Constant WiFi speed changes (win 10)

[TazerXI]

I got my PC a pcie wifi card, and have had slow connections with it. After fixing it after a quick google search, something strange happens. Half the time I am playing a game with 9 ping, and download speeds of 15-30 mb/s, and then the rest i get 300+ ping, sometimes going into "unknown ping", and my speeds tank to under 10 mb/s, lots of the time around 5, and sometimes lower than that. I am basing my speeds off of the google speed test that comes uo when searching "speedtest" on google. My phone get 20+ down constantly, and my Mum can sometimes get 50 on her laptop, while the PC that is running YT, whatsapp, multiplayer minecraft, etc. gets eratic connections. Does anybody know what to do?

Edit: an example of this would be that i get 2.8 mb/ not even a minute after getting 50 mb/s, Edit 2: after closing minecraft it jumps back up, so i'm guessing that is to blame

[OhioYJ]

You need to isolate it to the device or the router. What wifi card exactly is this? It's likely either a signal issue (interference) or a heat issue.  Are the other devices you are checking in the same room as the PC and are you checking them at the same time the PC is experiencing the problem?

 

Most of the nicer wifi cards have large heat sinks for a reason. I was actually experiencing slow downs on large downloads until I added a fan (actually added some heat sinks as well) to both my router and cable modem. Now I have consistent download speeds from start to finish regardless of file size.

 

Perhaps something to look into.

[TazerXI]

2 minutes ago, OhioYJ said:

You need to isolate it to the device or the router. What wifi card exactly is this? It's likely either a signal issue (interference) or a heat issue.  Are the other devices you are checking in the same room as the PC and are you checking them at the same time the PC is experiencing the problem?

 

Most of the nicer wifi cards have large heat sinks for a reason. I was actually experiencing slow downs on large downloads until I added a fan (actually added some heat sinks as well) to both my router and cable modem. Now I have consistent download speeds from start to finish regardless of file size.

 

Perhaps something to look into.

Ok, thanks. I believe it to be the PC, as no other devices have the same behaviour. This is the WiFi card: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07Z1W8Y16/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I have tried my phone in the same room at the same time as my PC is expirencing the issue, and it has a small heatsink, but only get warm, and definately not hot. my router does get quite toasty, but as I have said, it does not apear to be an issue. I think it might be a software thing

[Falcon1986]

@TazerXI

 

Let's establish some baselines:

1. What type of internet connection do you have?
2. What speeds are you paying for from your ISP?
3. Please use speedtest.net or dslreports to measure your speeds. If you're able, how does the speed compare if you're directly wired into the router?
4. What is the make/model of your wireless router?
5. If you have other network equipment between the PC and the WAN connection, what are they?
6. Have you tried restarting the router and ISP device?
7. Are you sure Minecraft isn't running downloads in the background? Any BitTorrent client or game manager clients also doing the same?

 

17 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

my router does get quite toasty, but as I have said, it does not apear to be an issue. I think it might be a software thing

You'd be surprised how heat affects electronics.

[TazerXI]

19 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

@TazerXI

 

Let's establish some baselines:

1. What type of internet connection do you have?
2. What speeds are you paying for from your ISP?
3. Please use speedtest.net or dslreports to measure your speeds. If you're able, how does the speed compare if you're directly wired into the router?
4. What is the make/model of your wireless router?
5. If you have other network equipment between the PC and the WAN connection, what are they?
6. Have you tried restarting the router and ISP device?
7. Are you sure Minecraft isn't running downloads in the background? Any BitTorrent client or game manager clients also doing the same?

 

You'd be surprised how heat affects electronics.

1. Normal i guess. 5Ghz WiFi 5 802.11ac

2. idk, still with parents and they are the ones paying.

3. I have, speedtest.net measures slightly higher than google, and I can't use a wired connection (too far away)

4. The one that our isp gave us, so I can tell you it is made by Sky

5. No

6. Yes, no change

7. idk how to check, but i don't think so

I might use an app to monitor my network usage, to see how much it is using

[Falcon1986]

19 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

1. Normal i guess. 5Ghz WiFi 5 802.11ac

Oh, my. That’s not what I was asking. The type of internet connection is the means by which your house is linked to the ISP. Examples of internet connections are fiber, cable, DSL, etc. If your ISP is Sky, my research shows they offer both ADSL and fiber connectivity.

