Wi-Fi speed dropping and becoming unstable

[pissfaust]

Hi.

After building a new PC and installing W10 Pro on it, my Wi-Fi connection has become unstable. It can work fine for a few days or even a week, but then all of a sudden the speed will bounce between 0mbit/s and 50mbit/s (50 is the max for my ISP). For example when I load a webpage, the connection can drop to 0 for like 10 seconds and then it suddenly jumps back up and loads the page in a split second. Doesn't happen on any other devices like phones or my laptop so my router and modem are fine. I've tried two different USB Wi-Fi adapters that also work fine on other PC-s. Does anyone have any ideas why this is happening?

[_I_]

change channels on the router
use wifi analizer on android to check for what channel ranges are less populated

or for best results run a lan cable to the pc

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Probably the most typical reason... not installing the latest official drivers for everything within the system.

[pissfaust]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย _I_:

change channels on the router
use wifi analizer on android to check for what channel ranges are less populated

or for best results run a lan cable to the pc

Changed the channel while the speed drop was happening and everything has been working fine now, but it's too early to tell. I'll let it run for a week. Thank you!

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Bad 💀 Motha:

Probably the most typical reason... not installing the latest official drivers for everything within the system.

I did install all the latest drivers, but I could've missed something. I'll check. Thank you!

[[☥] - CJ -]

If your area is congested with alot of people having WIFI that could cause it.
Using the 5GHz band should minimize that impact.

The bouncing between speeds could be caused by the PC as well as higher download speeds suck up CPU cycles. What CPU, Motherboard and OS drive do you have?

[pissfaust]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย ☥ - CJ -:

If your area is congested with alot of people having WIFI that could cause it.
Using the 5GHz band should minimize that impact.

The bouncing between speeds could be caused by the PC as well as higher download speeds suck up CPU cycles. What CPU, Motherboard and OS drive do you have?

I live in a 4-story apartment building and I can see about 7-8 Wi-Fi networks so that is definitely the case. I'm using dual-band, because I have 2 devices that still use 2.4GHz (my USB receiver is dual-band too).

My CPU is i5-10400F, ASRock H410M-HDVM.2 mobo and a 1TB NVMe SSD from Gigabyte. I'm not sure, but I think the problem starts when I download something. Before making this forum post, I was downloading Metro Exodus and about 20 gigabytes in, the speed dropped and it took like 15 minutes of messing around for it to get back to normal. Meanwhile every other device still worked perfectly.

[Masque]

If (A) you have access to the router, and (B) you have a desktop, and aren't moving around with your PC, I would use a powerline adapter, and forget WiFi ever existed.

https://www.amazon.com/Comtrend-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-PG-9172KIT/dp/B00X3GX99C/

They also sell powerline adapters with WiFi, if you need it for a tablet, mobile or laptop.

I've been using this for two years, and it's never failed to run at my max ISP speed. I wish I had known about this years ago, when I lived in an apartment building.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Download speeds on Steam will always vary for one reason or another, so simply relying on those speeds to gauge if something is wrong or not is not accurate.

www.speedtest.net do a speed test on a couple different servers in your area and see how it goes, one server may give better or worse results than another so trying a couple is always best.

[pissfaust]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย ☥ - CJ -:

Download speeds on Steam will always vary for one reason or another, so simply relying on those speeds to gauge if something is wrong or not is not accurate.

www.speedtest.net do a speed test on a couple different servers in your area and see how it goes, one server may give better or worse results than another so trying a couple is always best.

What I meant is that the problem usually occurs when I've been downloading something on Steam for a little while, but it carries over and affects the whole PC. I've done a lot of speed tests when that happens and that's where I got the speed bounce results (0-50mbit/s). I've tried multiple servers.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Masque of Clavicus Vile:

If (A) you have access to the router, and (B) you have a desktop, and aren't moving around with your PC, I would use a powerline adapter, and forget WiFi ever existed.

https://www.amazon.com/Comtrend-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-PG-9172KIT/dp/B00X3GX99C/

They also sell powerline adapters with WiFi, if you need it for a tablet, mobile or laptop.

I've been using this for two years, and it's never failed to run at my max ISP speed. I wish I had known about this years ago, when I lived in an apartment building.

A and B both true so I will definitely check it out, thanks!

[iceman1980]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย The Politician:

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย ☥ - CJ -:

Download speeds on Steam will always vary for one reason or another, so simply relying on those speeds to gauge if something is wrong or not is not accurate.

www.speedtest.net do a speed test on a couple different servers in your area and see how it goes, one server may give better or worse results than another so trying a couple is always best.

What I meant is that the problem usually occurs when I've been downloading something on Steam for a little while, but it carries over and affects the whole PC. I've done a lot of speed tests when that happens and that's where I got the speed bounce results (0-50mbit/s). I've tried multiple servers.

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Masque of Clavicus Vile:

If (A) you have access to the router, and (B) you have a desktop, and aren't moving around with your PC, I would use a powerline adapter, and forget WiFi ever existed.

https://www.amazon.com/Comtrend-Powerline-Ethernet-Adapter-PG-9172KIT/dp/B00X3GX99C/

They also sell powerline adapters with WiFi, if you need it for a tablet, mobile or laptop.

I've been using this for two years, and it's never failed to run at my max ISP speed. I wish I had known about this years ago, when I lived in an apartment building.

