Ping and latency issues that should not be occurring + Suggestions

[White_Mamba]

My firmware shows as v4.0.20. Smartboost has disappeared. Ping optimizer seems to be broken, I can't even change congestion control as it's grayed out and stuck on 100%. While gaming, the ping is higher than it was with the XR450, which I was using prior. Ping Plotter is showing my latency graph (the bottom graph) going pretty wild in the variance ranges. Also, it would be really nice to be able to manually adjust the list order of the DHCP reserved IPs and to also have the option to edit them instead of just deleting them, like changing the MAC address or the name of the associated device. It would also be nice to be able to name the LAN ports so it is easy to just look and see what it attached where. 

[johnnytran]

I think it's just their QoS algorithm, not sure if it's intended or not. I've noticed with any other router, including the R2, my ping in pingplotter to 6-7ms with the odd spike above 10 like once an hour, if that. The R3 seems to follow a pattern of a few low pings then some higher pings then some lower ones etc. and I get spikes above 20ms (sometimes a lot more) even though my internet isn't being used.

Below screenshots are weeks apart

[Netduma Fraser]

We're aware Ping Optimizer isn't 100% reliable at the moment and are working on improving that currently. Congestion Control should only be greyed out if you have disabled SmartBOOST entirely but if you can't see it that's probably why it is greyed out, was there anything you changed/did prior to it disappearing? A reboot should resolve it, then you can use Congestion Control to get your ping under control.

You can adjust reserved IPs, click on the device you added and then you can change the IP there.

[White_Mamba]

SmartBOOST just completely disappeared. When I went to the dashboard, I tried clicking the SmartBOOST button there and a pop-up appeared asking if I wanted to enable SmartBOOST but nothing happened when I clicked to enable it, the pop-up didn't change it even appear to accept my response. Rebooting did nothing at all, no matter how many times I did it. Then I went and downloaded and applied the v4.0.16, everything then looked how it should. Then I went to update it back to v4.0.20 and the R3 isn't taking it. A message of "please wait while we try to reconnect to the router" appears but never goes away. After about 30 minutes, I turned it off and back on and it was still on v4.0.16. I tried several times, waiting up to an hour and still the same thing.

As for the IPs, it's probably just an OCD thing but I like then to be ordered. When I changed it, the number is out of order and it drives me crazy 😂 but it would be nice to be able to change their name there too instead of having to go to the device table to only do it there. 

EDIT

I just tried to do the update again but this time instead of v4.0.20, it was v4.0.21 and the update went through without an issue. Everything seems to be working fine.

[Netduma Fraser]

Good point about the reserved IPs being out of order, I'll definitely pass that onto the team.

Glad to hear it's working now, if it does happen again please get the logs from Settings > Troubleshooting > Advanced > System logs and we can see what may be happening

[White_Mamba]

I will. I do have to say that I am getting annoyed though. When I am first starting to look for a match, the starting ping is so high when compared to my XR450, at least double. Every game I play feels really laggy. I've been messing with the settings a little, I've tried restarting the router and modem multiple times, I just don't know. I guess I will just have to wait to see when smartBOOST gets fixed. 

[Netduma Fraser]

Try this:

• Disable GeoLatency
• Disable SteadyPing
• Disable PingAssist (set it to 0,0)
• Enable Strict Mode
• Disable Fast Search

Then, restart game or wait 10 minutes (in the lobby in the game) or if that doesn't work, reboot PC/Console and try again please. See if that is more stable for you.

[White_Mamba]

It turns out that the culprit was SteadyPing. As soon as I turned that off, it was a lot better. I already had fast search off, strict mode on, PingAssist set to 0,0 and off. I do have GeoLatency set to on though as this did help dramatically versus when it was turned off. 

[Netduma Fraser]

Thank you for the report, that does make sense as it does raise your ping, I don't think it should be applying outside the Geo-Filter though so I will pass that onto the team to look at thank you.

[White_Mamba]

It was weird. It was creating the buffer zone but at the same time it appeared that the added 10ms as the buffer was being used like it was the minimum when searching for lobbies to join. So instead of staying around 20ms, it started at 30ms but then would keep climbing to 45ms then to 60ms then to 80ms before finding a lobby. Sometimes less send sometimes more. My ping would still be at around 30, or at least the game said so, but the lag was pretty bad. 

[Netduma Fraser]

57 minutes ago, White_Mamba said:

It was weird. It was creating the buffer zone but at the same time it appeared that the added 10ms as the buffer was being used like it was the minimum when searching for lobbies to join. So instead of staying around 20ms, it started at 30ms but then would keep climbing to 45ms then to 60ms then to 80ms before finding a lobby. Sometimes less send sometimes more. My ping would still be at around 30, or at least the game said so, but the lag was pretty bad. 

Try experimenting with the buffer size, you may find 20ms instead of 10 works better

[White_Mamba]

I did, I actually had it at 20ms. The wording is kind of confusing. It sounded like it said to put the ping number in at a number sightly larger than what I normally get. I live about 400 miles from a server so my ping, at least in game, normally shows me about 12-13ms, so I said it to 20ms. Are you saying that the number that is set is the number above my normal ping, not including the actual ping? Ping? So if I put 20ms in there is that 20ms plus my normal ping for a total of 32ms or is 20ms the total ping that includes my normal ping?

[White_Mamba]

I should also note, in case it's not already known, that whenever you reboot the router, the SmartBOOST option disappears until you refresh the page, then it re-appears. 

[xNotTheBestJedi]

On 12/23/2023 at 5:34 AM, Netduma Fraser said:

Thank you for the report, that does make sense as it does raise your ping, I don't think it should be applying outside the Geo-Filter though so I will pass that onto the team to look at thank you.

I noticed that too. If you increase the ping buffer it will allow servers outsided your geofence within that final ping even with ping assist set to zero (0). 

[Netduma Fraser]

On 12/23/2023 at 7:58 PM, White_Mamba said:

I did, I actually had it at 20ms. The wording is kind of confusing. It sounded like it said to put the ping number in at a number sightly larger than what I normally get. I live about 400 miles from a server so my ping, at least in game, normally shows me about 12-13ms, so I said it to 20ms. Are you saying that the number that is set is the number above my normal ping, not including the actual ping? Ping? So if I put 20ms in there is that 20ms plus my normal ping for a total of 32ms or is 20ms the total ping that includes my normal ping?

46 minutes ago, White_Mamba said:

I should also note, in case it's not already known, that whenever you reboot the router, the SmartBOOST option disappears until you refresh the page, then it re-appears. 

I know what you mean about the wording actually, it is quite confusing, I'll make the team aware of that. It's setting it to make sure you have that ping so if you set it to have 20ms you should be getting 20ms to the server overall.

41 minutes ago, xNotTheBestJedi said:

I noticed that too. If you increase the ping buffer it will allow servers outsided your geofence within that final ping even with ping assist set to zero (0). 

By outside the Geo-Filter I meant applying to non gaming devices but for you it's likely Geo-Latency is allowing servers outside. 

• Disable GeoLatency
• Disable PingAssist (set it to 0,0)
• Enable Strict Mode
• Disable Fast Search

Then restart the game or wait 10 minutes (in the lobby in the game), if that doesn't work, reboot PC/Console and check again.

I've also sent you a firmware via PM to try that may help.