Please help I'm completely lost, I don't know if my network card is broken, if I need a new router or what please can someone help a layman

[Gazeley]

I've been having really bad connection issues with my desktop for about a month or so. I have no idea what the issue is, I have no idea how it started. 
I cannot use ethernet, it'd require drilling through a wall or the floor, also my mum won't allow it for that reason and she doesn't want me having a monopoly on it in a house of five.
The router is in the next room, between my desktop and the router is a wall. My desktop is next to a wall. My network interface card is a TP-Link Archer T4E AC1200.
I changed ISP today, from Sky to Virgin. The Mbps seems to have improved, however I'm still having issues.

My connection strength seems to go all over the place, this morning when the router was newly put in I reached 100 Mbps on my desktop, this evening I'm scraping 20 Mbps. Often my connection will just cut out completely. In a game of League of Legends I will go from having 30ish ping to 10,000 ping. 
Over the summer my connection was completely fine, it only got worse about a month or so ago without me making any change. 
 

How can I troubleshoot this? I have an inkling it's my network card but then it seems odd that it would connect me to the wifi at all if that was the case. Please help I am at my wit's end and have no idea what to do.

[Gazeley]

I've been having really bad connection issues with my desktop for about a month or so. I have no idea what the issue is, I have no idea how it started. 
I cannot use ethernet, it'd require drilling through a wall or the floor, also my mum won't allow it for that reason and she doesn't want me having a monopoly on it in a house of five.
The router is in the next room, between my desktop and the router is a wall. My desktop is next to a wall. My network interface card is a TP-Link Archer T4E AC1200.
I changed ISP today, from Sky to Virgin. The Mbps seems to have improved, however I'm still having issues. The router is Virgin Hub 3.0.

My connection strength seems to go all over the place, this morning when the router was newly put in I reached 100 Mbps on my desktop, this evening I'm scraping 20 Mbps. Often my connection will just cut out completely. In a game of League of Legends I will go from having 30ish ping to 10,000 ping. 
Over the summer my connection was completely fine, it only got worse about a month or so ago without me making any change. 
 

How can I troubleshoot this? I have an inkling it's my network card but then it seems odd that it would connect me to the wifi at all if that was the case. Please help I am at my wit's end and have no idea what to do.

[Windows7ge]

Do you have any other devices exhibiting these issues while in the room? Laptops, phones, tablets? What is the wall made out of?

 

From my experience 5.0GHz and even 2.4GHz Wi-Fi at times can have trouble penetrating thick concrete, brick, or cinder block walls. Service is intermittent and sporadic at best.

 

It's also possible the issue is everyone hopping on the Wi-Fi all at once.

[tommy2712]

You can log directly in the Modem (not the Router) to check if your Modem has a problem. I don't have information on your Modem but it should be available with a quick search "(Modem model) login". It usually have a log of problem and you only need to worry about the "critical" ones. If there are a lot of problems reported, then it's either Modem or cable problem.

If there's no problem, then it's might be your Router or Adapter.

 

[Gazeley]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

Do you have any other devices exhibiting these issues while in the room? Laptops, phones, tablets? What is the wall made out of?

 

From my experience 5.0GHz and even 2.4GHz Wi-Fi at times can have trouble penetrating thick concrete, brick, or cinder block walls. Service is intermittent and sporadic at best.

 

It's also possible the issue is everyone hopping on the Wi-Fi all at once.

Not quite to the same extent, not amazing connection but staying connected from what I can tell. I believe brick, but it's not all that thick and there's a wooden door. 
See I know brick could be an issue, but the connection was fine over summer I could stay in a game without being kicked out of it every two minutes. 
I could also see this, but I don't think it's all that rare for everyone to be on at the same time so I would've had the issue sooner. Right now while everyone's watching tv, so three people are using their phones, with my desktop being the only PC on, I've got a a download speed of 2.5 Mbps.

[pythonmegapixel]

5 minutes ago, tommy2712 said:

You can log directly in the Modem (not the Router) to check if your Modem has a problem. I don't have information on your Modem but it should be available with a quick search "(Modem model) login". It usually have a log of problem and you only need to worry about the "critical" ones. If there are a lot of problems reported, then it's either Modem or cable problem.

Just a quick note. Sky and Virgin are British ISPs which suggests that OP is in the UK. In the UK the ISP usually provides a free device which acts as both the modem and the router, and the configuration interface for both functions are located in the same place. ISPs call this device a "router" even though it is also a modem.

It usually assigns itself the IP "192.168.1.0" or "192.168.1.1" and you can just type that into Firefox/Chrome/browser of your choice to get to the login screen.

