Latency Spikes with TC

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Latency Spikes with TC

Hey everyone,

I've been battling this issue for about 6 months now and I've narrowed the problem down to the Time Capsule.

Long story short, I am WIRED into my TC, use remote desktop a lot in my line of work and I play League of Legends at night for fun. Occasionally when I'm remoted in and always when I'm playing League of Legends, my latency(ping) will spike from my normal of around 80 upwards of 400-600 and everything I do will be delayed by about 1-3 seconds.

At first I thought this was an issue with my ISP. I immediately thought to bypass the TC and plug directly into the modem to see if it's an issue with the ISP. The issue was solved, 0 lag spikes for about a week straight. I then started looking into issues with the TC. I did update the TC to the latest firmware but I'm wondering if the community has any suggestions? I can't seem to find much after a few hours of Googling and browsing these forums.

It almost feels like when playing games at least, this doesn't happen right away, it takes maybe 15-20 minutes into the game for it happen. Almost like it's overloaded and has to restart or catch up if that makes sense?

Thanks for your time,

Chris

Time Capsule-OTHER

Posted on Apr 14, 2013 1:25 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 14, 2013 2:33 PM in response to Fischecp

What is the modem your ISP supply? Is it pure modem or modem router? Actual model number may help.

What kind of broadband?

What is the TC setting.. router or bridged?

Obviously if the issue has been going on for 6months it is not the new firmware.

And the TC is a very difficult box to analyse where a problem exists because it simply has so few controls and even less feedback.

Many people complain of throughput issues though, and it is not consistent.. but I haven't seen many posts about latency.. what is the actual throughput like. Does it also drop?

If something has bound up the processor to cause throughput issues it will also cause latency problems.

I also need to know if the TC is also 6months old.. ? How old if not 6months?

Is this a problem that started at that point from an existing setup?

What model TC.. A1xxx from the rubber mat on the base?

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Answer 2

Fischecp Author

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Apr 14, 2013 3:26 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks for the quick response!

My ISP is Time Warner Cable here in Cincinnati. It's a Ubee Modem DDW3611.

As bad as it sounds, I also just realized in looking for those part numbers that the Ubee was stacked on top of the TC and it was extremely hot in between the 2. I wonder if it was possibly an issue over heat...

Which kind of broadband... I'm not 100% sure, I know I get 10 MB down and about 2 MB up.

I believe the TC is set to Router? I'm not 100% sure on this either but I do know I have a static IP set in the TC.

The TC is way more than 6 months old, I just realized the issue was happening in the past 6 months. I'd say the TC is about 2-3 years old? Sorry, I'm not 100% certain of the date.

Anyway, the TC model # is: A1355

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Answer 3

Apr 14, 2013 3:58 PM in response to Fischecp

Ok..

Yes, the heat is a killer.. do not ever stack modems and router.. if you want a neat way use wall mounting.. or a set of wire in trays and a fan blowing over the stack.. But nothing should touch the other.

Your TC is gen3.. they do suffer from a range of issues.. and slow internet could be one of them.. anyway see how it goes when you let it cool down. Turn the TC off overnight and try it again the next morning.. keep pounding away at it and see if you experience slow down.. especially when it gets hot doing a backup.

I do need you to test if there is a double NAT issue.

Open the airport utility and go to the network page. See if it says in router mode.. off bridge mode.

Your modem is definitely also a router.. so the TC should be in bridge unless you arranged with ISP to have the modem bridged.. from your comment that you directly connected to the modem and the problems disappeared I am guessing not.

Another test is simple.

Open a Terminal and type

traceroute 8.8.8.8

Give me a copy and paste of the output.

macproie-5:~ Ray$ traceroute 8.8.8.8

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 local (192.168.2.254) 75.819 ms 96.699 ms 99.966 ms

2 adsl1.mel.dft.com.au (203.123.69.176) 8.691 ms 8.256 ms 9.337 ms

3 tge0-1-0-308.core0.mel.dft.com.au (203.123.72.73) 8.781 ms 8.679 ms 8.766 ms

4 ve420.er01.mel01.vic.plat.net.au (14.137.114.25) 16.381 ms 8.428 ms 9.191 ms

5 eth2-1.bdr01.syd01.nsw.plat.net.au (202.62.143.121) 21.761 ms 32.882 ms 25.199 ms

6 google.syd02.nsw.plat.net.au (202.62.143.65) 22.009 ms 21.818 ms 21.894 ms

7 72.14.237.21 (72.14.237.21) 21.388 ms 22.312 ms 21.390 ms

8 google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8) 21.454 ms 22.250 ms 21.609 ms

macproie-5:~ Ray$

I want to make sure you only have a single private IP ..

