Network & Connectivity
Network Latency Spikes
Network latency spikes are sudden, temporary increases in round-trip time (RTT) that cause noticeable slowdowns. Unlike consistently high latency, spikes are intermittent and harder to diagnose. They can be caused by congestion, routing changes, bufferbloat, or resource contention on intermediate network equipment.
Symptoms
- Intermittent slow page loads that resolve on refresh
- Ping times occasionally jumping from 20ms to 500ms+
- Online gaming experiencing periodic lag spikes
- API requests intermittently timing out
Common Causes
- Network congestion during peak usage periods
- Bufferbloat on home or office routers
- BGP route changes causing temporary path elongation
- Shared bandwidth with heavy users on the same segment
- DNS resolution delays adding to overall latency
Step-by-Step Troubleshooting
- 1
Measure baseline latency
Run continuous ping to establish normal RTT and identify spike patterns.
Use Ping & Traceroute → - 2
Identify the congested hop
Traceroute during a spike to see which hop introduces the delay.
Use Ping & Traceroute → - 3
Check CDN latency
Test if CDN edge nodes are properly serving content from nearby locations.
Use CDN Latency Test → - 4
Test TTFB
Measure server response time to separate network latency from server processing time.
Use Website Speed Test →
Recommended Diagnostic Tools
Monitor Latency
Track latency continuously and get alerts on spikes.