Inconsistent internet trouble (using wifi)

[kxrider85]

Hello everyone. I am a bit of a networking noob so bear with me please. To start, my rated internet speed is pretty slow to begin with (18 to 20 down, 2 up) and since I have built my PC last year, I have been constantly battling with the wifi to get a decent internet connection just so I can play youtube videos in HD. My computer runs off of wifi and the router is on the polar opposite side of the house so I am lucky to ever get 10mbs down. It is also very inconsistent so I can never count on it working well enough for the things I need it for at any one point in time. I have no clue how to improve these factors but I have collected some data to work with:

 

My current PC connection over wifi: Ping 53ms, 1.73mbs down, .06 up (all bars filled on little wifi thing at the bottom right corner of my screen )

 

The laptop closer to the router (but also uses wifi): Ping: 1386ms, Down: 1.15mbs, Up: .02mbs

 

The laptop when I plugged it into the router: Ping: 24ms, Down: ~10mbs, Up: ~2mbs

 

More info:

 

Isp: AT&T U-verse

Location: Houston, Texas

My PC wifi card: Asus PCE-AC56 Dual Band PCI-e 1x card (Plugged into an 8x slot on a Maximus VII Hero)

Laptop: Old Gateway laptop...

 

Both Wifi card duplexes: 54mb

both ethernet duplexes: 100mb

 

*Note all of these tests were taken within 20 minutes of each other so I cannot guarantee the credibility of their comparisons, but, if nothing else, proves how insanely inconsistent it is. i.e. Just a few minutes ago I was getting a 5mbs down and a much better ping and upload speed on the laptop but now it barely works, and I am trying to take another on my computer and the test runs into a latency error on beta.speedtest and is taking 10 minutes to run on the regular speedtest.

 

It is not always this slow, but I would be happy if I could get it to run consistently at 12mbs down or so. So far I have tried an Ethernet power line connection which ran terribly and ended up returning it.

 

Please Help.... I have no clue what to do about this...

[ashypanda]

is your access point dual band?

[Belgarathian]

What router are you using? 

[kxrider85]

(Just switched to my phone for LTE internet)

I do not know if the router is dual band but it does use the 802.11g standard (yes, g) and the model is a 3802HGV which is a 2wire router/television gateway provided by U-verse

[kirashi]

Two recommendations right off the bat:

1. Replace the potato provided by your ISP with an actual router
   (or just add a router and turn off the routing functions from your modem)
2. Replace the ASUS PCE-AC56 card with something (anything) else
   (according to the internet, you're not the only one with slow speeds)

Reasoning being that most ISP provided modems are not really that great as they're either free with your service, or a fraction of the cost of a decent router.

And remember, while your modem might cost lets say $150, only 1/3 of that goes into the router portion of the modem.

The other 3rd's go into the modem technology and proprietary firmware development for these modems.

 

So please, get a router that can handle at least wireless N, if not AC. Look for deals of course, but don't buy based on price alone.

If you gave me the number of devices, square footage of your house, and what you do daily on the internet, I can recommend a few good routers.

 

Also, moving the antenna coming from the back of the PCE wifi card can help too, even if its only a foot difference. I'm sure you've tried that already, but just thought I'd throw it out there for you.

[kxrider85]

Two recommendations right off the bat:

1. Replace the potato provided by your ISP with an actual router

   (or just add a router and turn off the routing functions from your modem)

2. Replace the ASUS PCE-AC56 card with something (anything) else

   (according to the internet, you're not the only one with slow speeds)

Reasoning being that most ISP provided modems are not really that great as they're either free with your service, or a fraction of the cost of a decent router.

And remember, while your modem might cost lets say $150, only 1/3 of that goes into the router portion of the modem.

The other 3rd's go into the modem technology and proprietary firmware development for these modems.

 

So please, get a router that can handle at least wireless N, if not AC. Look for deals of course, but don't buy based on price alone.

If you gave me the number of devices, square footage of your house, and what you do daily on the internet, I can recommend a few good routers.

 

Also, moving the antenna coming from the back of the PCE wifi card can help too, even if its only a foot difference. I'm sure you've tried that already, but just thought I'd throw it out there for you.

