WiFi Latency Spikes Caused By Powersaving - How to disable?

[ryannathans]

It sounds like you need to investigate the Windows side some more. Try running the task manager side by side with your ping window.

There seems to be nothing of interest in task manager or wireshark, although on Windows I'm unable to capture the raw 802.11 headers/framing. At first it seemed every time a certain IPv6 TCP connection sent a keep-alive (as it did every 5ish seconds) but after restarting everything this connection did not exist and the issue persisted (even with IPv6 turned off).

 

[ryannathans]

Why are devices still entering power save mode with APSD turned off?

 

[System Error Message]

tweak both the device and AP. There are 2 values in the AP you can tweak and match so its not a battery drain and to reduce latency spikes for power saving such as DTIM and one more number but the device itself is allowed to power save and have a higher ping. Its more of a question if the latency spike is alright with you such as if you are gaming.

ICMP is usually considered unimportant, but try running the ping test while you are downloading for a long time or you can even run a stress test that uses TCP/UDP instead and see if you still get it. Mobile devices by default have power saving so you're always going to see that ping hence why it makes better sense to tweak the AP as well.

 

[ryannathans]

tweak both the device and AP. There are 2 values in the AP you can tweak and match so its not a battery drain and to reduce latency spikes for power saving such as DTIM and one more number but the device itself is allowed to power save and have a higher ping. Its more of a question if the latency spike is alright with you such as if you are gaming.

ICMP is usually considered unimportant, but try running the ping test while you are downloading for a long time or you can even run a stress test that uses TCP/UDP instead and see if you still get it. Mobile devices by default have power saving so you're always going to see that ping hence why it makes better sense to tweak the AP as well.

Unfortunately the problem still occurs while gaming, that's how I became aware of the problem initially. It seems like a Windows bug as a "network reset" fixes the problem until I shut down the computer. I doubt Microsoft are aware of it as I can find no references to it online. Might try Linux tomorrow and see how that goes, sadly few games work on Linux.

 

[ryannathans]

I have just found a way to reliably reproduce the issue.

After a network reset, when I am having no issues, if I edit ANY setting on this network adapter screen and save the issue starts to occur. Reverting the change does not fix the problem. I suspect it's setting some registry value... Somewhere...

 

[System Error Message]

I have just found a way to reliably reproduce the issue.

After a network reset, when I am having no issues, if I edit ANY setting on this network adapter screen and save the issue starts to occur. Reverting the change does not fix the problem. I suspect it's setting some registry value... Somewhere...

View attachment 18407

windows networking has been buggy even for me and i get problems not just with latency but more of with the network adapter driver being stuck. MS blames drivers/manufacturer when it is a windows issue as it did not happen in older versions of windows, like the double click problem as well.

 

[ryannathans]

After downgrading the ASUS/broadcom driver to before KRACK was patched and performing a network reset, I can adjust any variable on that screen as much as I want and there is no problem at all!

However, there is no option to offload the rekeying so I'm screwed security-wise.

Do I want stable internet and massive security vulnerability.... Or secure WiFi but unusable internet..... lmao

 

[ColinTaylor]

KRACK is a client side vulnerability. So it's not an issue unless you're running your router as a repeater or media bridge.