I can not stream! I have 1200Mb DL and 40Mb UL. When I run a game the speeds drop by 99%. What is happening ? Please help

[Hired2Kill]

Fellow IT professional here. Found this website today when I was looking up optimizations for gaming and streaming. I have no idea what is happening with my network. I have two networks at my house. One for my family and all their devices. Then I have my own private network. I only have ONE device on my own network and that is my gaming desktop. All I’m trying to do is stream warzone!! I have 1200Mb Download and 40Mb upload but whenever I run a game on my gaming desktop all the speeds are reduced by 99% when I run a speed test while the game is running. I don’t understand how a network with only ONE device on it and a desktop running only ONE game can be affected this much. It makes no sense to me. I just factory reset my router. What do I do from here? How can I optimize my R7800 for streaming??? What setting do I need to change! Any help will be very much appreciated. This has been driving me insane for over a month.

 

[degrub]

Don’t most of the internet “speed test” sites say to not have anything else running while doing the test as the results will not be accurate ?

what do you mean by your own private network ? Do you have 2 ISP modems or two static external addresses on one ISP modem or you have your own subnet on the R7800 ? A sketch of your physical and/or logical network might help.

 

[Hired2Kill]

I have two separate networks at my house. I have the xfinity network (cable modem/router combo) for my family and their devices. Then I have another network soley dedicated for gaming/streaming. On my network I use the Arris SB8200 Modem (contaced xfinity yesterday and they said my modem was the problem(which I know it was not) so I went and bought a Motorola MB8611 Modem. I have that connected now. That was to confirm that my modem was not the problem. The router for my personal network is the Netgear R7800. So thats what I mean by I have two separate networks.

 

[MildlyOffensive]

It’s an interesting issue. I have repeatedly had issues with Comcast where the cable line would develop static and had to be cleared on their side by calling Comcast customer service. A command can usually be issued by tech support, but low level techs don’t have access to this and I have always had to elevate the issue. Shorting the line on my side would not work to clear the static. Do you get full speed wired straight into the modem?

My other thought is that the router is thermal throttling for some reason. If it’s a new router perhaps one of the thermal pads was installed incorrectly at the factor and a RMA is in order. Is your desktop connected by Ethernet or WiFi?
Another thought is that if you have QOS enabled the upload/download limits may be reversed or doing something strange. This may also be the case on the combo Router/Modem.
I ran into an issue using an old router as a firewall with custom firmware where the router cannot route traffic from the LAN to WAN at more than ~200Mbps due to being unable to use hardware acceleration.
Are you running VLANs or routing rules that would cut routing speed?

 

[Hired2Kill]

It’s an interesting issue. I have repeatedly had issues with Comcast where the cable line would develop static and had to be cleared on their side by calling Comcast customer service. A command can usually be issued by tech support, but low level techs don’t have access to this and I have always had to elevate the issue. Shorting the line on my side would not work to clear the static. Do you get full speed wired straight into the modem?

My other thought is that the router is thermal throttling for some reason. If it’s a new router perhaps one of the thermal pads was installed incorrectly at the factor and a RMA is in order. Is your desktop connected by Ethernet or WiFi?
Another thought is that if you have QOS enabled the upload/download limits may be reversed or doing something strange. This may also be the case on the combo Router/Modem.
I ran into an issue using an old router as a firewall with custom firmware where the router cannot route traffic from the LAN to WAN at more than ~200Mbps due to being unable to use hardware acceleration.
Are you running VLANs or routing rules that would cut routing speed?

I have this hard wired with a cat 6 cable. I have a cat 6 cable going from my modem to my router. Then I have a cat 6 cable running from my router directly to my gaming desktop. I literally do not have one other device on this network. I just had a comcast tech come out yesterday and all the idiot did was split the line.... so he degraded my connection even more. Then I tried to stream again. Didn't work. So I called comcast again. They told me it was my Arris Surfboard SB8200 ( That's one of the best modems on the market, I KNOW for a fact there is no way in hell that the modem was the issue) They suggested I go out and buy a new modem. So I went out and got a Motorola MB8611. So that is currently connected now. And I'm still getting the same results as I was when I had the SB8200 installed. So the modem is not the problem. I just factory reset the R7800. That did not fix my issue. I saw something about turning QoS off? Should I do that?

 

[degrub]

Yes

was this a sudden change with existing equipment when it started and it was working as expected before or had something been changed - hardware or software - and the issue started ?

