WiFi comes in "waves"

[weymaro]

Previously, my desktop PC was connected via ethernet cable directly to the router. I did some rearranging and cleaning in my house which included moving my computer desk to another room. As a result, the PC is now connected to the internet via WiFi rather than a wired connection. Ever since I've moved it my internet has come in "waves", where within the span of a minute trying to load a website will go from it timing out to working perfectly and then timing out again. the error codes I usually get are ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT, ERR_DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, and ERR_DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET.

My ipv4 settings are currently configured to automatically set an ip address, while the DNS settings I manually set to use OpenDNS's servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) I'm almost certain this is a problem with my computer rather than the network since all of my other wirelessly connected devices are configured similarly and have no problems. More specifically, I think it may have to do with my pci-e WiFi card; a Dell DW1525, since it's a used part I took out of my uncle's old prebuilt computer. Device manager says that the drivers are up to date so perhaps it's an issue with the physical card itself? Or maybe it is a problem with software being incorrectly installed or conflicting with other software. I know a fair amount about hardware, but next to nothing about software and networking so ultimately this is all just a hunch, I don't really have anything to back up my suspicions.

 

A couple more things to note. First, despite my connection constantly going up and down, my WiFi status icon in the lower right doesn't change i.e there are no yellow triangles or red x's that show up. Second, I've had a problem with Chrome freezing for 5-10 seconds which was a problem I never had before but has been rather frequent since I moved my computer. I think it may have something to do with Chrome trying to access information but not being able to receive any and therefore can't update it's screen, if that makes any sense. For what it's worth, I know my main problem with DNS and timeout errors isn't simply a browser issue since Steam and Edge are experiencing it as well.

[Emanuel_M]

5 minutes ago, weymaro said:

Previously, my desktop PC was connected via ethernet cable directly to the router. I did some rearranging and cleaning in my house which included moving my computer desk to another room. As a result, the PC is now connected to the internet via WiFi rather than a wired connection. Ever since I've moved it my internet has come in "waves", where within the span of a minute trying to load a website will go from it timing out to working perfectly and then timing out again. the error codes I usually get are ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT, ERR_DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, and ERR_DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET.

My ipv4 settings are currently configured to automatically set an ip address, while the DNS settings I manually set to use OpenDNS's servers (208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220) I'm almost certain this is a problem with my computer rather than the network since all of my other wirelessly connected devices are configured similarly and have no problems. More specifically, I think it may have to do with my pci-e WiFi card; a Dell DW1525, since it's a used part I took out of my uncle's old prebuilt computer. Device manager says that the drivers are up to date so perhaps it's an issue with the physical card itself? Or maybe it is a problem with software being incorrectly installed or conflicting with other software. I know a fair amount about hardware, but next to nothing about software and networking so ultimately this is all just a hunch, I don't really have anything to back up my suspicions.

 

A couple more things to note. First, despite my connection constantly going up and down, my WiFi status icon in the lower right doesn't change i.e there are no yellow triangles or red x's that show up. Second, I've had a problem with Chrome freezing for 5-10 seconds which was a problem I never had before but has been rather frequent since I moved my computer. I think it may have something to do with Chrome trying to access information but not being able to receive any and therefore can't update it's screen, if that makes any sense. For what it's worth, I know my main problem with DNS and timeout errors isn't simply a browser issue since Steam and Edge are experiencing it as well.

Try to automatically get the DNS settings than getting your own first.  

 

Also check the WLAN device settings and make sure its not saving power, and keep it on.

[weymaro]

7 hours ago, Emanuel_M said:

Try to automatically get the DNS settings than getting your own first.  

 

Also check the WLAN device settings and make sure its not saving power, and keep it on.

I tried both of those things but they didn't work. I use OpenDNS rather than just letting it automatically choose because the condo that I spend my summers in has absolutely atrocious WiFi (Internet goes down multiple times a day on all devices. Again, Chrome usually tells me it's a DNS or timeout  error) and setting it to that seemed to alleviate the problem slightly.