Asking advice from our computer techies

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Hi folks,

I'm having internet issues with my computer, and I believe it's my computer, not the wifi access. I am showing 4 out of 5 bars, but my connectivity is spotty, or running slow. My kids are not having any issues connecting with their computers.

I can't figure out what I have going that is interfering with my connectivity. Can anyone give me advice on what I should be looking for?

I have a Lenovo ideacentre desktop. My antivirus is Eset, and I tried temporarily disabling it to see if that was the cause, but I'm having the same issues.

What should I be checking?

Thanks!

 

[Skywise]

Are you actually losing the WiFi connection or is your internet speed just really slow?

Are your kids on a different protocol/band? (Running 802.11g vs 802.11n or 2.5ghz vs 5ghz?)

If you're not losing the WiFi conneection, and if you can, hook your PC up to an actual ethernet connection do you have the same issues? (If yes then it's something on your PC (virus/malware or other potential problem)

My gut feel though is a general radio transmission problem possibly radio interference from some other device - Might try changing your router's wifi channel number to something else.

 

[jcb]

It does sound like the wifi card in your desktop is failing or loose. They are not expensive and generally easy to replace. You can get ones that plug in through a spare USB port.

It might be interference from your neighbors' wifi systems (especially if you are using 802.11g instead of 802.11n, but if your kids' devices are not having the same issues, then this doesn't seem likely.

 

[k5jm]

Member trust the Signal Strength Indicator for 802.11. 2.4mhz is a sewer for RF signals. There are so many thugs that can have an effect on your signal. Microwave ovens, nearby, airfields, spurious paging transmitters, malfunctioning cellphones, or neighbors' Access points operating on a adjacent/same frequencies. The real measure of wifi is Signal to Noise ratio. I would check ping times to your router address then check ping times to an outside address.

http://youtu.be/Y9MFXmPqa88

if you have a lots of timeouts or highly latent returns, you might have a problem with your adapter. As Jack suggested, try a different adapter.

I have moved most everything in my house to 5ghz. I have no more issues with slow wifi. Just a word of caution, I would never do any audio or video calls over Wifi due to the half-duplex nature of wireless. You will lose packets and the call will degrade.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Thanks, guys. I'm going to try your suggestions.

I'm also going to have my son unplug the modem, then plug in again, and see if that has any impact. I've only had this issue for a couple of days, and so it's "something."

Thank you!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Also something that may affect it too is how far it is from the wireless router or modem depending on how it's set up in your house.

 

[doconeill]

I know I'm late to the party, but I haven't been reading any new posts in the past week or so...

When setting up Wi-Fi, at least for 2.4MHz channels, you have a choice of channels from 1-11. The interesting thing about the channels is they overlap...the actual frequencies used for each channel span a range, and the range for Channel 1 overlaps with channels all the way up to and including channel 5.

So if you pick a channel, it can be interfered with not only with nearby access points that are on the same channel, but several others.

There are three channels within the range that don't overlap with each other: 1, 6, and 11. Generally, your best best it to set the channel on your access point to one of those three, preferably the one least used (some wifi analyzers will show you the channel noise in your area - I have one on my phone I use frequently at client sites). So if nothing else has worked so far, try changing the channel on the wi-fi.

Far fewer people are using the 5GHz band, but that requires equipment that supports it, and if you need to support things that are only 2.4GHz as well, you need a "dual band" access point.

 

[k5jm]

MJ, did you recently get a PG&E Smart Meter put on your house?

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

MJ, did you recently get a PG&E Smart Meter put on your house?

They recently did one for our gas meter - maybe a couple of weeks ago.

My internet issues resolved without too much input from me. I restarted the modem, and restarted my computer several times. One day, it was back to normal.

I read everyone's instructions here, but didn't have a day to digest them and try them out. I am so tempted to go to our local community college and taking some IT tech classes so I know how to diagnose and troubleshoot these issues.

Thanks, Mike, & everyone, for trying to help me out.

 

[Cold71]

When you first start seeing issues like you did, restarting everything is typically the first thing you want to do. If you find yourself having to restart your modem and/or computer more and more you may want to try and see if you can narrow the problem down a little more. Feel free to shoot me a PM if the issue gets to be a bigger problem for you. I've worked for Dell for a little over 7 years now and should be able to help you narrow the issue down fairly quickly. Take care.