struggling with bad pings and rubber-banding in online games, on top of VOIP dropouts on discord. ISP replaced modem recently, but its bridged and my computers use cat6 wiring to the Asus ac68. When i ping any site (local, abroad), when going through the Asus it always adds 5-9ms to my pingtimes. If i connect my computer straight into the bridged modem (and get an external IP), the ping times go down. No other devices connected to the asus while testing btw, just the computer doing the pinging.

The Asus wasnt using much, some portforwarding was configured, 2.4+5Ghz wireless, FlexQoS and latest MerlinFW. I disabled QoS, flashed the newest original FW from Asus, disabled everything i can (firewall++) and even did a complete factory reset. But exact same ping increases persist.

What could be causing this? Do i really need to ditch the Asus and just use the routermodem from my ISP?

 

[ColinTaylor]

Ping your router's LAN IP address, then its WAN IP address, and then the WAN gateway address (all from a wired PC). Compare the results with pinging 8.8.8.8 (google).

C:\Users\Colin>ping 192.168.1.1

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Colin>ping xx.yy.zz.200

Pinging xx.yy.zz.200 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from xx.yy.zz.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from xx.yy.zz.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from xx.yy.zz.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from xx.yy.zz.200: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for xx.yy.zz.200:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

C:\Users\Colin>ping xx.yy.zz.1

Pinging xx.yy.zz.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from xx.yy.zz.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=254
Reply from xx.yy.zz.1: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=254
Reply from xx.yy.zz.1: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=254
Reply from xx.yy.zz.1: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for xx.yy.zz.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 12ms, Average = 9ms

C:\Users\Colin>ping 8.8.8.8

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=18ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=116
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=19ms TTL=116

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 15ms, Maximum = 19ms, Average = 17ms

 

[danielk]

Ping your router's LAN IP address, then its WAN IP address, and then the WAN gateway address (all from a wired PC). Compare the results with pinging 8.8.8.8 (google).

Thanks for the assist! Im unsure of the difference between WAN IP address and WAN gateway address - even after some googling. But i pinged the "Default gateway" from an ipconfig (192.168.1.1), thats my routers local LAN IP afaik. Then i pinged its external address, so the IP that is listed as "WAN IP" in Asus dashboard, which is the same IP as when i goto some www.whatismyip.com site. That would be my WAN IP, right? But whats my WAN gateway address? would the be the next IP hop when doing a tracert?

The results are both sub 1ms, so i get the same results you do "0ms". Google is:

Pinging 8.8.8.8 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=114
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=24ms TTL=114
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=22ms TTL=114
Reply from 8.8.8.8: bytes=32 time=21ms TTL=114

Ping statistics for 8.8.8.8:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 21ms, Maximum = 24ms, Average = 22ms

 

[ColinTaylor]

But whats my WAN gateway address?

Go to Network Map and click on the internet "globe" picture. A tab will open on the right showing "Internet status". The gateway address is shown there.

 

[danielk]

Go to Network Map and click on the internet "globe" picture. A tab will open on the right showing "Internet status". The gateway address is shown there.

Reply from x.y.z.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=254
Reply from x.y.z.1: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=254
Reply from x.y.z.1: bytes=32 time=7ms TTL=254
Reply from x.y.z.1: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=254

Ping statistics for x.y.z.1:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 5ms, Maximum = 7ms, Average = 6ms

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

These seem to look OK compared to your results? Or is that 6ms average to the Gateway the delay it adds on?

 

[ColinTaylor]

These seem to look OK compared to your results? Or is that 6ms average to the Gateway the delay it adds on?

Yep, that looks good to me. So basically there is zero delay being added by your router and the delay between your cable modem and the ISP gateway is only 6ms.

Any additional overhead is being added elsewhere. The next place to look is at the output of tracert 8.8.8.8.

 

[danielk]

Yep, that looks good to me. So basically there is zero delay being added by your router and the delay between your cable modem and the ISP gateway is only 6ms.

Any additional overhead is being added elsewhere. The next place to look is at the output of tracert 8.8.8.8.

Here we go

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  RT-AC68U-54F8 [*.1.1]
  2     7 ms     7 ms     7 ms  *.128.1
  3     7 ms     5 ms     6 ms  cm-84.208.*.getinternet.no [84.208.*]
  4     6 ms    13 ms     7 ms  109.163.76.168
  5    14 ms    16 ms    24 ms  telianorge-ic-345145-oso-b3.c.telia.net [62.115.175.157]
  6    15 ms    15 ms    16 ms  oso-b3-link.telia.net [62.115.175.156]
  7    21 ms    21 ms    23 ms  s-bb4-link.telia.net [62.115.116.103]
  8    22 ms    22 ms    23 ms  s-b6-link.telia.net [62.115.114.171]
  9    23 ms    23 ms    23 ms  74.125.32.56
 10    24 ms    24 ms    24 ms  209.85.243.231
 11    22 ms    23 ms    23 ms  72.14.238.13
 12    23 ms    22 ms    23 ms  dns.google [8.8.8.8]

Trace complete.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Well that looks OK to me. If you think that's different to when you connect your PC directly to the cable modem you would have to do the traceroute again in that configuration and compare the results.

