600ms latency at the router; gaming reports 1000+ms

Slow Speeds
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First off, I would like to point out that I am not the owner of the internet that I am referring to with this topic; it belongs to my grandfather, Galen Wilson. However, I helped him select this service, spoke with the salesman to get it set up, was present for the installation, and am the individual who provides Galen with in-house tech support when he needs it.

Okay, to the matter at hand:
After a brief review of similar topics, I can see that high latency (“ping”) is expected from geosynchronous satellites, given their long transit time for signals (22,000mi or so, one way; 44k round trip) and the expected latency is between 500ms and 700ms. This would be fine with me, if only it were true.

I am attempting to play a video game called DayZ; this is an FPS zombie survival simulator. When I run speed tests in my browser, I get pings between 650ms and over 1,000ms. However, the game consistently reports my ping as 1,000+ms. It has yet to show anything below 750ms, and if I am lucky I might see an 850ms.

My PC is tethered to the router by an ethernet cord, and there is another device tethered by ethernet (a DISH Hopper device); there is also a router branched off of the ViaSat router to handle wireless signals (since it seems to work better than the ViaSat router that we were forced to lease). All told, there are up to seven devices (including wired and wireless) hooked up to the network (one desktop, two laptops, three cellular phones, and the Hopper) at any given time, though only two or three of them are actively being used for accessing the internet.

Also, the plan that my grandfather has is the ViaSat Unleashed plan, which I have been told has no data cap (and thus no throttling), so long as we don’t use more than 850GB in a 30-day period. We hardly use 250GB a month amongst all the devices, so I don’t think that is the cause of the issue.

What I want to know is, why is there such a large discrepancy in the “ViaSat Speed Test From Your Device”, Ookla’s Speed Test (from www.speedtest.net) and the actual in-game latency in the DayZ application?

I will post a few screen shots to prove my point (these were taken at 2:30am, so that congestion isn’t a factor on speed/latency):

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(screenshots for DayZ will be added later as a reply to this thread…)

Also, on a side note: We were promised between 50mbps and 150mbps… we’ve never seen more than 50mbps during our service, and it averages around 15-20mbps during the daytime. What gives?

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Here is the Ookla Speed Test.

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(The website says that I can only upload one image per post, so I will have to make multiple posts, each with a single image in them.)

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DayZ Server Ping
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Here is the DayZ server ping.

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DayZ Latency Report
And here is the functional latency while playing the game.

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One thing that I would like to point out is that a ping of 650ms on this game (DayZ) is entirely playable given the nature of DayZ and how the servers are set up; however, a ping of 1,000ms causes the server to automatically kick the player, because it actually degrades the experience of the rest of the players on the server, due to “rubber-banding” caused by such excessive lag.

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson ,

I’m a gamer myself, so I understand your concerns and frustrations. Please note that latency is not a fixed number, an internet service will not have the same latency no matter what it is connecting to, it is a measurement of the time it takes for a signal to reach its destination and a response signal to be sent back.

When you run a speed test (And this is valid for most, if not all tests), the test usually connects to a nearby server, which gives a latency measurement under optimal conditions. However, when you connect to a game server, the server may be located far from your location, which increases latency. The distance between your location and the server can significantly impact latency, as data has to travel further.

Additionally, the data path is rarely direct. Instead, data often travels through several intermediate points (like routers and switches) before reaching its destination. Each of these ‘hops’ can add a small amount of delay, increasing the overall latency.

In conclusion, latency depends on your activity and the server’s location relative to you. The 500-700 ms range is typical for geosynchronous satellite internet under optimal conditions, but if you’re connecting to a distant game server, the latency can be higher, as you’re experiencing.

Thanks,
Leonardo

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I understand and am aware of all of these points that you have made, however the server is located in the U.S., as is the satellite relay station that ViaSat routes through; thus, there should not be more than 100ms or so of added latency between that relay station and the server; but for some reason there is 400ms additional latency. This has to be an issue with how ViaSat routes the traffic out of the relay station, isn’t it? I mean, the packets are obviously not traveling down the correct routes if there is more than 300ms of latency added onto the transit, right?

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson ,

I’ll ask for a few pieces of information over direct message to see what I can do to improve the situation, but we can’t guarantee that there will be any improvements.

Thanks,
Leonardo

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson ,

I’ve verified that your grandfather’s antenna is severely mispointed, which might be causing the slow upload speeds and could have something to do with latency. I’ll request a technician visit to go there and repoint the antenna and we can see if that improves the latency. Your grandfather will be contacted soon to schedule the best time for this.

Thanks,
Leonardo

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Will this visit end up costing us anything? Because if it is, I would be more than happy to perform the repointing process myself. I’ve watched the training video on how it is done, and I am somewhat confident that I would be able to pull it off without issue. However, if we could get a tech to come out free-of-charge and repoint it professionally, I would rather do it that way.

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson

This tech visit is free of charge due to the severity of your mispoint.

The team hasn’t scheduled the visit yet, so if you’d like to try the self-repoint first, you can follow our guide: Can I repoint my Viasat antenna on my own?

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Okay, so I was a little late in informing my grandfather about the techs calling him for the appointment (I’ve been busy with getting ready for a new job that starts tomorrow) and apparently he told them that the issue had been fixed already when they called this morning (I didn’t get a chance to talk to him about this until 9:55pm today); however, he was thinking that they meant the issue we were having with our router being over-congested on WiFi (which we already fixed by tethering some devices to the router and reducing the number of devices actually on the WiFi at once). After explaining to him what the techs were actually calling about, he realized his mistake and I would appreciate it if you could have the same technicians or another technician call him again to set up an appointment to get this repointed.
I would do it myself, but the guide says that I should ideally have a tech do it if I can, given that it is located on the roof. So I will wait to see how this pans out.

Thanks again for your patience and understanding.

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson

No problem! We’ve reached out to the Field Operations team and asked to re-open this tech visit. :slight_smile:

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Hi @Nathan_Wilson

It looks like your service call was completed successfully! :tada:

How has your connection been since the modem switch?

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The technician tightened down the bolts on the dish, replaced the reciever and the modem, and peaked the beam. It seems to be a lot better, so far. We are now getting 50mbps down/5mbps up speeds, but the latency is still sitting at 700ms throughput and 1000ms down/up. I guess there is nothing to be done about the latency issue, since it is apparent that the travel time of the signal is at fault for that.

All told, the fix is good enough for what we need it for.