-- Maybe the modem is defective? Maybe, it is. If so, the...

[mdk]

@LevonJay -- Maybe the modem is defective?

Maybe, it is. If so, then contact Shaw, and see if they will ship you (via Canada Post) a replacement modem - 3 to 5 business days.

But, since a Shaw employee has advised you that the signal-into your modem is "off-spec", and that a service technician should be scheduled to come outside of your home, I would go with that recommendation from  @shaw-tony 

[LevonJay]

Yes I already did. They said the entire area is off-spec and that they would send a service technician out but since it was a general call and not a call to a single house they can't tell me when it's going to happen and said typically between 3-5 days but with COVID they aren't sure. I'm just waiting until the end of the week to retry.

[LevonJay]

Well it looks like the original issue has been fixed! Although it may just be temporary like last time. The response times seems to be what it was before I made my original post. I have no idea if the "off-spec" issue was fixed or what occurred but it seems to be back to normal. So it was without a doubt nothing to due with COVID in any way.

The volatile connection ping spikes were not fixed but that seems to be more of a hardware issue based on what I've researched on the Hitron modems.

[mdk]

@LevonJay -- The volatile connection ping spikes were not fixed, but that seems to be more of a hardware issue based on what I've researched on the Hitron modems.

I disagree. That "96.52.32.1" is a router that is servicing all the Shaw customers in your neighbourhood, i.e., part of a "shared network" (as Telus Marketing is fond to say about any network other than their own). So, one must expect that this router is busy simultaneously serving many other Shaw customers. As you have noticed, this will result in some variability in the times (in milliseconds) that your traffic to this router will be processed. 

Also, some routers are configured to treat "ping" and "traceroute" IP-packets as "overhead", and to give them lower priority than "productive" traffic.

In brief, there is no "fix" except for Shaw to split its cable-network in your neighbourhood into multiple subnets, to reduce the total-traffic-per-millisecond being processed by each of their router(s) in Edmonton.  That's probably NOT going to happen.

[LevonJay]

I'll run a 24 hour ping log and test this theory

[LevonJay]

Well before I even had the chance to do more tests its gone back to being the way it was. I'm not sure if my modem/service area is still "off-spec". Back to square one.

[mdk]

@LevonJay --  I'm not sure if my modem/service area is still "off-spec".

Only a Shaw Support person can answer that question. Contact Shaw, via online chat.

In your above "latency" graph, only 2 "spikes" are above 30 milliseconds, but what IP-address are you measuring?

From your "trace" ...:

Your packets reach Shaw's router in Seattle (Washington State) -- where the Shaw network "crosses-over" at a packet-interchange site to a different network -- in about 30 milliseconds.  However, the "hops" between one RIOT-managed router ("riotgames") to the other RIOT-managed router ("riotdirect") seems to "double" the latency.

There is nothing that Shaw can do "inside" RIOT's network.

[LevonJay]

It seems like the routing from when its working fine vs when it's not does differentiate on shaws network.

[LevonJay]

Time for my weekly update of this issue:

The ping spikes are still there.

The ping has gotten even worse than it was when I initially created the issue.

[mdk]

@LevonJay -- It seems like the routing from when its working fine vs when it's not does differentiate on Shaw's network.

The first trace shows Edmonton -> Calgary -> Washington State -> Seattle/NetDirect -> game-server

The second trace shows Edmonton -> Winnipeg -> Illinois -> Chicago -> game-server

Multiple routes across the Internet was an original design-feature of ARPA-net -- the predecessor of USA's Internet -- designed to stay alive if a nuclear bomb destroyed one major city (Seattle, Chicago, et cetera) but not all of the major cities.

I don't know of any way to see the "routing" information announced by RIOT's routers, and if it has changed between the time that you did the two traces.