 

[danielk]

Well that looks OK to me. If you think that's different to when you connect your PC directly to the cable modem you would have to do the traceroute again in that configuration and compare the results.

Not only that, but all the other sites im pinging now are also responding fine and with no added pingtimes even though im going through the Asus. Hmmm... it was 100% reproducable earlier, over 2 hours of testing time. I'll do some more prodding and probing and will revert back if i find anything or figure anything out.

Thanks for the help ColinTaylor!

 

[Deleted member 51572]

So, Asus AC68-U, running through a bridged modem (recently replaced, newer docsis 3.1 routermodem). Everything is wired cat6.

Ive been struggling with bad pings and rubber-banding in online games, on top of VOIP dropouts on discord. ISP replaced modem recently, but its bridged and my computers use cat6 wiring to the Asus ac68. When i ping any site (local, abroad), when going through the Asus it always adds 5-9ms to my pingtimes. If i connect my computer straight into the bridged modem (and get an external IP), the ping times go down. No other devices connected to the asus while testing btw, just the computer doing the pinging.

The Asus wasnt using much, some portforwarding was configured, 2.4+5Ghz wireless, FlexQoS and latest MerlinFW. I disabled QoS, flashed the newest original FW from Asus, disabled everything i can (firewall++) and even did a complete factory reset. But exact same ping increases persist.

What could be causing this? Do i really need to ditch the Asus and just use the routermodem from my ISP?

you say everthing is wired with CAT6, but pings to the router (192.168.x.1) are averaging 6ms? that's too high for a wired connection. assuming your computer is connected directly (one hop) to the router, ping times should be a 1ms or less.

here's what i get on my AC68U from my wired-in Mac (average times in bold):

User:~ admin$ ping 192.168.1.1 (ROUTER LAN)
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.426 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.380 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.315 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.410 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.410 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.315/0.388/0.426/0.040 ms

User:~ admin$ ping 142.134.91.xyz (ROUTER WAN IP)
PING 142.134.91.xyz (142.134.91.xyz): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.134.91.xyz: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.376 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.91.xyz: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.369 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.91.xyz: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.263 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.91.xyz: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.282 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.91.xyz: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.658 ms
^C
--- 142.134.91.xyz ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.263/0.390/0.658/0.142 ms

User:~ admin$ ping 142.134.xyz.1 (ISP GATEWAY)
PING 142.134.xyz.1 (142.134.xyz.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 142.134.xyz.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=1.125 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.xyz.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=0.952 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.xyz.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=1.100 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.xyz.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=1.389 ms
64 bytes from 142.134.xyz.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=63 time=1.267 ms
^C
--- 142.134.xyz.1 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.952/1.167/1.389/0.150 ms

(you can find your ISP's default Gateway on the Routing Table page under System Log)

User:~ admin$ ping 47.55.55.55 (ISP DNS)
PING 47.55.55.55 (47.55.55.55): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 47.55.55.55: icmp_seq=0 ttl=252 time=0.790 ms
64 bytes from 47.55.55.55: icmp_seq=1 ttl=252 time=0.684 ms
64 bytes from 47.55.55.55: icmp_seq=2 ttl=252 time=1.424 ms
64 bytes from 47.55.55.55: icmp_seq=3 ttl=252 time=0.840 ms
64 bytes from 47.55.55.55: icmp_seq=4 ttl=252 time=1.023 ms
^C
--- 47.55.55.55 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.684/0.952/1.424/0.260 ms

as you can see, all ping times are around 1ms or less. you wouldn't happen to be using a 'wifi mouse' or something wreaking havoc on the network? i ask because someone on our network installed wifi mouse software on his phone and computer, which started a broadcast storm and caused the network to slow to a crawl. needless to say, that got banned right away.

 

[wouterv]

Here I have: RT-AC68U (f.w. 3.0.0.4.385.20633, very default configuration) -> Cat6 -> Glas modem (600 Mbps up/600 Mbps down).
I can confirm those pings from a wireless 1x1 802.11AC client:

• Router : 1 - 2 ms.
• ISP Gateway: 2 ms.
• Google DNS 8.8.8.8: 2 - 4 ms.

As the Gateway is usually the closest external device on the WAN, I can say the RT-AC68U at max adds 1 ms.

And this one:

C:\Users\wouter>tracert 8.8.8.8

Tracing route to dns.google [8.8.8.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  router1 [192.168.1.1]
  2     2 ms     2 ms     1 ms  x-x-x-x.dynamic.caiway.nl [y.y.y.y]
  3     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  zzzzzz.caiw.net [z.z.z.z]
  4     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  209.85.172.145
  5     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  108.170.227.245
  6     3 ms     2 ms     3 ms  108.170.235.133
  7     3 ms     3 ms     3 ms  dns.google [8.8.8.8]

Trace complete.

