Wireless internet speeds fluctuate from near 0, to good.

Elitehsimpr

Honorable
Jun 20, 2013
13
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10,520
Hi,

I have been having problems with my wireless internet for awhile. My ISP is videotron (I live in Montreal, Quebec), and we get 30Mbps internet, so the internet speed itself is great, I have 0 issues using a wired connection, it is nice and consistant.

The issue is the wireless speed. It fluctuates so much, sometimes it is unusable. It fluctuates very quickly, 1 second it is at max speed, the next, its extremely low (I assume below 1mbps). To give you an idea, here is the graph of my download speed from speedtest.net: http://puu.sh/7c6CF.png

As you can see from the picture above, during these low download speed moments, it is as if my internet is on "hold". This is very evident when playing games.

My question is: How would I go about fixing this issue? Are them some settings in the router that might help? (I have a linksys router model "WRT160N").


Any suggestions would be much appreciated :) (Except if you tell me to just use a wired connection)

Thank you!
 
Solution
A lot of wireless connection issues are caused by interference. Cordless house phones, electrical cables, walls (in some cases). I had an issue with my router, it was sat behind the TV in the front room. I moved it over less than a yard and it worked great after that. Also try changing the channel on which the router broadcasts, usually its set to auto. Try different channels and see if that helps.

zink1701

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Sep 14, 2012
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11,960
A lot of wireless connection issues are caused by interference. Cordless house phones, electrical cables, walls (in some cases). I had an issue with my router, it was sat behind the TV in the front room. I moved it over less than a yard and it worked great after that. Also try changing the channel on which the router broadcasts, usually its set to auto. Try different channels and see if that helps.
 
Solution

Cyberuben

Reputable
Feb 26, 2014
43
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4,540
To add up to zink1701, try to set your router to use channel 11 or 12. Routers set to auto tend to all switch to the same channel. If you have multiple routers in your area, it could be interference from other routers on the same channel.

I had a similar problem with interference, but there was also another trick. If your router has a setting to switch between 20 Mhz and 40 Mhz as for bandwidth (not to be mistaken with internet speed), set it to 20 Mhz. It narrows down your "beam" of radio waves and could result in better connectivity.
 

Elitehsimpr

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Jun 20, 2013
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Thanks! I'll try all of those suggestions out. :)

I just moved a coordless phone that was sitting right next to my router, SIGNIFICANT improvement, my download speed graph now looks like this http://puu.sh/7d6oY.png. Completely consistent and no fluctuations. I hope it lasts!