 

[MildlyOffensive]

It sounds like it’s a problem on Comcast’s side. I would still try going straight into both modems with a known good Ethernet cable to compare speeds with nothing in between to make sure it’s their fault. Try a couple Ethernet cables because there could be an unexpected issue with the one your using. Also try a couple coax cables and make sure they are connected tightly. Maybe take the modems outside and connect straight into the line at or before the split. Another thing to check is if they grounded the line. It should look something like this: (https://www.groundedreason.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ground-coaxial-e1478480871869.jpg)

You can use a continuity tester on a multimeter if you want to make sure that the ground & wire shield actually connect to your house ground.

The modems have a web page that allows you to check signal strength on each channel if you wire straight into the modem: (https://arris.secure.force.com/consumers/articles/General_FAQs/SB8200-Web-Manager-Access).

This will tell you if the line signal strength is bad. You can compare signal loss straight from their line before splitting as well as in your home. Arris lists normal signal strength specs here: (https://arris.secure.force.com/cons...able-Signal-Levels/?l=en_US&fs=RelatedArticle). If the cable line is not grounded to your home’s wiring this will introduce noise into the line. In most areas properly grounding the line is Comcast’s responsibility, but they often don’t or ground it badly. It needs to be grounded directly to your home ground, not a separate ground rod at the electric pole. I suppose your home ground could be worn out or improperly connected, but that would take more looking into to figure out.

You could turn QOS and any throttling off, but that’s normally at the router and directly wiring to the modem would bypass that.

 

[follower]

Fellow IT professional here. Found this website today when I was looking up optimizations for gaming and streaming. I have no idea what is happening with my network. I have two networks at my house. One for my family and all their devices. Then I have my own private network. I only have ONE device on my own network and that is my gaming desktop. All I’m trying to do is stream warzone!! I have 1200Mb Download and 40Mb upload but whenever I run a game on my gaming desktop all the speeds are reduced by 99% when I run a speed test while the game is running. I don’t understand how a network with only ONE device on it and a desktop running only ONE game can be affected this much. It makes no sense to me. I just factory reset my router. What do I do from here? How can I optimize my R7800 for streaming??? What setting do I need to change! Any help will be very much appreciated. This has been driving me insane for over a month.

I think that is not a hardware issue but your internet service type. Your internet is an Asymmetric internet connection. You need a symmetric internet connection.

 

[MildlyOffensive]

Hired2Kill, by streaming do you mean uploading, such as to a Twitch stream? If so, you should find out how much bandwidth you need in upstream. If your upload video stream takes too much bandwidth and faster upload is not available, the next solution may be to cut bitrate. You could setup QoS on the router to cap the upload on the stream and prioritize game traffic by port or application in order to maintain low game latency, but this would create dropped frames.
Your question led me to the idea that your Internet speeds provided by Comcast are not actually coming in at 1200 down/40 up. Comcast normally overprovisions so you should get something like 46Mbps up. If the upstream is totally saturated this will cut into the downstream bandwidth.

 

[SeriousFamily]

I have one suggestion that gets posted over here in the UK on the Virgin Media forums.

Try setting up a BQM to monitor line quality

Broadband Quality Monitor FAQ | thinkbroadband

Guide to using and interpreting the Broadband Quality Monitor (BQM)

www.thinkbroadband.com

What I don't understand is you say you have 2 network connections by 2 different ISP?
Then why are you factory resetting the family connection? if the problem is with the other line that only has the desktop computer connected?

If you have 2 active accounts with the same ISP and they both are going down at the same then you have a problem.

 

[MichaelCG]

You may have two different networks with two different modems with two different routers.....but they both appear to be Xfinity...which means you still have a shared circuit feeding both networks. If you really want them to be unrelated to each other, you need one on COAX and one on DSL or Fiber. Otherwise they will share the same medium leaving your house out to the pedestal/pole.

It still isn't exactly clear what speeds tank when you do a speedtest...and how/where you are doing the speedtest. I think you stated your gaming rig is all hard wired, so there is no WiFi in play. Where were you running the speedtest from? Gaming machine or family machine? Did the problems appears during the download part of the speedtest or during the upload portion?

 

[Hired2Kill]

You may have two different networks with two different modems with two different routers.....but they both appear to be Xfinity...which means you still have a shared circuit feeding both networks. If you really want them to be unrelated to each other, you need one on COAX and one on DSL or Fiber. Otherwise they will share the same medium leaving your house out to the pedestal/pole.

It still isn't exactly clear what speeds tank when you do a speedtest...and how/where you are doing the speedtest. I think you stated your gaming rig is all hard wired, so there is no WiFi in play. Where were you running the speedtest from? Gaming machine or family machine? Did the problems appears during the download part of the speedtest or during the upload portion?

So the problem was with a setting on my gaming desktop because I did a clean install and it fixed my speeds.