Troubleshooting Laptop has packet loss during gaming, fixed when on a VPN

[Atlas147]

Describe the problem

Laptop has packet loss during gaming

What have you tried?

updating network card, checking router firmware updates

Hi guys! As the title states, when I'm on any game and on discord at the same time, I can see my ping go to above 200 on discord, and my game will experience packet loss issues (rubber banding lag where I walk to a certain location in game and get teleported back to my original position). It does not only specifically happen for 1 game, it does not really matter if discord is on or not.

A work around was to turn on a VPN, which somehow fixes it?

I recently got a new router (ASUS RT-AX55) which might be causing the issues although I haven't been able to identify the cause. I've changed the DNS of the router to cloudflare's and disabled all the junk that ASUS provides (antivirus scanning and what not). The issue still persists and the only way that I've found a workaround is by using a VPN which is not really optimal.
No issues when using discord or Zoom only.

 

[vuksha_xc60]

Do you experience the same thing with other devices ?
Have you tried to switch to other WiFi ?

 

[upnorth]

Are you using a wired connection to your router? Normally recommended when gaming.

 

[brambedkar59]

A work around was to turn on a VPN, which somehow fixes it?

I have seen same issue while gaming before. If using VPN fixes lag spikes than that usually means bad routing by your ISP. I would complaint to ISP CC about this. Took more than a month for my ISP to fix it.

 

[Brahman]

Hi guys! As the title states, when I'm on any game and on discord at the same time, I can see my ping go to above 200 on discord, and my game will experience packet loss issues (rubber banding lag where I walk to a certain location in game and get teleported back to my original position). It does not only specifically happen for 1 game, it does not really matter if discord is on or not.

A work around was to turn on a VPN, which somehow fixes it?

I recently got a new router (ASUS RT-AX55) which might be causing the issues although I haven't been able to identify the cause. I've changed the DNS of the router to cloudflare's and disabled all the junk that ASUS provides (antivirus scanning and what not). The issue still persists and the only way that I've found a workaround is by using a VPN which is not really optimal.
No issues when using discord or Zoom only.

What's your MTU size? Adjust your MTU size as suggested by your ISP in your Asus router. For a PPPoE network the MTU is 1482 (most of the time). Also try to enable or disable jumbo frame ( in settings....I don't know if Asus have a setting for that) and see whether the issue is resolved or not.
Checking optimal MTU size on windows

 

[owenscott]

That pattern (packet loss on the bare line, clean once a VPN is on) usually means a bad mid-path hop — the VPN just routes around it.

Still worth confirming before living on a VPN forever:
1. Ethernet test — Wi‑Fi retries can look identical to “ISP packet loss”.
2. WinMTR/mtr to the game host *while* the loss is happening. If hop 1–2 already drops, stay local; if a far ASN drops and VPN fixes it, you’ve found a routing issue.
3. Prefer a nearby gaming-oriented exit over a far privacy hop once you’ve proven the path is the problem — random distant exits often add RTT even when they stop the loss.

If MTR shows the failing hop, your ISP ticket also gets a lot more useful.