Computer geek question

[KitFisto]

For the last 2 weeks I have been having an issue where my download speed drops to almost dial up speed ( from a 3 meg DSL line ). One min it's fine and then next it's just crawling and then a min or two later the speeds shoot back up to normal.

My ISP says they see the speeds fine to my modem. I have a Lynksys router and when I use an Ethernet cable and go directly from the modem to the computer or even when I use Ethernet from the router to the computer my speeds are good at almost 3 meg.

The issue happens when I am using the wireless connection. It's a secure network so no one is using my connection. Is the likely cause the wireless card in my computer? Maybe it's going bad?

 

[lcummins]

Are you moving around or through the signal or have an appliance that might be causing an interruption in the signal? It definitely sounds like your signal strength is dropping but there could be a lot of reasons for it... check your signal strength the next time it slows down and verify if you having connection related issues.

 

[KitFisto]

Are you moving around or through the signal or have an appliance that might be causing an interruption in the signal? It definitely sounds like your signal strength is dropping but there could be a lot of reasons for it... check your signal strength the next time it slows down and verify if you having connection related issues.

No to moving the computer around and no to an appliance running. It's totally random when it happens. The signal on the wireless router says connected at 11 megs and excellent as far the signal strength. That's why I am having such a hard time figuring this out.

It even fluctuates while I am running a speed test. Goes fron 120k down to almost 3 meg in a heartbeat and then slows down again.


I don't think it's my router because my 360 has no issues.

 

[lcummins]

It is always from the same servers, or from different sites? Are you trying different sites for your speed tests? Also, what times of the day are you testing speeds?

 

[KitFisto]

It is always from the same servers, or from different sites? Are you trying different sites for your speed tests?

Yeah I have tried speakeasy, speedtest.net and the one on MSN. All have the same issue. I notice when it's happening because even a regular web page like yahoo or SSF comes up SO slowly.

 

[lcummins]

Hard to really say... if you have access to another wireless card (maybe borrow a friend's) you could do some testing and possibly determine if it really is your card that is the problem. Nothing running in the background is there? Some update or download or something?

 

[darthviper107]

It could be your wireless card.

My wireless card in my computer is really old and I'm in the corner of the house so I don't have good reception anyways. Sometimes it goes down to like 5kbps while usually I can go at like 200kbps. Then I have to move it around and find a position that doesn't mess up--with my laptop which has a newer card it doesn't have that problem.

 

[KitFisto]

My card is built into the computer and it's about 2 years old. The whole thing is just very strange. I may just take it by a computer shop and have them test it

 

[smc100]

Does everything slow down during these times or is it just IE?
Did you recently make any changes to your virus protection or firewall?
You could check to see if any processes are causing this by right clicking on the task bar and select the task manager. Go to the process tab and see if you see anything taking CPU time while it is moving slow.

 

[KitFisto]

Does everything slow down during these times or is it just IE?
Did you recently make any changes to your virus protection or firewall?
You could check to see if any processes are causing this by right clicking on the task bar and select the task manager. Go to the process tab and see if you see anything taking CPU time while it is moving slow.

Honestly I only use my computer for net surfing/music downloads. I'll have to check that and see if everything slows down. I did recently update/renew my virus protection after it had expired a few months ago.

 

[Kabukiman]

Do you live in an apartment? It could be too much noise on whatever channel you're using.

 

[KitFisto]

No, not in an apartment.

 

[Bodie The Cursed]

whats your favorite color?

 

[Mesa]

I don't have an answer, but this link will at least prove that your laptop is receiving less bandwidth.

https://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/


It's worth running and verifying that you are indeed having a problem with your connection so you can rule out it's not something one you laptopo causing the problem.

 

[Darth Caedus]

Try uninstalling your card and then getting updated drivers, that sometimes works. Does your router and your card both have the same wireless: like a/b/g/n?

Try moving your router/modem to a different location in your place, that worked for me the other day when I was getting major attenuation.

 

[Skiman]

I had a similar issue with a D-Link wireless card and I had to replace the card, a lil harder if that's a laptop and it's internal... You might have to disable in on the Device Manager and maybe go with or test with a PCMICA card like they had in the past with older laptops that didn't have the wireless NIC.

Of course this could be spyware also, maybe something hosting your machine off to other services...

Another tune up job good be upgrading the firmware on the router itself, I haven't had to do this in some time with the newer routers but beware if you have firewall setting and open ports a firmware upgrade could reset those...

p.s. could also be as easily as a new cable on the router, try switching those out and see if anything improves