How to get ping under 20ms

[Kaboo]

Hi,

I'm on the NBN 100 plan, and my average ping is 20ms. However, when I lived in a different city (in Sydney), my ping was at 10ms when I was on the same internet plan.

Why is there a difference?

I know 20ms isn't that bad, but I'd like to get lower ping.

I'm using the router TPG provided me (TP-Link Archer VR1600v), and I use an ethernet cable to hook it to my PC. I've tried unplugging/replugging all the cables and restarted my modem and NBN box.

My ping still stays around 20ms.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

My NBN is Fibre to the Curb.

[david64]

Hi @Kaboo . Back in Sydney, what type of NBN connection did you have?

Were you using this same VR1600 or another router?

What name are you pinging to get 20ms?

Do      tracert tpg.com.au

First is your router, then the router's default gateway, then a few more hops to TPG. 

What speeds do you get using the speedtest on TPG support page?

Does it show you using a TPG ip address?

[Kaboo]

Hi @david64 ,

Back in Sydney, my NBN connection was Fibre to the Building, and I was also using a Archer VR1600 router which TPG provided.

In my Window's command prompt I pinged to tpg.com.au, and also tried google.com. They both showed around 18ms and 0% packet loss.

I just typed intracert tpg.com.au and attached the results.

The first hop is 1ms, then the 2nd hop is 6ms, then on the 3rd hop it jumps up to 18ms.

All the hops following the 3rd one are all around 18ms.

Is this 3rd hop coming from the TPG network?

I gave TPG a call and they told me that 20ms is good but they wouldn't explain any of the technical reasonings for it, then I asked for a more senior team member to explain this, but he didn't provide any information I didn't already know..... and suggested things I already tried such as using an ethernet cable, restarting my router etc.

[Shane]

Hi @Kaboo ,

Since you moved from a different type of connection/technology it is one of the factors that could affect the latency of the service specially the interconnecting infrastructure not operated by TPG.

Regards,

[david64]

@Kaboo . I'm in sydney on FTTC NBN25. I get 6ms to tpg.com.au; 4 hops.

On your tracert, the first address is your router 192.168.1.1.

The second is what I've taken to be the first bit of TPG network (not NBN network), about the same response time as yours.

The third hop is located in Brisbane and is where all your delay is caused. 

The fourth hop is located in Sydney (a TPG subsidiary?).

These two are extras compared to mine.

My hop 3 and 4 are same as your 5 and 6.

Goto   whatismyip.com           , put an ip address in the search bar to get details of the address.

What speeds on the speedtest?

[Kaboo]

@david64,Thanks for checking your tracert for comparison and providing the IP website! Interesting to see where these hops are going.

When I use the TPG speedtest, I get: 18ms ping, 98mbps download, and 19mbps upload.

The speed I'm getting looks about right, but I wish my ping could be 10ms or less.

I work from home and need to log into my workplace's VPN which increases my ping by an extra 20ms.

So when I was in Sydney, my ping was at 10ms. But when I logged in through my work's VPN it would become 30ms. Which is the maximum ping I can tolerate.

However, since I moved to QLD, my ping is around 18ms. And when I log into work's VPN it turns becomes 40ms which isn't great.

[Kaboo]

I found a thread in the forum which was interesting: https://community.tpg.com.au/t5/Broadband-Internet/Improving-Ping-to-SEA-from-Perth/td-p/33482/page/...

When someone connected to a Singapore server using TPG NBN, they were getting 215ms because his traceroute indicated it was routing between 5 different locations.

But when he connected to a Singapore server using Vodaphone 4G wifi, he was getting 87ms because it routed between 3 different locations.

So my suspicion is that TPG is routing through a lot of their own servers instead of direct ones....

I just rang TPG's customer service again and there's nothing they can do.

Thats disssapointing.

[david64]

@Kaboo . TPG should clarify if the "10" address at hop 2 is their equipment and its location, and if so, why the big jump in response time to hop 3.

When you are WFH, the work VPN shouldn't be worried too much about the ping response time. I used to do a bit of WFH when I was on ADSL and the response time was nearly as good as being at work.

If you know the target hostname or ip address of your work VPN, you can do tracert to it from your computer to see its route.

[Kaboo]

@david64Honestly you've been the most help so far! Thanks

I wish TPG had a more technical team that can look into these things other than telling me to turn the device on and off.

It was a long shot, but I thought I'd give them a call one more time...I gave TPG a call today and asked them about the spike in the hop and I asked them to look into that IP address, but Technical support told me they didn't have access to see any servers. We chatted for 2hrs and didn't result to anything, and they couldn't suggest or think about any possible causes.

I'm guessing theres probably technical/geographical limitations where I am in QLD. Perhaps when I was in Syndey, servers could be hopped to directly.

All good though...its not directly affecting my work too much at the moment. But I may consider switching ISP for better customer support in the future.

I heard that Aussie Broadband has pretty good customer service and are more tech savvy than TPG's support team.