Would latency be helped going from a cat5e to a cat6 cable?

[ZMan2k2]

Hey all

I have a run of 100ft. between router and Xbox. Currently my latency is around 60ms. Would stepping up the cable help with that?

Thanks.

[firebane]

Nope! You could try different DNS servers.

[ZMan2k2]

Thanks for the quick reply. Saved me some cash. Now to fi d some DNS servers that'll help.

[ShermanEF9]

60ms is well within "playable" limits. you're not going to pick up much switching dns servers.

[HiTempguy1]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

60ms is well within "playable" limits. you're not going to pick up much switching dns servers.

Only way its going to be much lower is on Telus fibre. Pings are super low then.

[adam c]

Wait this thread doesn't make sense, 60ms on your internal network is pretty damn high... running a cat5e vs cat6 isn't going to help that at all, there's something else going on

Now maybe I've misunderstood and it's home network out to xbox live servers being 60ms, that is more understandable

[eglove]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Now maybe I've misunderstood and it's home network out to xbox live servers being 60ms, that is more understandable

^ This is what's happening


Try using 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4

[Asian_defender]

It'll be 60ms from his home to the xbox live servers.
Turn off energy saver in your settings, then try a tracert and see which hop is the worst and try caching that hop
You could try doing your own DNS server to improve that https://pi-hole.net/

[ZMan2k2]

I'm on Telus fibre, so that shouldn't be it. I switched DNS servers to Cloudflare in both the Telus router, and the Xbox. I'm now around 35ms.

[googe]

I was going to say changing DNS servers will do nothing. DNS doesn't affect ping times, only the initial lookup. Once your connection is open, DNS isn't involved anymore. Any latency testing tool only measures the latency after the DNS lookup is already complete. Very confused how changing that got you from 60ms to 35ms.

[rage2]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I was going to say changing DNS servers will do nothing. DNS doesn't affect ping times, only the initial lookup. Once your connection is open, DNS isn't involved anymore. Any latency testing tool only measures the latency after the DNS lookup is already complete. Very confused how changing that got you from 60ms to 35ms.

Xbox live servers are load balanced across the world, and it uses DNS to "geolocate" where you are to connect to the closest server. Well technically, geolocate the DNS server that you're using, to give you the best network path to the DNS server. So if you change DNS servers to one closer to you, you'll get a closer IP, and better pings. Because of how shitty people setup DNS infrastructure, gamers choose random DNS servers till they find one that gets them closest to their actual location. Example, a DNS server at Shaw Calgary might fwd all requests to Shaw's Toronto DNS server, which then looks up the request for the xbox DNS name, which then resolves to a Toronto IP. Changing to Google's server might end up being closer. Google's DNS server adds yet another layer to the mix, with the DNS server being on an anycast IP. So using 8.8.8.8 in different locations will send a request to Xbox's DNS servers from different locations, and still give you a close to you IP.

We use Akamai for our edge acceleration which does the same thing. Ping login.replicon.com from different ISPs, and it'll show a different IP for different locations, and hence different pings, with the goal of sending the client to the closest possible location.

TL;DR: DNS architecture is setup crappy on the internet, it's a crapshoot, that's why randomly choosing DNS servers till you get one that gives you best pings works.

[revelations]

If you're that heavy into the tech end of gaming to pay attention to ping, you should be running a decent router. ISP modem combo units are a joke.

Yes CAT6 could help in theory but unless you have a very long cable (300ft) I wouldnt worry about it specifically, until you've isolated the slow hop.

[jacky4566]

If you want to learn more about your latency and where its coming from, try using the trace route tool. This will tell you every hop that your packets are making on the way to thier host.

Unfortunate there isnt much you can do to improve the situation once it leaves your house. Locally you ensure that you are using gigabit Ethernet speeds and good quality hardware.

Example:

C:\Users\Jackson>tracert google.ca

Tracing route to google.ca [172.217.3.195]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 3 ms 3 ms 2 ms 192.168.0.1
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 13 ms 16 ms 14 ms rc3so-tge0-9-0-1-1.cg.shawcable.net [64.59.13
9]
4 45 ms 46 ms 39 ms rc1wt-be82.wa.shawcable.net [66.163.76.9]
5 38 ms 41 ms 38 ms 72.14.221.102
6 43 ms 36 ms 37 ms 108.170.245.97
7 34 ms 36 ms 36 ms 108.170.233.153
8 44 ms 45 ms 47 ms sea15s12-in-f3.1e100.net [172.217.3.195]

Trace complete.

[googe]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Xbox live servers are load balanced across the world, and it uses DNS to "geolocate" where you are to connect to the closest server. Well technically, geolocate the DNS server that you're using, to give you the best network path to the DNS server. So if you change DNS servers to one closer to you, you'll get a closer IP, and better pings. Because of how shitty people setup DNS infrastructure, gamers choose random DNS servers till they find one that gets them closest to their actual location. Example, a DNS server at Shaw Calgary might fwd all requests to Shaw's Toronto DNS server, which then looks up the request for the xbox DNS name, which then resolves to a Toronto IP. Changing to Google's server might end up being closer. Google's DNS server adds yet another layer to the mix, with the DNS server being on an anycast IP. So using 8.8.8.8 in different locations will send a request to Xbox's DNS servers from different locations, and still give you a close to you IP.

We use Akamai for our edge acceleration which does the same thing. Ping login.replicon.com from different ISPs, and it'll show a different IP for different locations, and hence different pings, with the goal of sending the client to the closest possible location.

TL;DR: DNS architecture is setup crappy on the internet, it's a crapshoot, that's why randomly choosing DNS servers till you get one that gives you best pings works.

I guess that’s true, although Shaw’s are in calgary. I don’t know about Telus but they would be pretty dumb to set them up that badly. Then again, I suppose Telus could have them deployed sanely but XBL might have shitty peering or transit providers. XBL’s CDN is exceptionally bad in my experience - I have gigabit and games rarely download above 200mbps even though the xbox speedtest and the edge app on the xbox both get over 900. So, yeah, I guess there are enough variables there that this is a plausible explanation.

[rage2]

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

I guess that’s true, although Shaw’s are in calgary. I don’t know about Telus but they would be pretty dumb to set them up that badly. Then again, I suppose Telus could have them deployed sanely but XBL might have shitty peering or transit providers. XBL’s CDN is exceptionally bad in my experience - I have gigabit and games rarely download above 200mbps even though the xbox speedtest and the edge app on the xbox both get over 900. So, yeah, I guess there are enough variables there that this is a plausible explanation.

Yea, my example was just some of the silliness I've seen at different companies. Had 1 customer where their EU offices all performed like shit, because their DNS was all routed through their internal network to their internal DNS server in Boston where outgoing requests originate. Basically everyone in their company worldwide was trying to connect to our services in Boston. Good times.

But yea, this shit still happens today. Our ISP for the office, the DNS servers they provide for us maps us out to Toronto. Their IP to location map also has us in Thornhill Ontario so for CDN's that leverage an IP to location database, it's brutal for us too. We run our own DNS servers to avoid the problems as much as possible, but the location data still fucks us over here and there.

I have no problems with xbox one downloads ever since they uncapped per connection rate limits. At least up to 250mbps (what I have) anyways.



I run my own DNS servers at home as well. CDN best routes isn't an exact science unfortunately, but running your own DNS server on the IP you're connecting from helps a lot.