Much faster than the tracert of the OP, who seems to suffer a "huge" delay (24 ms) at the ISP.

 

[danielk]

you say everthing is wired with CAT6, but pings to the router (192.168.x.1) are averaging 6ms? that's too high for a wired connection. assuming your computer is connected directly (one hop) to the router, ping times should be a 1ms or less.
snip
as you can see, all ping times are around 1ms or less. you wouldn't happen to be using a 'wifi mouse' or something wreaking havoc on the network? i ask because someone on our network installed wifi mouse software on his phone and computer, which started a broadcast storm and caused the network to slow to a crawl. needless to say, that got banned right away.

Thanks for helping! "Everything" possible is wired (PC's), and the only devices accessing wifi is a laptop (off), and two cellphone with very few apps(disconnected from wifi during testing), printer (not even plugged into electricity). We have two wireless mice but these connect to the USB/bluetooth dongles, not wifi, so that should be fine?

For the record, the additional ms times are gone for now, so ive reflashed to the latest merlin FW, and restored my original .cfg settings. Pings are now similar regardless of going through the Asus router, or connecting directly PC -> Bridged ISP-modemrouter.

But! My ping -t Gateway (from the Asus dashboard -> System Log -> Routing Table or just clicking the "Globe" on the firstpage Network Map) still look like this:

Packets: Sent = 134, Received = 134, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 5ms, Maximum = 19ms, Average = 6ms

So 6ms average with the occasional spike..


Meanwhile my external WAN IP (so www.whatsmyip.com) is still fine:

Packets: Sent = 93, Received = 93, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

 

[danielk]

<snip>
Much faster than the tracert of the OP, who seems to suffer a "huge" delay (24 ms) at the ISP.

Thanks for chiming in! I noticed the same yesterday, but didnt know how significant that jump to 24ms is? Whats odd, is that the jump goes from my ISP (Get) to a major infrastructure provider here in Norway (Telia) - But, Telia OWNS Get.. so in reality, everything Telia.net is still my own ISP. Redid the tracert just now:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  RT-AC68U-54F8 [192.168.1.1]
  2     7 ms     6 ms     6 ms  x.y.z.1
  3     5 ms    13 ms     6 ms  cm-x.y.z.x.getinternet.no [x.y.z.x]
  4     6 ms     5 ms     6 ms  109.163.76.168
  5    17 ms    18 ms    16 ms  telianorge-ic-345145-oso-b3.c.telia.net [62.115.175.157]
  6    17 ms    15 ms    14 ms  oso-b3-link.telia.net [62.115.175.156]
  7    22 ms    23 ms    23 ms  s-bb4-link.telia.net [62.115.116.103]
  8    21 ms    22 ms    23 ms  s-b6-link.telia.net [62.115.114.171]
  9    22 ms    22 ms    23 ms  74.125.32.56
 10    24 ms    24 ms    24 ms  209.85.243.231
 11    23 ms    29 ms    22 ms  72.14.238.13
 12    23 ms    21 ms    23 ms  dns.google [8.8.8.8]

Trace complete.

 

[dave14305]

Hopefully your firewall is enabled again after restoring your previous config?

 

[danielk]

Hopefully your firewall is enabled again after restoring your previous config?

Heya Dave! Actually, its off... but it might have been off by the time i did the backup. How important do you believe it to be anyway? I've always wondered whether its worth the resources running it or if it could impact performance somehow (i struggle with latency/ping times in online games, and weird stutter in VOIP - regardless of FlexQos on/off)

 

[dave14305]

How important do you believe it to be anyway?

For me, it’s as important as wearing pants in public (which I do).

 

[ColinTaylor]

Heya Dave! Actually, its off... but it might have been off by the time i did the backup. How important do you believe it to be anyway? I've always wondered whether its worth the resources running it or if it could impact performance somehow (i struggle with latency/ping times in online games, and weird stutter in VOIP - regardless of FlexQos on/off)

There is no performance or resource impact to having the firewall enabled. Having it disabled is just inviting trouble.

 

[danielk]

Some more pinging WAN Gateway:

Packets: Sent = 2846, Received = 2846, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 90ms, Average = 7ms

 

[wouterv]

Heya Dave! Actually, its off... but it might have been off by the time i did the backup. How important do you believe it to be anyway? I've always wondered whether its worth the resources running it or if it could impact performance somehow (i struggle with latency/ping times in online games, and weird stutter in VOIP - regardless of FlexQos on/off)

The ping's I did are as said with a pretty default configuration, meaning the Firewall is enabled. The latency times indicate if there is a delay by the Firewall it is far within the 1 ms.