The weirdest problem with my Wi-Fi

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zll

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So I have this really, really strange issue with my Wi-Fi.

When I am playing games, it randomly will start lagging. The only way I can fix it is to leave the game, disconnect my WiFi on my PC and switch to a different frequency (I have a dual band Asus router that supports both regular and 5 Ghz wifi). I had to purchase a dedicated WiFi card when we got the upgrade to fibre because I thought the issue lay with the dongle, but it seems connected to something random in my PC.

Now you can imagine how frustrating this is. I have noticed for example that if I alt-tab during load in League of Legends, it'll sometimes happen. Sometimes it just happens randomly in the game. The only way to avoid this issue is for me to disconnect my wifi and reconnect it after every game, as this seems to protect me from lag for at least 45 minutes.

Any ideas?
 
So it started with the dongle then continued with the card? And you have change frequency every time or is disconnecting enough?

This sounds like a noise issue. I know small dongles have trouble with heat dissipation and can get damaged but that's unlikely to be the cause if it happens with both.
 
Honey Badger said:
Yes.

Use an Ethernet cable
Click to expand...

At this point that requires a major trunking job. Didn't use to have these problem with the ADSL and adsl router so trying to figure out what might be causing it.
 
Swa said:
So it started with the dongle then continued with the card? And you have change frequency every time or is disconnecting enough?

This sounds like a noise issue. I know small dongles have trouble with heat dissipation and can get damaged but that's unlikely to be the cause if it happens with both.
Click to expand...

Yup. I bought the wifi card originally because I thought it was the dongle. Have two routers and the problem occurs on both. Haven't check if a DC and reconnect to the same frequency is enough. Will try that at some point.
 
Check the power settings for the adaptor maybe?

I had a similar problem with a USB Wi-Fi adapter on Windows. It would work perfectly and suddenly everything would go slow and finally just disconnect completely until i unplugged the device from Windows and plugged it back in.

The same USB adapter has been living on my linux server for months without a hiccup.

I wrote it off as a Windows/windows-driver problem.
 
zolly said:
This happens regardless of the number of people on the network, but will try it anyway. Shot.
Click to expand...
Actually I did not point out the QOS for monitoring the bandwidth of people on the network but more to have better control over the different protocols like streaming, browsing, gaming, etc...
 
zolly said:
Yup. I bought the wifi card originally because I thought it was the dongle. Have two routers and the problem occurs on both. Haven't check if a DC and reconnect to the same frequency is enough. Will try that at some point.
Click to expand...
Well I had a dongle that got wrecked due to transmitting constantly. All other dongles and devices would slow to a crawl while it was plugged in even though it wasn't the access point. So a single device can be causing problems for all devices.
 
Ryansr said:
Actually I did not point out the QOS for monitoring the bandwidth of people on the network but more to have better control over the different protocols like streaming, browsing, gaming, etc...
Click to expand...

What I meant was that it's not related to the protocols in use (except, weird thing I did pick up, Tinder on PC causes lag spikes when I have it open in Mozilla, managed to recreate THAT problem consistently). I have been home alone with no-one and no other devices doing anything and I still get this strange issue.

Like 10 minutes ago I saw my ping climbing while playing League. After about 10 seconds my connection dropped completely and Windows was reporting a connection error (little yellow symbol on the wifi icon in the status bar). Disconnect, swap from 5 ghz range to normal spectrum and fine. I am the only person at home and had no other apps running at the time it happened.
 
League of Legends, Tinder, WiFi Problems, home alone, no nut November...

You're a ticking time bomb...
 
Not that this has anything do do with whatever weird issue you are having, but just a general comment on playing over WiFi - Always do this:

This.
 
Is your router set to Automatic channel selection?

That might be your problem right there.

Use something like Homedale and optimise the best channel and set it statically.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Is your router set to Automatic channel selection?

That might be your problem right there.

Use something like Homedale and optimise the best channel and set it statically.
Click to expand...

Yeah it is. I can't say for certain but I think most of my problems started when one of my neighbours got a LTE connection. Super strong signal even though there's a reasonable distance between our flats. Will see what I can do about manually configuring the router to use a specific channel.
 
Hey folks. So just a thank you to everyone who provided advice here. Took me a couple of hours yesterday but I resolved the issue.

Got home to discover my wireless was even more unstable than the day before. It was so slow I was struggling to log onto the router via wifi. I got WiFi Analyzer from the Windows Store. I g0t -55 dBm on the 5ghz range, which is above average according to various sites. Regular range was -72 dBm, which was average. Tracerts and ping tests to the router indicated that the spikes were somehow connected to that.

I had the time so I dragged the router into my room and connected it via ethernet, did a factory reset, reconfigured the router and tested the wifi again. There was an improvement but still some lag spikes. Realised it was WiFi analyzer scanning the network. Disabled it but it still wasn't as stable as I would like. Took @SauRoNZA's advice and forced it to "edge" channels, and wham, stable as hell.

I think the issue is caused by my neighbours overlapping LTE network, so as long as they stay off my channels I should be good.

Again, thanks.
 
zolly said:
Hey folks. So just a thank you to everyone who provided advice here. Took me a couple of hours yesterday but I resolved the issue.

Got home to discover my wireless was even more unstable than the day before. It was so slow I was struggling to log onto the router via wifi. I got WiFi Analyzer from the Windows Store. I g0t -55 dBm on the 5ghz range, which is above average according to various sites. Regular range was -72 dBm, which was average. Tracerts and ping tests to the router indicated that the spikes were somehow connected to that.

I had the time so I dragged the router into my room and connected it via ethernet, did a factory reset, reconfigured the router and tested the wifi again. There was an improvement but still some lag spikes. Realised it was WiFi analyzer scanning the network. Disabled it but it still wasn't as stable as I would like. Took @SauRoNZA's advice and forced it to "edge" channels, and wham, stable as hell.

I think the issue is caused by my neighbours overlapping LTE network, so as long as they stay off my channels I should be good.

Again, thanks.
Click to expand...

Yeah the problem with Auto on most routers is that it only scans when it's rebooted and doesn't update again.

Beyond that it also really scan so far as it can see which means often it doesn't choose the best channels.

Running manual settings and checking up on then every once in a while really is the best bet all round and means there aren't any guessing games happening.

5ghz generally isn't as stable as 2.4ghz as it just doesn't have the range. It was ultimately designed to work with an access point in each room where clients reside with no walls in the middle.
 
SauRoNZA said:
5ghz generally isn't as stable as 2.4ghz as it just doesn't have the range. It was ultimately designed to work with an access point in each room where clients reside with no walls in the middle.
Click to expand...

I'll keep that in mind, but for now it seems to be good. I live in a fairly small 2 story flat so this doesn't seem to be the problem.
 
That neighbour should check if he doesn't have a faulty device. Normal usage shouldn't cause such an issue.
 
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