Need help with weird lag issue

[wunike]

So this has happened in two houses with multiple routers/modems and two different computers, including my brand new HP Media Center. I have the feeling it has everything to do with my ISP (Comcast) and nothing to do with my equipment, but I thought I would still throw it out in the open.

I used to run wireless and I thought my lag issue had to do with the wireless connection not sending the packets properly. Well, I completely unhooked the wireless and plugged my computer directly into two different modems and had the same issue.

What is happening is a full blown stoppage in my game as I'm playing. My game will completely freeze anywhere from 5-30 seconds at a time. On my net_graph, all the numbers still fluctuate as if I am playing, except for the "In" section, which freezes at "44". If someone talks, I can still hear them and their name appears on screen to denote who is talking.

However, any and all action notifications (deaths, etc) do not show on screen. For other people, it looks as though I simply stop playing. I don't look like I'm lagging or timing out or losing my client. It literally looks like I just stopped playing and took my hands off my keyboard/mouse. Anything I type while in this frozen state will send once I am unfrozen, so it is still connected.

I happened to be demoing someone to see if they were hacking and it did it while I was recording the demo. I have it hosted here, but the forum won't let me post a link. If you would like to see it please PM me and I will send you the link.

During the demo, you will see the player stop completely and the "in" on the net_graph stops at "6". This is very similar to what happens to me, except that the model in the demo looks as though they are simply lagging (stuck in mid-air, etc).

If anyone has ANY ideas on what this could be and/or how to possibly fix it, I would greatly appreciate it. I have a feeling it is the same problem causing my xbox to disconnect my almost every time I try to play COD4 and Halo. It feels as though my internet is being shut off for a second then turned back on, similar to a kink in a water hose. I called Comcast and asked about any sort of bandwidth limiting or issues involving that, and they gave me some "I have lots of friends that play games on Comcast and it's great" bull.

Again, thank you in advance for anyone that has any ideas, I need them!

[mutd]

Have you tried playing a local game against bots? Does it do it then? Maybe a faulty install rather than connection issues. Just a guess

[x239]

Bump!

I know this post is old as can be, but I have been having the exact same problem, with the "in" on net_graph freezing at 44 with a 10 sec or so lag spike. I also have Comcast, and this is apparent in all source games. It appears to affect other games and also causes 10 second lag spikes and occasional disconnects on my xbox 360. I have tried it with no router, fresh install of windows, had Comcast replace the line coming from the pole and test my main splitter, which was fine. I have swapped out the modem, the cat5 cables, and played with various connection settings and read countless forums. This problem is making it impossible for me to enjoy gaming and I have found only 3 - 4 posts on forums relating to this problem and no solution. Can anyone help?