Severe Latency and Jitter on Spark 1000 / 500 Fibre DHCP IPv4 Connection

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Severe Latency and Jitter on Spark 1000 / 500 Fibre DHCP IPv4 Connection

AndyT

163 posts

Master Geek

#319535 4-May-2025 21:23

I have a properly configured UCG Max on 1000 / 500 Spark fibre and recently switched from a PPPoE to a DHCP IPv4 connection.

I'm now experiencing severe latency and jitter when accessing international services such as Google DNS (8.8.8.8) and unifi.ui.com. This appears to be a network issue beyond my local environment — latency to my router is <1ms, but pings to international endpoints regularly exceed 1000ms with erratic fluctuations.

And once in a while the connection drops completely.

Specific test results are:

Ping to 8.8.8.8 (Google DNS):
Wild latency swings from 50ms to over 1400ms.
min/avg/max/stddev = 4.715 / 278.549 / 1406.673 / 267.663 ms.

No packet loss — but consistently very high jitter and delays.

Ping to unifi.ui.com:
Similar latency spikes: min/avg/max/stddev = 96.945 / 510.113 / 1201.707 / 223.158 ms.

Traceroute to unifi.ui.com:
Major latency appears to occur at or after:

3 83.68.126.129 (Vodafone NZ likely?) — 1188 ms spike.
5 150.222.119.53/150.222.119.130 — ~300–800 ms
12 server-65-9-141-115...cloudfront.net — up to 1040 ms

Hops within the LAN (192.168.1.1 and .2) are fine (sub-1 ms).

Here’s a brief summary of the behavior:

Google DNS (8.8.8.8) ping times vary dramatically, from as low as ~4ms to over 1400ms, with no packet loss but extreme jitter.

Unifi.ui.com (CloudFront endpoint) shows similar patterns — latency jumps significantly at upstream hops, particularly around 150.222.x.x and 83.68.126.129 (as shown in traceroute).

The issue persists even during off-peak hours and affects multiple destinations, indicating a possible upstream routing or congestion issue.
Is anyone else on GZ experiencing this issue or know of any current Spark international routing or peering issues that may be affecting my connection?

Thanks in anticipation of some insight and / or a resolution,
AndyT

Jiriteach

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#3370425 4-May-2025 22:39

Where are you based?

I am in Wellington on Spark max fibre and not seeing any latency issues. Am using DHCP for termination.
You can have a look at my SmokePing results here - https://smokep.se7en.co.nz/smokeping/?target=Servers

Could be a localised issue in your area? Not that I should make any difference but have you checked your connection back on PPPoE?

-- opinions expressed by me are solely my own. ie - personal

AndyT

163 posts

Master Geek

#3370426 4-May-2025 23:14

I’m in New Brighton, Christchurch.

To be honest, it was a bit of a saga switching from PPPoE to DHCP (see my other GZ posts) so I’m reluctant to switch back to PPPoE as part of the troubleshooting although it’s a good point you make.

michaelmurfy

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#3370427 4-May-2025 23:27

IMHO, with Ubiquiti products that are not doing Hyperfibre I would strongly recommend using PPPoE.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
Referral Links: Quic Broadband (use R122101E7CV7Q for free setup)

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Asteros

260 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3370430 5-May-2025 07:34

Perhaps you need an ONT replacement like another poster did in one of your other Unifi posts?

Spyware

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#3370445 5-May-2025 09:26

I would power down the ONT and let it cool down before powering on. I had this latency problem caused by my Huawei ONT a while ago and hasn't reoccurred. My ONT can get quite warm even though in a rack the room gets quite warm in the summer and I wondered if temp was related. Odd but true - never touch the ONT is my rule.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

Talkiet

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#3370446 5-May-2025 09:31

If you don't want to reconfigure your current device, can you swap in a second (preferably Spark supplied) router (ideally a Smartmodem 2 or 3) and see if the behaviour persists on a different device?