Thanks for the reply. I know I am not the only one with slow internet speeds, but according to speedtest, which I cannot check for sure at the moment, my internet is slower than about 80% of peoples' in the US, and also, I believe my internet is rated for at least 3 times what I am getting on average. As for buying a new WiFi card, I do not see what the problem is with the one I have now. It supports 802.11a/c and can run on a 5Ghz band if my router supported it.

 

I am definitely open to the new router idea if you think that will fix the problem. At my house, we have one desktop and 3 laptops. The desktop (my PC) is probably the greatest internet user while the other laptops are used for web browsing and stuff and two of those are only turned on and connected to the internet when needed. There are also four cellphones and about two tablets that also use WiFi periodically which reminds me that none of our computers use Ethernet as of right now, but I may want to try to make that happen if I end up upgrading this anyway. Our current real estate setup involves a 1900 square foot one story home and our uverse gateway currently sits on the top of our ~8 to 9 ft entertainment center (which we are trying to get rid of so the router may sit lower) where are internet line comes through and connects to the gateway. This is ALL the way on the other side of my bedroom where my computer is, so it is definitely not optimal for me.

 

As for moving the antenna from my wifi card to get a better connection, I do that a lot while trying to max the duplex speed but it is very difficult to do where I am located in the house.

[kirashi]

Thanks for the reply. I know I am not the only one with slow internet speeds, but according to speedtest, which I cannot check for sure at the moment, my internet is slower than about 80% of peoples' in the US, and also, I believe my internet is rated for at least 3 times what I am getting on average. As for buying a new WiFi card, I do not see what the problem is with the one I have now. It supports 802.11a/c and can run on a 5Ghz band if my router supported it.

 

I am definitely open to the new router idea if you think that will fix the problem. At my house, we have one desktop and 3 laptops. The desktop (my PC) is probably the greatest internet user while the other laptops are used for web browsing and stuff and two of those are only turned on and connected to the internet when needed. There are also four cellphones and about two tablets that also use WiFi periodically which reminds me that none of our computers use Ethernet as of right now, but I may want to try to make that happen if I end up upgrading this anyway. Our current real estate setup involves a 1900 square foot one story home and our uverse gateway currently sits on the top of our ~8 to 9 ft entertainment center (which we are trying to get rid of so the router may sit lower) where are internet line comes through and connects to the gateway. This is ALL the way on the other side of my bedroom where my computer is, so it is definitely not optimal for me.

 

As for moving the antenna from my wifi card to get a better connection, I do that a lot while trying to max the duplex speed but it is very difficult to do where I am located in the house.

 

Just a suggestion to change the WiFi card if you still get poor speeds after changing your router or other variables.

You might have no problems with it though, and if so, good for you

 

We've got a 1600sqft home ourselves, and a similar number of devices to your setup.

3 Game consoles, 2 Smartphones, 4 Tablets, 1 Laptop, and 2 Desktops. Keep in mind the number of wireless devices in the list.

Everything is wireless except for the desktops and 1 game console, so it takes a pretty big hit on that portion of the router we use.

 

We used to have a Linksys WRT160nV3 back when it was just 1 game console, 1 smartphone, and 2 desktops.

Since adding the additional wireless devices, I had to find something that handled all those extra connections.

They could connect to the linksys, but occasionally when the devices were all online (not even under heavy load) speeds would drop to 20% of our plan.

 

I made the executive decision to upgrade to Netgear's R7000 Nighthawk router and haven't looked back.

Yes, it's close to $200 CAD, but you can often find it on sale for closer to $160 or less because you're in USA.

Noticed improvements immediately, especially with tablets all over the house, including being far away like your Desktop.

Our garage is farthest from the router's central location in our house, and is technically built outside an outside wall.

The tablets (except the iPad 4 because it has the worst wifi I've ever seen since 2004) connect fine, even through the metal door.

 

In my experience, routing wireless traffic is much harder on a processor because of the complexity of signal encoding/decoding.

Wired traffic on the other hand is just piped straight through cables, mitigating the need to have as much overhead for the router to process.

Because of this, people should purchase a router like they do a PC - make sure the CPU can keep up with the number and type of devices they plan to use.

[kxrider85]

Is this what you are talking about? http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Nighthawk-AC1900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B00F0DD0I6

Nice to hear that you are very happy with it. I will definitely look into getting this.