intermittent Wifi issues

[marcplante]

We have a brand new FIOS router Gige Wifi N router and a 50 MB pipe.

My wife calls me periodically to tell me that her WIFI is bogged down to the point of becoming unuseable.

This morning she sent me an email with a screenshot of a Speedtest attached

35 Mbps down
39 up
10 Msec latency

Yet she tells me that she can't get any websites to respond quickly on her notebook.

Seems like the raw speed is OK. What other items can I look at to troubleshoot her problems?

Slow notebook with clogged memory?
Too many agents running on her notebook?
Wireless interference (though the speedcheck seems to indicate otherwise

Thanks,

 

[ScottMac]

Load and run an application called "inSSIDer;" it's free.

It will graphically display all wireless traffic (and some interferers) that your wife's laptop can see.

IF it also shows some 802.11b devices within "sight" ... you probably will want to change your AP setting, laptop settings, and anything else you have to ignore 802.11b devices.

Because 802.11b uses a different modulation scheme, it forces the AP (or other device) to flip back & forth between modes ... slowing things down considerably.

There are lots of other possibilities, but start with a spectrum scan and see what you got and what it's doing to your system.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Change your dns servers to make sure it isnt your default dns causing the slowness

 

[Zap]

Disable WiFi and hook her up with a long network cable. Let her use it that way for a couple hours/days, see if the problem persists or goes away. That should at least tell you if it IS the WiFi, or something else.

 

[spidey07]

Change your dns servers to make sure it isnt your default dns causing the slowness

That's what I thought. The speed tests show good thruput. If it was interference it would show up there. Or maybe it's momentary interference. Microwaves, cordless phones, bluetooth harm 2.4 Ghz.

Try putting google or opendns resolvers as your DNS servers, you can google their addresses.

 

[Panthrpride]

flash the latest firmware on your router. if it only started since you got the new router, then it might be the cause.

 

[Ichinisan]

Talked to someone yesterday with similar behavior. Kaspersky antivirus?

 

[Ichinisan]

...anyway, we found that running NSLOOKUP [anydomain name] on the command line would show a "timed out after 2 seconds" message, followed by a successful look-up. We entered the ISP's DNS servers and the problem immediately cleared-up.

The computer had been getting DNS through the Linksys WRT54G2 router, which proxies DNS lookup with the ISP's DNS servers. However, other computers behind the router work just fine with no special configuration.

I talked to another person today with Kaspersky and he couldn't access certain websites until we booted Win8 in Safe Mode + Networking.

Not saying Kaspersky is the problem, but it's very likely.

 

[marcplante]

Thanks. Running AVG. Maybe it has similar issues? I'll look into it.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

Disable WiFi and hook her up with a long network cable. Let her use it that way for a couple hours/days, see if the problem persists or goes away. That should at least tell you if it IS the WiFi, or something else.

This.

 

[blankslate]

It could be that a nearby wireless access point set up by a neighbor is operating at the same channel (or an immediately adjacent channel as your access point) which can cause the symptoms you describe.

It was the cause of intermittent wireless issues I had about a year ago and checking the broadcast channels of your wireless router and nearby wireless routers falls under the advice check your wireless settings given by ScottMac.

If you're having the same issue I had a while ago, then the simple solution is changing the channel. Change the Router channel and then change Wireless card channel in your wife's laptop to the same channel.

http://compnetworking.about.com/od/wifihomenetworking/qt/wifichannel.htm
^this link should have all the information you need if a nearby wireless access point interfering with your wireless is the cause.

Another thing is to make sure that your router is a about a foot from your cable modem (if they are seperate units) or other devices (like a wireless phone receiver) that could interfere with it just to eliminate that possibility as a source of interference.

 

[JackMDS]

1.Slow notebook with clogged memory?

2. Too many agents running on her notebook?

Giving everything said, and assuming that it is a good notebook.

It is either 1 or 2 or both.

Run process explorer and investigate what is going on on the Notebook.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

 

[tkivisto]

That sort of speed would mean fast internet...unless the pages she's visiting are slow on that end for some reason.

I really like ZAP's suggestion of trying out a long ethernet cord. If it it's much faster then there is definitely something wrong with the wifi.

Does she move around a lot in the house or does the notebook stay in a few areas? You can look into powerline ethernet as an option if your wiresless signal is unreliable. Buy a few modules (one plugs in beside your router) and run short ethernet cables from those to where the notebook is used. I started using a set up like this for my PC. I get full speed from the FIOS service using it at my PC.

 

[marcplante]

She tends to sit on the couch about 12 feet from the modem/router which is behind the LED TV in the entertainment center. There are several other routers in range, and a lot of people use FIOS around here, so we may have wireless contention. I'l switch channels on the Wifi and see what that gets us in terms of stability.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

#1) get the wired working at the full speed first

#2) see the best wireless channels to use, either channel 1 or 6 or 11, NOTHING else.

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

 

[alkemyst]

Disable WiFi and hook her up with a long network cable. Let her use it that way for a couple hours/days, see if the problem persists or goes away. That should at least tell you if it IS the WiFi, or something else.

I'd recommend this at first too. Troubleshooting an actual WiFi issue is a lot harder if you aren't even sure the laptop works correctly physically connected.

It could be something as simple as a backup or A/V scan running in the background.