I am on Spark fibre with DHCP and have some inside knowledge of the operation of it and we haven't seen your described behaviour either in our pre-release testing of DHCP or seen it reported since. We did some very detailed performance comparisons between PPPoE and DHCP before opening up the feature.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

AndyT

163 posts

Master Geek

#3370507 5-May-2025 11:21

Many thanks for the various responses.

I take your point Michaelmufy on sticking with PPPoE below GbE, but I thought I'd make the change over Easter with time on my hands and in anticipation (?) of a Spark hyperfibre offering (being a driver for their DHCP option?), or if not forthcoming from Spark, then a switch of ISP to Quic's 2GbE plan.

I'll cold reboot the Huawei ONT Spyware to see if that helps, but it's not running hot to touch. It is over ten years old though so that may be factor and ideally I'd like it replaced, but my understanding is that LFC Enable (in CHC) don't generally replace ageing equipment as such? And it would need to be replaced anyways if I went 2GbE.

I'll fire up an old Spark Smart Modem Talkiet (first gen I'm afraid) and see what the latency & jitter look like on a separate system but fed by the Huawei ONT.

Cheers, AndyT

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Spyware

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#3370521 5-May-2025 11:43

Is hyperfibre even available in New Brighton?? - I haven't seen any updates on rollout.

michaelmurfy

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#3370573 5-May-2025 13:32

Spyware: Is hyperfibre even available in New Brighton?? - I haven't seen any updates on rollout.

It's only available in a small area of the Christchurch CBD on Enable.

@AndyT Considering you've got an Enable ONT I suspect this may be part of a wider fault on the Enable network affecting all ISP's. I believe it is somewhat mitigated if you do use PPPoE but being in New Brighton, unless if you've got a Chorus ONT or are in a Chorus UFB area I don't think you're getting Hyperfibre anytime soon sorry.

AndyT

163 posts

Master Geek

#3374223 17-May-2025 23:10

Update on earlier thread:

No Enable plans for Hyperfibre in New Brighton unfortunately, but anyway....

@Michaelmurfy: I've now reverted to PPPoE. Attached is a 24hr screenshot extract from the UCG Max showing periods of DHCP WAN at up to c.450ms latency, downtime and then PPPoE WAN of c. 40 - 50ms latency. No idea if this is specific to my particular WAN connection and LAN, or a general Enable issue

@Spyware: Pre the reversion to PPPoE I rebooted the ONT but totally lost any connection and had to call Spark "helpline" and spent a very frustrating hour or more with them this morning troubleshooting the connection. They must have suggested at least five times that I'd better get a new Spark modem and disconnect the "Unifi wifi extender thing" (referring to the UCG Max of which they knew nothing). And they had no idea what a DHCP or PPPoE WAN connection was. What was most frustrating was that as part of the troubleshooting I put a spare Spark Smart Modem back into use and when I reset the SSM and got a connection all was good, but when I then removed the SSM and connected the UCG Max the internet connection dropped. I only figured it out partly by logic and partly by accident when I realized that resetting the SSM had automatically reset the WAN config to PPPoE whereas the UCG Max was still configured for DHCP. Reconfiguring the UCG Max for PPPoE of course immediately resolved the inability get an internet connection.

@Talkiet: while I had the five year old SSM fired up I ran some ping tests to the normal targets like Google, Cloudflare, Quad9 and the gateway and the latency and jitter was no better than when using the UCG Max i.e. frequent latency spikes to 500ms and regular but less frequent spikes to 1,500 ms +++

So where does this little episode leave me....

I accept Hyperfibre isn't on the local roadmap anytime soon
No idea what is causing the high latency, "amplified" ten-fold by a DHCP in lieu of PPPoE WAN connection, at least in my case, regardless of whether I'm using a Spark router or a third party gateway
Reverted to PPPoE, and left wondering what's the benefit in a DHCP WAN connection v. PPPoE for anything less than Hyperfibre, but Spark don't offer a Hyperfibre residential plan?

Mmm. I must be tired and / or missing a piece off the information jigsaw?

AndyT