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Answer 4

Fischecp Author

Level 1

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Apr 14, 2013 4:51 PM in response to LaPastenague

The Router Mode is "DHCP and NAT". I do have the "Internet" tab set as static with all my information in there. The guy that installed my modem didn't seem like he knew what he was doing to be honest so he may have set something up incorrectly.

The output for the trace route is as follows:

Chriss-MacBook-Pro:~ Chris$ traceroute 8.8.8.8

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 3.796 ms 0.851 ms 0.868 ms

2 10.171.0.1 (10.171.0.1) 727.891 ms 716.264 ms 1047.679 ms

3 ae0-1007.cr02.dytnoh55.swo.rr.com (184.59.244.38) 921.525 ms 19.621 ms 17.303 ms

4 network-065-029-001-046.midwest.rr.com (65.29.1.46) 30.457 ms 25.506 ms 22.875 ms

5 ae-3-0.cr0.dca20.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.70) 26.928 ms 29.930 ms 32.613 ms

6 107.14.19.135 (107.14.19.135) 29.089 ms 31.695 ms

ae-1-0.pr0.dca10.tbone.rr.com (66.109.6.165) 47.930 ms

7 66.109.9.66 (66.109.9.66) 34.009 ms

74.125.49.181 (74.125.49.181) 43.832 ms 38.182 ms

8 209.85.252.80 (209.85.252.80) 28.322 ms 25.962 ms

209.85.252.46 (209.85.252.46) 29.809 ms

9 72.14.236.152 (72.14.236.152) 28.421 ms 28.584 ms

72.14.236.98 (72.14.236.98) 30.694 ms

10 72.14.238.18 (72.14.238.18) 920.146 ms 921.345 ms

72.14.238.70 (72.14.238.70) 921.545 ms

11 72.14.232.21 (72.14.232.21) 921.484 ms

72.14.232.25 (72.14.232.25) 811.287 ms

72.14.232.21 (72.14.232.21) 921.845 ms

12 google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8) 707.272 ms 722.655 ms 731.426 ms

Chriss-MacBook-Pro:~ Chris$

Again, thank you for your help!

Chris

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Answer 5

Apr 14, 2013 5:05 PM in response to Fischecp

Ok.. clearly are issues.

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 3.796 ms 0.851 ms 0.868 ms

2 10.171.0.1 (10.171.0.1) 727.891 ms 716.264 ms 1047.679 ms

This is double NAT.. it always causes issues..

Even worse this is double NAT with two routers using the 10.x.x.x IP range which can get very messy as it often assumes a class A network.

So setup the TC in bridge mode.

And I can surely see the latency issue.. the ping response times.. you can clearly see mine against yours the.. lag is shocking.

So pick bridge and go from there.

After you bridge the TC.. everything is going to change.. so you are going to have to reboot the whole network.. from off, in the right order.. modem.. TC.. clients.. with 2min gap. Then see how you go.

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Answer 6

Fischecp Author

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Apr 14, 2013 5:33 PM in response to LaPastenague

Ok, what should I do about the settings I currently have though for DHCP and Port Mappings? See below:

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Answer 7

Apr 14, 2013 5:50 PM in response to Fischecp

All the port mappings move to the modem router.. the TC becomes another network client device.. it has no role in routing nor in setting IP addresses. You will need to download the manual for your Ubee.. and do it all through there.

I suggest you do export your current configuration of the TC.. that is option in the top menu.. I hope still in v6.

Just so you have a copy of this setup if you need or want to go back quickly.. but seriously.. the setup does need to change..

The other option being to bridge the modem router.. this is not always possible however as some ISP supply them locked to their configuration or you need to ring the ISP to get them to change it.

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Answer 8

Fischecp Author

Level 1

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Apr 14, 2013 5:57 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you for your help!!! Ill give it a shot

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