slow internet, with others being fine

TazerXI · March 2, 2021

I have had abismally slow WiFi recently, and idk why. My phone, switch and laptop dropped connection, ran veryslow or reported "connected without internet". I ran a speedtest which showed anywhere from 10 to 0.5 megabits per second download, and my mother in the office next to my room is getting 50. I dropped out of online class a couple times from the connection being so bad. Why is it just in my room, and why is it so bad? I use an old samsung usb WiFi thing, which came with our TV (I want to get a PCIE one with bluetooth, any suggestions welcome) but that shouldn't affect my phone, when it has worked great before.I even timed out of the minecraft server I was hosting on my own PC (for friends).

TazerXI · March 2, 2021

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

In that case it is pretty apparent that the reception is bad when it's also your phone. USB WiFi sticks usually have a much worse reception than PCIe solutions. Your mother next door is closer to the access point, right? That's why she has no issues but you do. Before I got a wireless repeater (that is actually acting as an access point over Ethernet), the reception in my room was also pretty much dog shit and did the same thing that your computer with the old USB Wifi stick did. Bad reception and constant drop-outs. A PCIe card with external antennas might actually provide a more stable connection. The best way would be an Ethernet cable, no questions.

My mother is in the room directly above the WiFi router, but I have an internet booster in my room. I can't really get an ethernet cable, as it would drag upstairs and across a hallway, and around my room, to get to me. I could plug it into the repeater, but I turn off my PC at the plug at night (because of the lights makign it hard to sleep), and my parents need it to get the signal for the Sky box in their room at night, so it can't reach my PC via ethernet. I might get this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ubit-1200Mbps-Bluetooth-Wireless-2×Antenna-WIE7265-4-2-Intel-AC-Dual-band/dp/B07Y82HZV1?th=1 wither the green or black, preferably black as I have a tempered glass side panel

TazerXI · March 2, 2021

1 minute ago, Benji said:

Yeah. Sorry to break this to you but due to the basic way that wireless repeaters work (booster is literally a catchphrase to make people think that they actually do something good) they are not good. They cut the bandwidth in half and in bad reception they don't offer any real benefits besides suggesting to you that your signal strength to the repeater is good and thus you should get good bandwidth and stability.

The wireless card has an AX200 with external antennas so it should work better. But the real issue will be your "internet booster" that by itself also gets a bad reception to your router.

Ok thanks, why do they cut it in half? I thought they took the signal they recieve from the router, and relayed it on. Why would that cut your bandwidth? idk much about networking so it is probably me being dumb, and the answer being painfully obvious

TazerXI · March 2, 2021

1 minute ago, Benji said:

Because they have ONE wireless chipset that both interacts with the router and then the same chip creates an access point that interacts with the other devices that you want to have improved reception. So they essentially take a bad bandwidth and split it up further, and due to the fact that these have no other way of connection (like an Ethernet cable) to the router, they'll have to use the same connection medium to both offer you bandwidth and still transfer the data back to and from the router. It has to take double transfers so you're left with at best 50% bandwidth.

Thanks