If you suspect network latency between your ISP and your server is spiking or higher than expected please perform the following steps.
Checking latency with ping
1. Open a command window by clicking the Windows start button, or hitting the Windows key, and typing in cmd then hitting enter.
2. Type in ping followed by your server's IP address
Example:
ping 103.230.157.80
In the results above, we're looking for the values after time= which shows the latency between your computer and your server in milliseconds(ms).
The default ping command sends four ping(echo) requests to the target IP, at one ping request per second.
If we want to run the ping for 30 seconds(30 requests), instead of the default of four, to get a better sample of latency , we can use the -n option to set the number of requests as shown below.
Example:
ping -n 30 103.230.157.80
In the results above, we can see the latency remains under 10ms except for two lines, which show 23ms, and 12ms.
The 23ms and 12ms results may indicate small ping spikes. To find out why these ping spikes may be occurring, we can check latency along the route between your computer and your server.
Checking the route with WinMTR
1. Download the latest version of WinMTR. WinMTR is a free MS Windows visual application that combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping in a single network diagnostic tool. (WinMTR-v092.zip 1.9 MB)
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmtr/files/Latest/
2. Open the downloaded zip file and navigate to either the WinMTR_x32 or WinMTR_x64 directories, and open WinMTR.exe.
3. You'll be prompted to run or extract the files. We'll select Extract all, and leave the default extraction path as it is, and we'll leave the 'Show extracted files when complete' option selected. Click Extract.
4. In the new window that opens showing the extracted files, open either the WinMTR_x32 or WinMTR_x64 directories, and run the WinMTR.exe file.
5. In the WinMTR application, enter your server's IP in the Host: field, and click Start.
In the results above, we can see there's no packet loss reported, and the highest latency to the server was 10ms. There might be a latency issue present on the third and fourth lines(hops), as it has spiked up above 90ms, and averaged around 10ms over 30 seconds. This might indicate an issue with my ISPs network, but the latency to the server itself remains low.
If latency or routing issues are only happening at random times, but are ongoing over several hours or days, the WinMTR application can be left running its traceroute to your server's IP to capture a larger sample over time.
If you've captured a traceroute sample that shows routing or latency issues between your PC and your server, and would like to share the results with BinaryLane support, click the Copy Text to clipboard button, and paste the results into an email to support@binarylane.com.au or into a support ticket at https://support.binarylane.com.au/support/tickets/new