Speed massively varying, depending on many factors

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J

Jamessuperfun

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May 27, 2012
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Hi
I live in London and we have a very good selection of internet speeds here, going up to 120Mb/s. I am on a 30Mb/s package with Virgin Media.
Problem is, I'm not getting 30Mb/s at peak times, and it's not as simple as that.
Sometimes I get as low as 0.5Mb/s on my system upstairs, over wifi. I got sick of it one day and phoned them up. The guy asked me to do the boring shit then sent an engineer, who came yesterday.
He was friendly enough and checked everything before running a speed test on his iPhone 5. He got 25 or so Mb/s, which I'm happy with at peak times.
Went upstairs and ran a speed test, 7Mb/s, while he still got on one as high as 29.
So, adapter problem? Nope, 5 bars signal and tried a second adapter that got only 2 bars but the same result.
He went afterwards, I said I would run some more and find it but can see it isn't their fault. My mobile scored just 12Mb/s, but he blamed that on the 1GHz single core processor.
So I then ran tests on my netbook. The results seem to totally contradict everything: I used ethernet and got fine speeds. PC got consistently 7 to 10 in peak times. Phone now getting 3 all the time.
At the time, the guy phoned back to 'base' and asked Mark to check area utilization. Nobody in the area being traffic managed or downloading anything much more than a web page.
Engineer said hes surprised to see me getting 31 on wifi a floor above at all.
The thing is, I ONLY get slow speeds on wifi during peak times. Tried changing channels, exact same symptoms.

Right now, I'm lost. Fine, the phone is too crap to consider anything. But why is the PC getting constantly slow speeds only at some times in the day when the netbook is fine?

PC SPECS
i5-3570
Asus P8Z77-V
8GB DDR3 RAM
Cheap chinese usb adapter plus tried Asus WiFi GO!

NETBOOK SPECS (2 years or so old, very slow)
1.66GHz Intel Atom N155 (or something)
1GB RAM
Generic Acer Aspire One mobo
Built in adapter
 
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J

Jamessuperfun

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Speed test results (upstairs PC):
LFtupvR.png

http://i.imgur.com/LFtupvR.png
 
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getochkn

getochkn

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Maybe others in your area are on wifi on the same channel and are clashing with yours? Have you tried changing channels around. Sometimes a channel shift by 2-3 channels can make a huge different. Run wifi analyzer from the android market and see if any other wifi routers are in your area and what channels they are on.

During "peak time" if others are even just browsing the net but on the same wifi channel as you, it can start to clog it.

Plugged in ethernet, I get 60mb/s almost steady any time of day through my ISP. 3 floors up on my phone via wireless, I get 4-5mb. This has nothing to do with my ISP, but my 100 year old house and it's thick, dense walls.

If plugged in, you get near advertised speeds, the ISP can't really do anything. Some phones have better wifi radio's too. two phones or laptops or tablets can get two very different signals. Using the wifi apps above, it will also show you the true dB rating of the connection, not the bars. Bars don't mean anything. I know on my phone, Samsung fluffed up the "bars" to look better because the wifi chip sorta sucks. When you install a hacked ROM on it, the bars are lower and everyone freaks yet, yet using the wifi app, the dB stays the same, meaning the connection is the same but people see bars and equate that with their connection.
 
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Jamessuperfun

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OK, done that.
All varying, let it go for a bit. Mine is by far the best signal, -70 to -50dBm. Only picked up one other using the same channels, around -85 to -90 to not there (most of the time, not there). All other channels have things being detected there much more.
 
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COLGeek

COLGeek

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Moderator
Apr 6, 2009
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What make/model of wireless adapters have you tried on the PC? I re-read your original post and you mention 2 devices and I assume this happens with both. Are they both USB devices? If so, have you tried different USB ports?

If both are USB, it could be a power issue in that the devices aren't getting enough power. How many other USB devices do you have connected to your system? Are you connecting to the back or front of your system? For best results, the USB ports connected directly to your motherboard would be best.

Please clarify.
 
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Jamessuperfun

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One is the Asus WiFi GO! adapter provided by my motherboard, the Asus P8Z77-V, connected to it's dedicated port.
The other is a cheap USB adapter from eBay branded Ralink, connected to the mobo's ports.
 
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pckitty4427

pckitty4427

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I think I've got the same problem as you, James.

Every wireless device in my house (which includes a laptop a desktop, 3 phones and a tablet) gets 15 mbps downstream, while my desktop PC goes down to 1 mbps quite often. I've got 2 different modems and they give the same results. My PC also has a 3570K and a Z77 mobo, like yours.

Is your PC running Windows 8 by any chance? I have a feeling that it could be a possible cause.
 
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J

Jamessuperfun

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Nope, sorry I'm running Windows 7.
Add me on Skype, maybe we can look to solve this issue together. I have a few ideas, but nothing that can be confirmed 100% with consistent results.
Skype name: alex_w-s

This is really frustrating, especially since I'm a PC gamer. Playing Saints Row the Third runs smooth as butter, but isn't at all fun when everything is bouncing around like mad on coop.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDe4ornQkr0
 
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