Sky - traffic management?

Hi

I just moved over from BT where I had pings of 5 to 10ms to DNS servers and websites such as google, bbc.co.uk, 8.8.8.8 etc.

With sky i'm getting nothing lower then 12ms to all of them, almost like its capped. (Ethernet and Wifi)

I'm on the FTTC package with a SR02 router. It's not a problem per se, but i'm a gamer and want best possible pings.

Any thoughts if this can be improved? What are other members pings like?

C:\Users\Admin>ping 8.8.4.4

Pinging 8.8.4.4 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=57
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57
Reply from 8.8.4.4: bytes=32 time=13ms TTL=57

Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 13ms, Average = 12ms

C:\Users\Admin>ping bbc.co.uk

Pinging bbc.co.uk [2a04:4e42:200::81] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 2a04:4e42:200::81: time=13ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42:200::81: time=14ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42:200::81: time=13ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42:200::81: time=25ms

Minimum = 13ms, Maximum = 25ms, Average = 16ms

C:\Users\Admin>ping 1.1.1.1

Pinging 1.1.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=60
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=60
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=60
Reply from 1.1.1.1: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=60

Minimum = 12ms, Maximum = 12ms, Average = 12ms

Connection Speed 76653 kbps 20000 kbps
Line Attenuation D1(10.2 dB) , D2(24.1 dB) , D3(36.9 dB) U0(2.9 dB) , U1(17.3 dB) , U2(26.8 dB)
Noise Margin 6.2 dB down 12.9 dB up

Edited by narz (Fri 15-May-20 01:38:43)

Your are pinging sites that are multi homed, i.e. lots of servers around the world so you may be actually pinging boxes in different locations.

First step is trace route to some of these locations to see where the time is spent. Unless you have the same traceroutes from when you had BT comparisons are going to be difficult

Remembering that what is important for gaming is latency to the game server, which will vary from game to game

Since you put "traffic management" in your title it's worth pointing out that Sky do not do anything intentional to slow your pings down.

Using WiFI I get the following:

8.8.4.4 = 13ms
bbc.co.uk = 14ms
1.1.1.1 = 12ms

Location. Doncaster

I get this from Derbyshire.

Pinging bbc.co.uk [2a04:4e42::81] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 2a04:4e42::81: time=7ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42::81: time=7ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42::81: time=8ms
Reply from 2a04:4e42::81: time=7ms

Ping statistics for 2a04:4e42::81:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 7ms, Maximum = 8ms, Average = 7ms

If you've just moved over then you're probably on an interleaved profile, give it a few days.

Unfortunately I didn't do trace routes before I switched, just a quick ping test of which I was getting 5-8ms to 8.8.8.8 consistently on BT.

I'm glad others are seeing sub 12ms on Sky so probably just me.

I only migrated yesterday, so i'll monitor it for a few days and see if I can break this 12ms barrier to any server.

C:\Users\Admin>tracert 8.8.8.8

Tracing route to dns.google [8.8.8.8]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms SkyRouter.Home [192.168.0.1]
2 12 ms 12 ms 12 ms 97e7fee0.skybroadband.com [151.231.254.224]
3 15 ms 14 ms 14 ms be297.pr2.thlon.isp.sky.com [2.120.9.102]
4 13 ms 12 ms 13 ms 72.14.203.194
5 14 ms 13 ms 14 ms 216.239.40.87
6 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms 172.253.71.191
7 13 ms 13 ms 13 ms dns.google [8.8.8.8]

Trace complete.

Which model router have you got as there's no SR02 that I'm aware of? There are three models:

Sky Hub SR102 (black square box, 4 10/100 ethernet ports)
Sky Q Hub ER110 or ER115 (flat, rectangular box, two gigabit ethernet)
Sky Broadband Hub SR203 (vertical, rectangular box with 4 gigabit ethernet)

If it's the SR102 then it's an abomination that should have been killed off before it even launched (they should have listened to those of us who "beta" tested them!). 2.4GHz 802.11n only, WiFi speeds barely get above 20Mbps if you're lucky due to single channel and range is terrible due to unshielded internal power supply causing interference with the cheap internal antennae.

I'd also be shocked if they are still issuing them!

First thing you should do is replace it with a decent router, especially if you are gaming.

You're right its the SR203. I'm blaming my aging memory..

Good news however, my connection dropped around 6am last night and on re-connection I'm getting 3-5ms on those same tests.

I'm guessing my BQM graph shows this was indeed interleaving being switched off..

pings are actually better then BT now