Very limited wireless connection [recurring problem]

psbheh

Honorable
May 3, 2013
1
0
10,510
Hello,

I currently using the Airlive WT-2000PCI wireless adapter on my desktop PC. However, I've stumbled upon a problem. My wireless connection can be top-notch for weeks, and be unstable for weeks after (usually until I reinstall Windows (with the exception of now))
For instance, my connection has been great for the past few weeks. I have been away for a few days, turned on my PC when I got back home, and ever since, my connection has been horribly unstable. I can be at 4mb/s (no fibreglass available here) for one minute and plummet to 20kb/s the other minute.
I'm getting sick of this problem recurring every 2 months or so, and I'd really like to know what is going on.

My question is, where does the problem come from? Is it my PC? Is it my wireless adapter? Is it my router? is it my ISP?

I don't know anymore, getting sick of it.

Thanks in advance, Patrick Huijten.
 

Aaron Simmons

Honorable
May 1, 2013
19
0
10,510


The issue could be a number of things:
It could be a faulty wireless adapter.
It could be a case of network interference.
It could be a bad wireless signal coming from the router.
It could be just a bad router as a whole.
It could also be a house-mate who recently discovered bittorrent.
It could even be a case of a software problem (I had a friend who had a botched .NET Framework install that would cause his connection to drop or slow to a crawl constantly).

So a couple of things to test:
When you're having issues with your wireless connectivity, can someone else hard-line into the router and use the internet without issues?
Do you have a child who recently acquired a bunch of new music or games?
Do you have some windows updates that are consistently failing to install?
When you experience the slowness, does the signal strength magically drop to a very low percentage?