 

The reason this is important: If you’re paying for a maximum of 100Mbps download speeds and you’re getting 90Mbps, that’s not bad and is normal. On the other hand, if you’re getting 10Mbps consistently then that’s an issue.

 

24 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

2. idk, still with parents and they are the ones paying.

There shouldn’t be any harm in asking.

 

25 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

3. I have, speedtest.net measures slightly higher than google, and I can't use a wired connection (too far away)

The maximum speeds that your ISP provides can usually be observed using a wired connection directly to the modem/gateway. If you’re getting full speed while wired directly into the ISP gateway device, that points to the problem likely being a sub-optimized WiFi setup. On the other hand, if the speeds are significantly lower at the gateway than what you’re paying for, then that’s a problem that the ISP must address.

 

If you’re too far away, you can always connect a laptop with an ethernet port to run the test.

 

But since you mentioned “too far away”, how much distance are you talking about? How many walls and floors are between you and the ISP gateway? Brick/concrete walls significantly degrade how far WiFi signals can reach. Also, WiFi gets weaker the further you are from the source.

 

34 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

4. The one that our isp gave us, so I can tell you it is made by Sky

I’m going to assume Sky issues a standard gateway to all of its customers. Unfortunately, I’m too tired to do more research to find out which one exactly. Maybe someone else who lives in the UK might know. You could even look at the label on the unit to see for yourself.

 

37 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

7. idk how to check, but i don't think so

You claimed in your first post that after closing Minecraft your speed “jumps back up”. I’m just going off the information you’re providing. So you have no idea what’s running on your own computer? The system tray is usually a good place to start.

 

39 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

I might use an app to monitor my network usage, to see how much it is using

Go to the Network tab within Task Manager to get a general idea of the network adapter activity. If you notice there is constant activity despite you not doing anything, then you’ll have to investigate the programs you have running and close them properly or terminate their downloads.

 

When you run speed tests, it’s important to do so when there are no other background applications consuming bandwidth (e.g. file downloads, Windows Update) and when your LAN is “quiet” (i.e. no other devices in your house is accessing the internet). If your mom is on her laptop using Zoom and your dad is streaming Netflix in HD, your connection will be understandably slow since you all are sharing a single internet connection.

[TazerXI]

8 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Oh, my. That’s not what I was asking. The type of internet connection is the means by which your house is linked to the ISP. Examples of internet connections are fiber, cable, DSL, etc. If your ISP is Sky, my research shows they offer both ADSL and fiber connectivity.

 

The reason this is important: If you’re paying for a maximum of 100Mbps download speeds and you’re getting 90Mbps, that’s not bad and is normal. On the other hand, if you’re getting 10Mbps consistently then that’s an issue.

 

There shouldn’t be any harm in asking.

 

The maximum speeds that your ISP provides can usually be observed using a wired connection directly to the modem/gateway. If you’re getting full speed while wired directly into the ISP gateway device, that points to the problem likely being a sub-optimized WiFi setup. On the other hand, if the speeds are significantly lower at the gateway than what you’re paying for, then that’s a problem that the ISP must address.

 

If you’re too far away, you can always connect a laptop with an ethernet port to run the test.

 

But since you mentioned “too far away”, how much distance are you talking about? How many walls and floors are between you and the ISP gateway? Brick/concrete walls significantly degrade how far WiFi signals can reach. Also, WiFi gets weaker the further you are from the source.

 

I’m going to assume Sky issues a standard gateway to all of its customers. Unfortunately, I’m too tired to do more research to find out which one exactly. Maybe someone else who lives in the UK might know. You could even look at the label on the unit to see for yourself.

 

You claimed in your first post that after closing Minecraft your speed “jumps back up”. I’m just going off the information you’re providing. So you have no idea what’s running on your own computer? The system tray is usually a good place to start.

 

Go to the Network tab within Task Manager to get a general idea of the network adapter activity. If you notice there is constant activity despite you not doing anything, then you’ll have to investigate the programs you have running and close them properly or terminate their downloads.

