Network latency...resolved by speedtest?

[killian1]

Every day or two, my latency spikes to between 200ms and 1000ms. For some reason, running a speedtest from the Home app once (sometimes twice) resolves the issue.

Can someone please explain to me why this works and (more importantly) what causes the latency? It feels like speedtest clears a buffer/cache in the router...which, if this is true, seems like a bug that should be fixed. The timing of the latency spikes interferes with my job. Scheduling a cron job to run speedtest seems pretty kludgey....

Thx.

[virnab]

Hi killian1,

Thanks for reaching out to our community.

I appreciate you sharing with us your concern about the Google Home speed test effect on the latency of your network and what causes the latency. It is my pleasure to assist you with your inquiries.

The mesh test will find areas with weak signals and help you optimize your setup for seamless connectivity. The mesh test measures the connection between your router or primary WiFi point (the one connected to your modem) and any additional points. The stronger that connection is, the better your WiFi network will be throughout your house. If the mesh connection is weak, then it'll be more prone to interference, less reliable, and can become a speed bottleneck for all devices connected to it.

Regarding your second inquiry about the cause of the latency, here are some of them:

• The distance between your WiFi router or point and devices.
• Distribution of bandwidth used by different devices.
• Slow WAN connection.

Check out this Google Nest Help Center article to learn more about latency inconveniences and recommendations to resolve them: Troubleshoot slow internet on Google Nest WiFi or Google WiFi.

Feel free to keep us posted if you have more questions.

Best regards,

Virna

[killian1]

Thanks, but that's not the cause. Mesh test always reads "good". Ping latency from any of my devices (wired or wifi, nothing new added, no abnormal traffic) will jump to anywhere from 80ms to 800ms and often lose pings completely. Speedtest from the Home app resolves it for some reason. It has nothing to do with where I am sitting or the location of my routers/devices.

After turning off a "prioritized" setting in the Home app, it hasn't happened since. I'm guessing your QoS setting is flawed and (for whatever reason) running Speedtest temporarily clears the faulty QoS in favor of speedy test results.

Seems like the kind of thing that should be fixed. Obviously prioritizing work traffic shouldn't kill the connection.