Unplayable latency and disconnection

@_captaincrud_666 

grab www.pingplotter.com ( free version ) and set it graphing to www.google.com then start the game and see if dramatic change in the graph whicle playing

that graph can be saved as a jpg and posted here too

Hi @proxos666 

Thanks a bunch for the guidance, I really appreciate it!

I did as requested and ran ping plotter. Screen cap of the graph is attached. The game started at 9:36:30 on the graph. It gave me a connection error and I could not connect on the first try, but it worked on the second try. Initial latency in game was around 990ms and then it jumped all over the place; down to 40ms, up over 5000. All of this occurred before that packet loss spike just after 9:38p.Not really sure what that's all about. Then I tried to have a cutscene conversation with an NPC that I was next to and it would not let me select any of the dialogue options. Like the radial menu popped up with my choice options but when I clicked nothing happened and it just kind of stayed stuck there. 

I left the game and just kept ping plotter running for the last 20 minutes or so and that packet loss spike has happened a few more times, but aside from that the latency to google is mostly all under 25ms. 

@_captaincrud_666 

that pingplot image is odd , have you tried a different internet connection say by tethering that laptop to your mobile (personnel hotspot) and use the gsm network not the wireless home internet ?

there are no hop numbers , there is a 0 count and no ping timings in the main part of the screen for avg min and current

here is an example of similar on what should be seen 

@proxos666 

Ok maybe it was just a fluke yesterday that the pingplotter graph had those missing elements. I have tried it again 3 times this morning and every time all of those average and current stats are present. 

here's a graph below. I opened the game at 11:35. This time to my surprise the game was actually somewhat playable; this is the first time that's been the case. The in game latency was still jumping all over the place though, and did give me the red X at some point. I played for about 30 minutes or so and then the latency issue made it unplayable again 

@_captaincrud_666 

That graph is definitely showing a network issue are you playing wireless or wired and do you just have a modem or a router and a modem ?

can you connect that laptop by cable directly to the modem and test again (if not already connected like this)

also when was the last time you restarted the modem ?

Well now I think we are getting somewhere. I am playing over WIFI. The router and modem were restarted about 20 minutes before I took that previous graph.

I just bypassed the WIFI as you suggested  and plugged directly to the modem. Resulting graphic is below. I ran the game starting at 7:29P. In game performance was immediately improved. I just played for about 10 minutes and never saw the in game latency go above 38ms. Everything very smooth. So I guess it looks like it's probably something with the wireless. I'm not sure how old the router is, I've had it for quite a while I think. I am certainly not very good with network troubleshooting, and a bit out of my depth here. So I don't really know how to approach trouble shooting the router, or maybe it's just time to buy a new one. The modem is not in a convenient spot for me to hard line into every time I want to game, so getting the WIFI sorted is far preferable.

Thanks again for the help!

@_captaincrud_666 

see if the netword adapter your using is dual frequency so chnage from say 5 GHz to 2.4Ghz in the first instance

see https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/151786-how-change-preferred-band-wireless-network-adapter-windows.html

@proxos666 

Well it's been a busy few days, but I'm getting back to this now. In the device manager it was set at 2.4Ghz, so I ran another ping test just as a starting point. Got similar result to before: some packet loss and not great performance, as expected. Picture 1 below. Then I went back into device manager and I changed the preferred band to 5. Seems like this made it much worse. Picture 2 below. When I click on Properties for my wifi network it is showing Network Band: 2.4 so I'm not really sure if I would need to change settings on the router to try to run at 5 after my adapter was changed to 5. Again please forgive my naivety here. Regardless though, both options are not great so far. 

As a side note, the wifi router I am using is a TP Link TL WR841N. I did not buy it and don't know how old it is, but I see that you can buy them for about 15-20 dollars US, so I have my doubts about it being a strong performer. I also live in a residential part of a city and there are lots of other houses very close. My laptop is detecting 19 networks right now. I am open to getting a new router if that is the right thing to do. My modem is only a few months old 

@_captaincrud_666 

Are you sure you need a separate router ? most modems include one these days ?

what is the make and model of the modem you have ?

what is the signal strength like ? the 7ms max on 2.4 that could indicate either congestion or poor signal

Check for the best wifi channel to use too - https://www.howtogeek.com/197268/how-to-find-the-best-wi-fi-channel-for-your-router-on-any-operating-system/

given you have so many wifi networks it may be congestion due to too many wifi networks on the same channel