 

When you run speed tests, it’s important to do so when there are no other background applications consuming bandwidth (e.g. file downloads, Windows Update) and when your LAN is “quiet” (i.e. no other devices in your house is accessing the internet). If your mom is on her laptop using Zoom and your dad is streaming Netflix in HD, your connection will be understandably slow since you all are sharing a single internet connection.

redone:

1. Fiber (i think)

3. I am upstairs, and across a room, so up a flight of stairs, through a door, and across a room

7. I don't think that minecraft is running downloads, and nothing else is. The issue only occurs while minecraft is running, and specifically while playing on a server, although I didn't think that it would cripple the speeds of the web browser, while also not being the greatest expirence on the server as well (300+ ping, laggy, at times when I am getting slow speeds)

[TazerXI]

it also happens across multiple minecraft servers, but moreso on hypixel (went down to ~6mb/s down) than on an smp (9mb/s down)

[Falcon1986]

@TazerXI

 

I’m not saying that Minecraft is necessarily causing the slowdown. Minecraft might be slowing down because of something else. You have to see if anything else is running in the background consuming bandwidth. In my experience, Windows Update can be a culprit especially if you have a huge security update pending.

 

However, the fact that you’re upstairs and so far away from the Sky gateway points to this also contributing to the problem. There’s distance, interference, obstruction and the fact that some wireless sources don’t broadcast very strong signals in the vertical direction. By it’s very nature, WiFi is prone to EMI from other WiFi sources in the neighbourhood, microwaves, refrigerators, cordless phones, Bluetooth, etc. You can run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer to see how the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies look in your neighbourhood but this will only account for WiFi and not the other interfering factors. If other electronics can be turned off between you and the WiFi source, see if that improves reception. At the end of the day, getting closer to the Sky gateway or bringing the Sky gateway closer to you should help. And if any of these can’t be done, you might need to run ethernet from the gateway to an access point upstairs to get better WiFi coverage.

[TazerXI]

2 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

@TazerXI

 

I’m not saying that Minecraft is necessarily causing the slowdown. Minecraft might be slowing down because of something else. You have to see if anything else is running in the background consuming bandwidth. In my experience, Windows Update can be a culprit especially if you have a huge security update pending.

 

However, the fact that you’re upstairs and so far away from the Sky gateway points to this also contributing to the problem. There’s distance, interference, obstruction and the fact that some wireless sources don’t broadcast very strong signals in the vertical direction. By it’s very nature, WiFi is prone to EMI from other WiFi sources in the neighbourhood, microwaves, refrigerators, cordless phones, Bluetooth, etc. You can run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer to see how the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies look in your neighbourhood but this will only account for WiFi and not the other interfering factors. If other electronics can be turned off between you and the WiFi source, see if that improves reception. At the end of the day, getting closer to the Sky gateway or bringing the Sky gateway closer to you should help. And if any of these can’t be done, you might need to run ethernet from the gateway to an access point upstairs to get better WiFi coverage.

ok, thanks. I don't think it is a distance issue, as my phone has high speeds next to my desktop. I don't have any windows updates, but do have an antivirus running (mcafee, i know not the best but better than nothing).

[TazerXI]

@Falcon1986

I did some testing with a 50m ethernet cable that my aunt had, and got some interesting results. The difference in speeds that I would get would be greater on WiFi than ethernet. For example, on ethernet with minecraft open, my speeds "dropped" from 66.4 to 66.26 mb/s. On WiFi, on one test it dropped from 34.06 to 34mb/s, but it also dropped down to 2.37mb/s in a test I took just before. My WiFi speeds did drop when doing tests with Whatsapp open, and having a 4K LTT video playing, but not as significant as on WiFi, and had similar dropps on ethernet. idk what to think of this, it isn't like I can trail an ethernet cable through my house. And for the speeds that we are paying for, it is "sky's fastes option" as of the purchase, which online says around ~30 mb/s down for WiFi, idk about ethernet, but in my router's settings it claims ethernet, but I usually get around 60mb/s.

[Falcon1986]

@TazerXI

 

When I look at the Sky Broadband website, I see several tiers, but the “fastest option” is 145Mbps(D)/27Mbps(U). Not seeing a 30Mbps package unless it’s a non-advertised tier. But if you’re able to get about 66Mbps on ethernet (which would be the closest to the package speed that your ISP provides), you might be on the 59Mbps/16Mbps package.