 

@GazeleyWhen you switched from Sky to Virgin did you replace the router that was in place with a different one? if so that is almost certainly the culprit; not all routers are created equal and by the standards of ISP-provided ones, the Sky ones are pretty good.

[Gazeley]

2 minutes ago, tommy2712 said:

You can log directly in the Modem (not the Router) to check if your Modem has a problem. I don't have information on your Modem but it should be available with a quick search "(Modem model) login". It usually have a log of problem and you only need to worry about the "critical" ones. If there are a lot of problems reported, then it's either Modem or cable problem.

If there's no problem, then it's might be your Router or Adapter.

 

The router and the modem are packaged together in the Virgin hub 3.0. I'm not entirely sure if I'm in the right place but the Network log doesn't really have a whole lot in it.

[The_russian]

2 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

It usually assigns itself the IP "192.168.1.0" or "192.168.1.1"

I'm guessing you meant 192.168.0.1 instead of 192.168.1.0, just correcting it so OP doesn't get confused by it.

[Gazeley]

3 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

Just a quick note. Sky and Virgin are British ISPs which suggests that OP is in the UK. In the UK the ISP usually provides a free device which acts as both the modem and the router, and the configuration interface for both functions are located in the same place. ISPs call this device a "router" even though it is also a modem.

It usually assigns itself the IP "192.168.1.0" or "192.168.1.1" and you can just type that into Firefox/Chrome/browser of your choice to get to the login screen.

 

@GazeleyWhen you switched from Sky to Virgin did you replace the router that was in place with a different one? if so that is almost certainly the culprit; not all routers are created equal and by the standards of ISP-provided ones, the Sky ones are pretty good.

I am indeed in the UK. 
The router was changed from a Sky hub 2 to a Virgin Hub 3.0. So the sky one I think was pretty out of date, but also the issue was there before the Sky router was replaced.

[Windows7ge]

It could be a combination of things then. A brick wall & everyone hopping on at once because 2Mbps is abysmal.

 

If the issue is other people hogging bandwidth you could configure QoS in the router. As for your signal issue have you tried switching from 5GHz to 2.4GHz and see how it behaves? Your ping will be worse and so will your speeds but you may experience a overall more stable connection.

[Gazeley]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

It could be a combination of things then. A brick wall & everyone hopping on at once because 2Mbps is abysmal.

 

If the issue is other people hogging bandwidth you could configure QoS in the router. As for your signal issue have you tried switching from 5GHz to 2.4GHz and see how it behaves? Your ping will be worse and so will your speeds but you may experience a overall more stable connection.

Sorry I have no idea what QoS is, what is it and how do I go about doing it? Also, I don't really know how to switch from 5GHz to 2.4GHz, would that be a thing that only effects me or will it effect everyone? Also, I believe my network card is dualband so does that not mean that's covered or am I misunderstand the meaning of dualband?

[Windows7ge]

16 minutes ago, Gazeley said:

Sorry I have no idea what QoS is, what is it and how do I go about doing it? Also, I don't really know how to switch from 5GHz to 2.4GHz, would that be a thing that only effects me or will it effect everyone? Also, I believe my network card is dualband so does that not mean that's covered or am I misunderstand the meaning of dualband?

QoS (Quality of Service) is something you should be able to configure in the router. One of it's functions is bandwidth limiting. If the problem here is a fight for bandwidth you can limit everyone so you don't get bogged down. How to configure this depends on your router. I don't have your router so I can't really help you there.

 

Switching frequencies would only impact your computer. Although I suppose if you used a lot of bandwidth it might affect other family members also using the 2.4GHz band.

 

Dual-band means your adapter supports both the 2.4GHz & 5GHz standards. Most older adapters only support 2.4GHz.

[Gazeley]

12 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

QoS (Quality of Service) is something you should be able to configure in the router. One of it's functions is bandwidth limiting. If the problem here is a fight for bandwidth you can limit everyone so you don't get bogged down. How to configure this depends on your router. I don't have your router so I can't really help you there.

 

Switching frequencies would only impact your computer. Although I suppose if you used a lot of bandwidth it might affect other family members also using the 2.4GHz band.

 

Dual-band means your adapter supports both the 2.4GHz & 5GHz standards. Most older adapters only support 2.4GHz.

I had a look and I don't think Virgin Hub has the ability to limit the bandwidth of other users. 
I've figured out how to switch band, thank you for that advice. 
What do you know about changing channels and will that help me?
Thank you for your help so far