Slowed wireless

tharpdevenport

Baseband Member
Messages
44
I've got a baffling problem here.

I've got a friend who has a computer (Windows 10, IE Edge) that has suddenly experienced slower speeds from the wireless.

Nothing has been changed: no settings changed, no new equipment in the house that might interfer with the singal, no changing in the spot he puts the comptuer and no change in the spot the wireless is at.

  • I moved it twice closer to the wireless and of course got a stronger signal.
  • I plugged it into the moden and of course got the strongest singal.
  • I plugged it directly into the wireless and got the same strong signal as I did from plugging it into the modem.
  • I've scanned it with a handful of programs including Malwarebytes and RKill. Nothing came up.


So, the wireless appears to be fine, the modem is fine and no changes have been made, so why is this suddenly happening?


The best I can figure, with my limited knowledge, is that something on the computer is hogging the bandwidth or that some neighbor has installed something that is interfering with the wireless signal. His wife has a tablet computer that has also experienced a drop in signal.


There's a seperate computer that goes through the wireless and there are zero issues with the internet signal. The modem runs to the wireless and an cable runs from the wireless to this seperate computer. The wireless is password protected so no neighbor can piggy back a signal.
 
It's a little difficult to understand your post to be honest. This bit especially is confusing.

"There's a seperate computer that goes through the wireless and there are zero issues with the internet signal. The modem runs to the wireless and an cable runs from the wireless to this seperate computer."

Anyway it is extremely difficult to diagnose these sorts of problems remotely because interference from local external sources can cause these symptoms. You can try changing the wireless channel. You will need to log on to your router and then find the wireless settings. You should a setting that will allow you to change the channel. Other close routers using the same channel as you can cause these symptoms and as most routers are set to, usually, channel 6 or 11 by the manufacturer so everybody who has a router will, more than likely, be on either one of those channels unless they have changed. I find that channel 13 is the clearest but that is in my area. You may have to try a few before you find a good one. I used a program called inSSider to check which channels were clean but this is now a paid for program. You may want to read this link.

How to Find The Best Wi-Fi Channel For Your Router on Any Operating System

Hope that helps.
 
What sort of results are you getting from a speed test on these computers? What sort of speeds SHOULD you be getting?

You said that you tried it with your friend's computer plugged directly into the the wireless router, and then again with it plugged directly into the modem from the ISP, correct? If you still see reduced speeds then it's not a wireless issue.

If that is the case, then I would do the same tests with another computer. If you still get slow speeds, call the ISP. If you get good speeds, then it's your friends computer that has the issue.
 
It's a little difficult to understand your post to be honest. This bit especially is confusing.

"There's a seperate computer that goes through the wireless and there are zero issues with the internet signal. The modem runs to the wireless and an cable runs from the wireless to this seperate computer."

Im sorry about the confusion, you're right. I was trying to indicate that since there are no problems with this seperate computer, that goes through the wireless, and that there were no problems with speed (100 Mbps), that the wireless must be fine. It has a funky set up wherein the moden is run to the wireless and then a seperate cable is run from the wireless to this seperate computer, so while it's going through the wireless it's not using a wireless signal. I was testing another computer to make sure the wireless wasn't an issue.

I will try switching channels as you suggested. That could be it. There are almost ten other wirelss routers detected around this house, some of which aren't even password protected (I should go door-to-door and let them know they're boneheads), and chances are somebody bought some big overkill broadcaster that is interfering with the same channel this one is on. You've probably nailed it.


crazyman143:

You said that you tried it with your friend's computer plugged directly into the the wireless router, and then again with it plugged directly into the modem from the ISP, correct?

Yes, that is correct. And got the high speed. And I moved it twice closer to the wireless router to see if singal was increasing. I wanted to rule out the router as the problem. That was the way to go about it, right? Just seing if I handled it properly.
 
Well lets hope so but to be honest wireless can be an absolute nightmare. I know it's inconvenient but it's always much better to use wired networking if you possibly can. When your signal strength goes down, even by a small amount, it also affects the speed of the transmission. I would tend to use home plugs if I cannot cable directly and I only use wireless on my laptop when I'm feeling lazy and want to use my computer sat in my easy chair watching the telly, and yes I can do both sorta LOL.
 
Ok, so you know it is related to the actual wireless signals then. But if this friend is the only one having the issue, It could still be his computer. Possibly something is wrong with his wifi adapter or it's settings. Or maybe it's trying to use wireless-G and the rest of you are on wireless-N. Just speculation.

Yeah, try what Pete suggested and play with the channel settings on the router, sometimes that helps. if you can get a hold of a wireless usb adapter, plug that into his laptop and see if he gets better results.
 
Change the channel.

Log into the wireless device and find a different broadcast channel. You have 1-11. What (I'm guessing) is happening is that this computer is in range of another neighbors wireless being broadcast on the same channel. They might have the power on their broadcast turn all the way so this is causing "noise" when your wireless is attempting to talk. I'm not a networking guy by trade, but I believe you need to get a few channels away to get rid of the noise. You can go from 1 to 5, if 5 has the same issue, go to 11.
 
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