Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops

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Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops

This thread has been locked for further replies. You can start a new thread to share your ideas or ask questions.
Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
2022-02-06 22:39:16 - last edited 2022-02-07 00:23:00
Model: Archer AX73  
Hardware Version:
Firmware Version: 1.2.0 Build 20211222 rel.74632(5553)

For the last few weeks I have been troubleshooting the stability of my Local Area Network. 95% of the time, it works fine. The other 5% I will experience stuttering/lag if I stream something across the LAN (video, game, or remote desktop).  I believe this is also associated with slow-feeling web browsing.

 

The server on the LAN is a Windows 10 PC connected via ethernet to the router.

 

A typical use case will be streaming a game from the PC to my Steam Link device on my TV, which is connected via 5ghz wifi (in the same room as the router, with clear line of site about 25 feet away). I will notice some abrupt lag, and pinging the PC or the router during this time will show very bad results.

 

For example:

 

Pinging the router:

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=2.901 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=4.336 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=1350.986 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=347.453 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=7.013 ms

 

Or pinging the PC from my laptop:

 

64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=10.918 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=6 ttl=128 time=49.491 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=7 ttl=128 time=59.175 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=8 ttl=128 time=202.339 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 9
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=10 ttl=128 time=30.333 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=11 ttl=128 time=52.461 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=12 ttl=128 time=151.771 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=13 ttl=128 time=446.120 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=14 ttl=128 time=165.935 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=15 ttl=128 time=86.602 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=16 ttl=128 time=129.742 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=17 ttl=128 time=25.671 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=18 ttl=128 time=15.458 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.108: icmp_seq=19 ttl=128 time=4.364 ms

 

During normal-feeling operation, pings to the router or the PC are in the <20ms range is low variance. The laptop is in the same room as the router. I live in a fairly sparse suburban area so the wireless environment should be relatively healthy.

 

I've tried changing the wireless channels and channel widths, power cycling the router, enabling OFDMA, disabling Smart Connect, and enable Zero Wait DFS.

 

Even as a type this and work on the router's web UI, things are noticeably slow to load.

 

 

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#1
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4 Reply
Re:Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
2022-02-14 14:11:42

  @Cullen 

Thanks for reaching out to us. 

Sorry to reply you late. For this issue, may I have the following information:

1. When did you upgrade to this 20211222 firmware? And when did you get this issue?

2. How often does this issue happen, such as once a day or twice a day?

3. Who is your ISP? What's the model of the modem?

4. Save and message me the System Log on the router (System Tools System Log). Don't reboot the router, if the internet doesn't recover automatically, please login to the router page, go to Advanced > Network > Internet, click on the Connect/Disconnect to recover the connection on the router.

Nice to Meet You in Our TP-Link Community. Check Out the Latest Posts: Connect TP-Link Archer BE550 to Germany's DS-Lite (Dual Stack Lite) Internet via WAN Archer GE550 - BE9300 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Gaming Router Archer BE800 New Firmware Added Support for EasyMesh in AP Mode, DoH&DoT, and 3-Band MLO Connection Archer AX90 New Firmware Added Support for EasyMesh and Ethernet Backhaul If you found a post or response helpful, please click Helpful (arrow pointing upward icon). If you are the author of a topic, remember to mark a helpful reply as the "Recommended Solution" (star icon) so that others can benefit from it.
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Re:Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
2022-02-14 14:50:36

  @Kevin_Z 

 

The problem began shortly before the latest firmware update. I noticed the update was available when I was going through the settings trying to identify the problem.

I do have my router set to automatically keep firmware up to date and reboot on a weekly schedule.

 

The modem is an Arris tm1602 on the Charter Spectrum ISP.

 

The timing is inconsistent. There were a few days in a row last week when I did not notice it at all and I thought yet another power cycle had solved it, but then the problem resumed. Lately it's been happening for several minute intervals, several times a day.

 

I've messaged you my log.

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#3
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Re:Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
2022-02-15 01:58:43

Hi  @Cullen 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

To assist you efficiently, I've forwarded your case to the TP-Link support engineers who will contact you with your registered email address later. Please pay attention to your email box for follow-up.

Nice to Meet You in Our TP-Link Community. Check Out the Latest Posts: Connect TP-Link Archer BE550 to Germany's DS-Lite (Dual Stack Lite) Internet via WAN Archer GE550 - BE9300 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 7 Gaming Router Archer BE800 New Firmware Added Support for EasyMesh in AP Mode, DoH&DoT, and 3-Band MLO Connection Archer AX90 New Firmware Added Support for EasyMesh and Ethernet Backhaul If you found a post or response helpful, please click Helpful (arrow pointing upward icon). If you are the author of a topic, remember to mark a helpful reply as the "Recommended Solution" (star icon) so that others can benefit from it.
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Re:Occasional LAN disruption - high ping or packet drops
2022-02-17 22:13:29

@Kevin_Z 

 I responded to the ticket but wanted to add to the thread in case anyone else has a suggestion.

 

I have spent a lot of time experimenting and I believe I have narrowed it down:
- It only affects the 5GHz band
- It has only happened when the channel width is set to 20/40/80 or 20/40/80/160. So far setting it to 20/40 has had stable performance.
- I have manually assigned multiple channels, and used a wifi sniffer to make sure there are no nearby APs on the same channel. The performance issue has happened regardless of the channel I've set.
- Today I used an app called NetSpot to log the wifi performance. I had the router set to 20/40/80 width today and when I got home I noticed the internet browsing was slow. I checked the ping log and noticed that pings to the router were slow or dropping out. I checked the NetSpot graph, and there is a clear correlation in its 'noise' graph to the periods of high ping.
 
 
Router ping log attached below
 
The lag begins at the 14:27:07 mark.

 

I think I've narrowed down the problem as much as possible. The noise graph implies there could be something external causing interference. But I am not sure what could cause interference  on multiple channels; I've tried 20/40/80 width on "auto" mode and at least three manually-specified channels and had this behavior.
File:
ping_log.txtDownload
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#5
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