Why is my Wifi slow?

[Joe Shmoe]

Any computer experts out there, who can help me with this?

I have BT infinity with homehub3 router and I get pretty consistent speeds of 65mbps to my wired computer.I have several wireless devices (phones, iPads and nexus tablets). One minute the wireless speed is 25mbps (which is excellent) and then the next it's down to below 1mbps, like 0.2mbps. Minutes or hours later, it's back fast again. It does this across all the devices, as a speedtest on each in succession shows (plus inability to load youtube vidoes etc)

I can't see why it would swing to such extremes, I'm not using all the devices at once, the environment around the wireless router is not changing to my knowledgeable.

When these drops in wifi speed happen, I still get a good strong signal, I have no red lights or issues on my router etc, and a speedtest on the wired computer shows I'm still getting 65mbps.


Why is my wifi doing this? Thanks for any guidance.

 

[mseries]

could be interference from a neighbour or some electro magnetic activity from something else such as a fridge firing up. Try changing channel on the wireless at the router. Wifi will never be as consistent as ethernet but your stable ethernet of 65mbps shows your internet is OK

 

[gidon]

Try switching the router wireless settings from Auto, to a fixed (non overlapping) wireless channel: 1, 6 or 11.

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/deta ... e-hub-3%3F

Cheers

Gidon

 

[DiscoStu]

I agree with gidon. You can try a programme called inssider which will show you all the wireless networks around and what channels they are on. From the 1,6,11 pick the one that has the least number of devices in that channel and the one with the least devices on channels near it. People tend to think that if they are on channel 1 and their neighbour is on 2 then there will be no interference. That's not true as channels overlap hence the standard use of the three channels listed. The UK actually has channels 1-13 but the US is 1-11 and that has been the accepted norm.

Also depending on your devices and age etc you could try using N rather than G and 5ghz rather than 2.4ghz as you'll find far less congestion. However not all of your devices may support this.

 

[Eric The Viking]

802.11n is, IIRC, about six times faster than its predecessors (and the new 802.11ac theoretically about 2.5x faster again (15x)).

We haven't got enough information to diagnose the problem.

Are you in a busy built-up area, and (worse) in a flat? Are there other users on your wireless network?

Your bandwidth isn't "yours," it's shared with other homes in the area. The number of homes per is known as the Contention Ratio, and it can have a dramatic effect on performance, especially at busy times of day (mainly early and late evening, when people stream TV and films, or Skype or do XBox-type gaming, or do other big downloads).

Someone else using a lot of bandwidth nearby would explain sudden jumps in performance.

 

[mseries]

Your bandwidth isn't "yours," it's shared with other homes in the area. The number of homes per is known as the Contention Ratio, and it can have a dramatic effect on performance, especially at busy times of day (mainly early and late evening, when people stream TV and films, or Skype or do XBox-type gaming, or do other big downloads).

Someone else using a lot of bandwidth nearby would explain sudden jumps in performance.

He says his wifi is slow, yet is wired desktop is not. What you say isn't untrue but if this was his problem it would also affect his wired connections.

 

[Eric The Viking]

I didn't actually say it is contention.

Someone else's wifi, nearby & carrying a lot of traffic and causing co-channel interference could do it, especially if their base station's TX power is wound up (at least one of mine is adjustable). That would be my favourite guess.

It's impossible to tell without more context, and I wouldn't rule out contention ratio that quickly, as demand is very peaky and by the time you've moved from one machine to another things might have changed..

 

[mseries]

If this was my problem. I'd try to determine if the internet is the problem or the wifi. Stop using wifi. Are the wired devices seeing the same issue ? if so then wifi will not be any better, could be worse. Probably not possible to hard wire the droids and apples ? It the wired devices are rock solid that it points to the wifi. As said earlier the speed of the internet varies so you need to do long term tests not just snap shot samples. If you can stream something from a server on your LAN to your device over wifi, that is, not from the internet, then it'll demonstrate how good or bad your wifi is.

Wifi doesn;t like going through people, the orientation of the device may affect it's performance, does it work OK in some rooms not others ? Try to see if any pattern exists