A and B both true so I will definitely check it out, thanks!

Powerline adapters have a number of problems that can influence the performance of of a EoP device (Ethernet Over Power). Examples include EMI from the electrical wiring picking up radio interference especially if it's near the operating frequencies used in HomePlug AV 2.0. They can also be impacted by the age and quality of your home electrical wiring. Lastly EoP units can be impacted by any other devices that may be on the circuit the EoP unit is on, this can include any high current devices such as Ovens, Heats, washing machines, High frequency AC motors. Just to name a few.

[Masque]

Product, I live in a non-code (the electric is not up to current code by a long shot) home that was built in 1978, the router is on the other end of the house from me, and on a completely different circuit in the breaker box than the plug in my PC room, and I've had absolutely zero problems in the more than two years I've used the adapter.

And as I said, I pay the ISP for 25Mbps, and I always get exactly that, never less. I'm never going back to WiFi for a desktop computer.

Besides, OP can simply try it and return it to Amazon for any, or no, reason if it doesn't work as well as they would like it to. It's really a no-risk solution, given that it can be returned, no questions asked.

Edit: obvious typo: 25Mbps, because nobody short of the NSA has 25Gbps.

[iceman1980]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Masque of Clavicus Vile:

Product, I live in a non-code (the electric is not up to current code by a long shot) home that was built in 1978, the router is on the other end of the house from me, and on a completely different circuit in the breaker box than the plug in my PC room, and I've had absolutely zero problems in the more than two years I've used the adapter.

And as I said, I pay the ISP for 25Gbps, and I always get exactly that, never less. I'm never going back to WiFi for a desktop computer.

Besides, OP can simply try it and return it to Amazon for any, or no, reason if it doesn't work as well as they would like it to. It's really a no-risk solution, given that it can be returned, no questions asked.

25Gbps you are so full of it. HomePlug AV2 or 2Gbps will never ever reach 2Gbps your extremely minor understanding of the EoP standard speaks volumes as 25Gbps you will never see over a AV2 standard. So if you are using AV2 you will only get 2/25 the maximum speed of your "supposed line speed"

or 25(2.0 = 0.08% there you will get just 8% of your maximum total speed in Gbps theoretical throughput. In a real environment you can be looking at anything from 100Mbps to 2Gbps.

There is a reason I do network engineering and you don't.

[Masque]

I meant Megabits, not bytes, per second. Silly typo, actually.

Steam downloads at 3.1-3.2 MB/s, I pay for 25Mbps. 3.1 x 8 (bits in a byte) and THE POINT BEING I never get slower speeds than what it says on my bill, using the powerline adapter, and I never have.

You're making yourself look silly, still, missing the whole entire point like that.

[iceman1980]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Masque of Clavicus Vile:

I meant Megabits, not bytes, per second. Silly typo, actually.

Steam downloads at 3.1-3.2 MB/s, I pay for 25Mbps. 3.1 x 8 (bits in a byte) and THE POINT BEING I never get slower speeds than what it says on my bill, using the powerline adapter, and I never have.

You're making yourself look silly, still, missing the whole entire point like that.

I know a lot more about this subject than you trust me. The 2Gbps on EoP units is maximum peak throughput under best case conditions. Yes ynoou can have good download and upload speeds on HomePlug AV2 however speaking from direct experience as I have VDSL2 HomePlug AV2 does not play nice because it operates in the same frequency band as a VDSL2 channel block allocation about 30Mhz. EoP systems also have problems with other electrical devices on the same circuit. There is also no way of knowing how long your electrical wiring is. Furthermore with enough noise they can drop packets causing latency problems. Homeplug AV2 is a physical layer operating network.

25Mbps on HomePlug AV2 is more sensible but again Homeplug AV2 units are highly intolerant to a lot of issues. So please do not talk about things you actually know nothing about 50hz AC is noisy.

1. You can't plug them into powerboards or extension cables.
2. You can't put them next to anything that operates in the 30 - 80Mhz
3. They can be affected by anything that creates reverse EMF.
4. Devices on the circuit that draw a lot of current can also degrade performance air conditioners especially.

[Masque]

Okay. I'll keep using mine. I'll let you know if I ever experience any drops in performance.

Don't hold your breath. I guarantee you I have less problems than this guy (or me, prior to using this adapter) has with WiFi. And I mean, "none" means less in this case.

Edit: and I will continue to recommend this device, because I know enough to know that it works.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Well
with more people being online these days it could be your ISP's Node for your area causing it.

Does this happen at specific times of day or all the time?

As for the electrical for your home goes
The one thing you CAN do is replace the electrical outlets if they are extremely out of date
Even aging/faulty power outlets can cause issues for the entire home or room to room.

I personally found this out when i started replacing outlets in the upstairs PC room to fix some outlets that stopped working 7 years ago, replacing one got rid of the fault and fixed the others on the same line. One of the cheapest and easiest things you can do yourself, even the cheap sockets at walmart would be better than sockets that old if theyve never been replaced before.

Just a thought.
-

I would also look into getting a kill a watt meter or a multi meter so you can check the voltages of every rooms sockets, especially the one the PC is connected to. Voltage drop tends to happen the further away from the breaker you get, old outlets can cause an even further drop which may affect the performance of electronics connected to them.