Regular Wifi Stutters on USB Wifi Card?

MeatySoup42 · April 16, 2021

Hi,

I'm having problems with my WiFi on my desktop pc. I am using a dell precision 690 with a cheap tp-link wifi usb plugged in via usb 2 front headers. When running speedtest.net, I get very good speeds and ping results. (often about 150 mbps down and 50 up). While this is way less than what we pay for (1000mbps download) it is still very good for downloading large files.

However, I have stuttering issues when I play videogames. Every 15 seconds I get around a 2-5 second complete stutter. I mainly play minectaft on mc.hypixel.net so I decided to use command line to try and diagnose my problem. I ran "ping mc.hypixel.net -t" to see if I was getting really low ping by that metric. And what I found was that, Every 10-15 seconds, my ping would jump from ~20ms to a number 100 times that or the request would just time out. I ran minecraft at the same time as "cmd ping mc.hypixel.net -t" and my stutters would happen without fail as the ping jumps I was recording in the command line.

I have tried using a usb 3 pcie card but that nets me lower speeds for some reason.

(Here is a screenshot from the cmd as you can see it has large slowdowns every 10 seconds. The average is about 100ms because of the massive ping jumps bringing it up)

(I don't think I've doxed my ip in this screenshot but If I have can you let me know)

Thanks to anyone who can help me understand this weird stuttering problem!

Falcon1986 · April 16, 2021

@MeatySoup42

There are WAN factors and WLAN factors that you need to figure out.

For the WAN, run a traceroute and ping to the game server while directly wired (i.e. ethernet) into your router. Post your results here.

For the WLAN, there could be wireless interference from your neighbour’s WiFi or other sources of EMI in your home (e.g. Bluetooth, microwaves, cordless phones, other electronics nearby). To see if your neighbour’s WiFi is the problem, run a wireless survey using WiFi Analyzer (free on the MS Store) and post screenshots of the channel output from the ‘Analyze’ page for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. There might be some tuning to be done.

How far is the computer from the WiFi source? If there are lots of walls, floors or any form of obstruction in between, this can reduce the signal as well. Having your adapter blocked by obstructions can also reduce performance. USB WiFi adapters are known to underperform compared to their PCIe alternatives for various reasons. If the adapter is connected to the same USB header that is drawing power for other USB-connected devices and consuming a lot of bandwidth for the bus, this can affect adapter performance.