 

In any event, your testing further proves what I have been saying. The difference in speed between ethernet (supposedly your max) and wireless is around 50%! A wired connection removes all of the shortcomings of WiFi that I mentioned previously and that is why ethernet is consistently faster. 30Mbps on WiFi at your distance from the Sky Hub is not bad. But if you’re streaming 4K content (which needs around 25Mbps normally), you’re already close to saturating your wireless link.

 

The occasional dips in WiFi speed down to 2-3Mbps can be due to many factors. If you or anyone else is consuming bandwidth at the same time as running the speed test, then you’ll get a slow speed result. However, as I’ve said before, WiFi is prone to interference, even from other wireless networks in your neighbourhood. The most common reason is that your WiFi broadcast is overlapping with that of your neighbour(s) because of channel overlap. If you’d run the wireless survey I mentioned in my last post we might be able to see this for sure.

[TazerXI]

17 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

If you’d run the wireless survey I mentioned in my last post we might be able to see this for sure.

I ran the survey, and (on the 5GHZ that I am using, might swap to 2.4 just to see a difference) it says to swap my channel to something like channel 52. I go into my browser, go to 192.168.0.1, change wireless settings, 5GHZ, desired channel, and it only gives me the option of: channel 36 at 80mhz, 36 at 40mhz, or 44 at 40mhz. idk if that is what you wanted or not, but I can get more info if needed

[Falcon1986]

19 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

I ran the survey, and (on the 5GHZ that I am using, might swap to 2.4 just to see a difference) it says to swap my channel to something like channel 52. I go into my browser, go to 192.168.0.1, change wireless settings, 5GHZ, desired channel, and it only gives me the option of: channel 36 at 80mhz, 36 at 40mhz, or 44 at 40mhz. idk if that is what you wanted or not, but I can get more info if needed

Post a screenshot of the graphical output for the channel analysis for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

[TazerXI]

4 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

Post a screenshot of the graphical output for the channel analysis for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz.

Ok, here is 5GHz

and this is 2.4GHz (croped to not show my WiFI name, the only thing missing is the rest of the name and |5GHz next to it, on the blue line)

 

[Falcon1986]

11 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

Ok, here is 5GHz

It should be obvious that there are 2 problems here:

1. Too many WiFi networks (including your own) are broadcasting on channel 36 of the 5GHz frequency. They’re also close to the same signal strength, so you’re bound to experience data collisions. The solution to this is to change the broadcast channel at the Sky Box to something else. Since your Sky Box is severely limited in the channels it can use, your best option is to use channel 44. Changing to a completely unoccupied channel would be best, but when you use locked-down ISP units, your hands are tied. Thankfully, the signal from other networks on channel 44 are quite low (< -80dBm), so there should be less chance of interference.
2. The signal strength from the Sky Box that you’re getting now is around -65dBm. That’s not too bad because it should allow you to do VoIP calls and streaming comfortably. This further highlights that distance and obstruction cause signal attenuation. If there was closer proximity between the PC and Sky Box, you’d get a much stronger signal strength.

 

24 minutes ago, TazerXI said:

and this is 2.4GHz (croped to not show my WiFI name, the only thing missing is the rest of the name and |5GHz next to it, on the blue line)

The 2.4GHz frequency around your home is too congested to expect any reliable connection or speed. You can probably force the use of channel 1 which has occupants with lower signal strength, and ensure a 20MHz channel width. Only use 2.4GHz for your low bandwidth devices or if you’re not getting good speeds on 5GHz at the farthest corners of your house.

[TazerXI]

15 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

You can probably force the use of channel 1 which has occupants with lower signal strength, and ensure a 20MHz channel width

When I go to my router's settings, it says my channel for 2.4 GHz is on channel 1, and I will force channel 44 for 5GHz.

[TazerXI]

after changing to channel 44 my speeds have been better, just seeing now over a period of time. Thanks for your help btw, means a lot! Idk why this was only on my PC, like not even my phone, but who knows, tech is weird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Falcon1986]

1 minute ago, TazerXI said:

after changing to channel 44 my speeds have been better, just seeing now over a period of time. Thanks for your help btw, means a lot! Idk why this was only on my PC, like not even my phone, but who knows, tech is weird ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Great!

 

Some client devices just have better antennae or have support for more simultaneous streams, so they’re able to make up for the other things that might cause problems for other devices.