Lag Spikes and Dropped game connections

User @anav was able to help me to get the NAT open but I am still experiencing xbox live issues. While in game latency will spike from 16ms to 400+, and after a while I will lose connection.
Is there a continual netstat to see if there are time outs while connecting to services?
I used the following commands to enable ports

ip firewall nat add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat disabled=no dst-port=<port> in-interface=ether1 protocol=udp to-addresses=192.168.88.238 to-ports=<port>

Port 88 (UDP)
Port 3074 (UDP and TCP)
Port 53 (UDP and TCP)
Port 80 (TCP)
Port 500 (UDP)
Port 3544 (UDP)
Port 4500 (UDP)

I have not attempted multiplayer connections after adding these rules.
kwickster85-Config.rsc (4.77 KB)

What model is it that you have? (how old)? What is the throughput of your ISP.
Just thinking out loud you simply may be bandwidth limited in some respects.

Nothing you are doing makes sense???

If you have upnp enabled you should not need any port forwarding. So its really confusing what the heck you are doing???
Finally big red flag for me is you attempting to put DNS ports in port forwarding rules…
Also port 80
If you have games that needs these port forwarded there is something gravely wrong with the game.
Most modern games dont need any ports forwarded and if they do they allow the user to setup the initial talking port.****
Finallly port 4500 is a common vpn port so if not doing a vpn what is it there for?? (and in vpn connections one doesnt set it up as a destination port).


/ip firewall nat
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat dst-port=53 in-interface=ether1 protocol=udp
to-addresses=192.168.88.238 to-ports=53
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat dst-port=53 in-interface=ether1 protocol=tcp
to-addresses=192.168.88.238 to-ports=53
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat dst-port=80 in-interface=ether1 protocol=tcp
to-addresses=192.168.88.238 to-ports=80
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat dst-port=4500 in-interface=ether1 protocol=
udp to-addresses=192.168.88.238 to-ports=4500

Exactly, I am just grabbing at straws to see what will fix the issues I keep experiencing in lag spikes and dropping out of matchmaking games. The ports are provided my Microsoft for xbox live https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/connect-network/network-ports-used-xbox-live

My ISP band width is on average 90Mbps down and 5 up

I see that LOL.
Sorry cannot help much further.

I believe I explained that opening ports would not magically make gaming packets move faster nor provide a better gaming experience unless listen servers were required. If you disable the firewall, does the problem go away? That is what port forwarding does for those ports by allowing inbound connections. Nothing else. And anything that you add to the default config will degrade performance if the bottleneck isn’t on your end. That’s how all routers work - processing rules takes CPU time and as such, adds latency. However, if you are saturating your bandwidth, you need QOS.

That being said, I would make sure your issues are not caused by other clients on the network by closely monitoring traffic. If you modified the default config, make sure you understand how traffic is routed within ROS. Gaming traffic uses small UDP packets and any excessive buffering or dropped packets will cause the issues you described.

Do you have issues during specific hours? Do you have issues if your gaming client is the only client connected or if you don’t use the router? If the answer to those questions is yes, then your ISP is probably to blame. You can have your line checked, but gaming will not be their priority for acceptable service quality. ISP buffering, jitter and throttling will all have an impact on gaming and conferencing apps. Millions of people working from home hasn’t helped. Once your packets leave your home, not a single router will fix any issues for you.

In that vein of thinking, if you have access to a different provider, it may be worthwhile trying it for a month to see if it performs better…
Is your current modem old, perhaps you missed an update to equipment from the ISP

5 Mbps up is barely enough for 2 users these days for streaming Netflix and videoconferencing at the same time. Add a single Apple device using iCloud and bye bye gaming. Thus, excess packet buffering (bufferbloat) is quite probable…especially if the ISP is throttling bandwidth during peak hours. Large buffers are always bad for gaming…