How long to run it
- 1 minute: is the line stable right now? Enough to see Wi-Fi trouble or a busy line.
- 10 to 30 minutes: the length of a gaming session or a call. Most regular spikes show up in this window.
- An hour or more: for drops that happen only now and then. After 60 seconds the panel under the chart counts every dropout longer than one second and lists when it happened.
Reading the result
Stable
A flat ping line, jitter under 5 to 10 ms, 0% packet loss. Small single spikes are normal; a pattern is not.
Spikes at regular intervals
Every few minutes, almost to the second: usually Wi-Fi scanning, a background update or a cloud backup. Test on a cable with downloads paused.
Worse in the evening
Rising ping and loss between about 7 and 11 pm point to congestion at your provider. Run the test once at noon and once in the bad hour to compare.
Common causes of an unstable connection
Walls, neighbours' networks and other devices on 2.4 GHz cause short losses and jitter. One test on a cable tells you whether this is the cause.
Downloads and streams fill the router's queue, and every other packet waits. The bufferbloat test measures how much delay that adds.
If the line is unstable on a cable with nothing else running, the problem is outside your home. Save the result and send the report to your provider.
Proof for your provider
Every finished test gets a permanent link and a PDF report with timestamps, the route and every loss event. It contains no IP address. A report covering the hour the problem happened is harder to dismiss than a speed test screenshot.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I run a ping stability test?
One minute shows whether the line is stable right now. For a gaming session, run it 10 to 30 minutes. For drops that happen only now and then, leave it open for an hour or more. After 60 seconds the panel under the chart starts counting dropouts.
What is a stable ping?
A flat line with jitter under 5 to 10 ms and 0% packet loss. The average matters less than the spread: a steady 60 ms is more stable than a ping that jumps between 20 and 90 ms.
Why does my ping spike every few minutes?
Regular spikes usually come from Wi-Fi scanning for networks, a background update or a cloud backup. Test once on a cable and with downloads paused. If the spikes stay, the cause is outside your home.
Can I keep the test running in the background?
Yes. It keeps measuring in a background tab. Come back later, use the 30m or All view, and drag the timeline to the moment a drop happened.