Recent wireless connection issues

[ajkuras]

I've had this PC for over 2 years now, with the same Wi-fi setup and I am now starting to have daily issues keeping a stable connection on it. I'll get ping spikes into the high hundreds randomly when I'm gaming, and sometimes it doesn't recover. Been trying to play World of Warcraft for the past few weeks and it either lags too badly for me to play, or it just loses connection to the game entirely.

My PC usually shows full connectivity bars but these issues persist. The error message I get most often when I run troubleshooting on it is "The DNS server isn't responding", with different messages every once in a while like "The default gateway was not found". Sometimes disabling and re-enabling the driver works, but not always, and it isn't a permanent fix. Nobody else in my house is having issues, and my drivers are up to date with the drivers on Realtek's site.

Is there anything I can try, or should I start looking for a new wireless card? I'm not extremely knowledgeable on things like this, and my computer was pre-built. Thanks in advance.

 

[Ralston18]

What wireless network adapter are you using?

USB, wireless PCIe adapter, built-in motherboard wireless adapter?

Start by checking any physical connections, card seatings, antenna connections. Verify that all are properly in place and firmly connected. Over time, most connections, card seatings, and so forth creep out of place.

Any changes to the PC, your network, or surroundings? New devices, new neighbors (more interference), etc..

I understand that only your PC is affected but it does not take much to cause a problem for just one device and not others.

Think hard about when the problems truly started and what may have changed at that time.

 

[ajkuras]

It's a Realtek 8821AE Wireless LAN 802.11ac PCI-E NIC

Only thing I can think is the last windows update a few weeks ago but even then it didn't start right away. This kind of stuff happened earlier this year too but it seemed to get better over time. Asus even had me reset my whole system earlier this year to try and improve it and that didn't really seem to do much at the time. It's just gotten much worse over the last few weeks.

 

[Ralston18]

Try "ipconfig /flushdns" (without quotes) via the command prompt.

Reference link to learn more:

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-dns-cache-817514

 

[ajkuras]

Flushing the DNS worked for a split second, then it went right back to showing full signal but not letting me connect to any sites or online games.

 

[Ralston18]

Who manages your network router?

 

[ajkuras]

AT&T