Pamy's WiFi Problems

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Rapitiss
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Pamy's WiFi Problems

Post by Rapitiss »

Pamypoo is having some problems with her room mates wifi devices causing her PC to lose connection.

She tried testing the wifi connection in the room with the router and its fine. She's tried her PC with other folks devices off and its fine. When others turn on their devices her wifi drops to 2 bars and she loses connection.

She has a borrowed a laptop and it stays connected even with other devices are on.

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Her room is on the other side of the house from the router and apparently there are 5 walls and several potental devices between her and the router.

To me this is a class sign of network congestion. Her PC wifi card is using the same channel as the other devices.

Options:
- Run network cables - too expensive
- Try a different WiFi card/dongle
- Try adding a WiFi repeater

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Looking at the WiFi repeaters

https://www.cnet.com/home/internet/best-wifi-extender/

$20 for https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC750-Wi ... 6750%7Cdtp

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Looking at the WiFi USB

$18 for https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-desktop ... RK7J&psc=1

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Anyone else have any ideas ?

I personally haven't used either so I'm just going by reviews.
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Thalsadoom
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Post by Thalsadoom »

Because this starts to occur when others turn on their devices this sounds like a "hidden node problem". Basically what that is, is her device can not detect the other devices (because she is so far away) so when they send signals at the same time to the access point they can not detect the collision before or when they are transmitting. There are protocols in place to prevent that but if all the devices cant talk to each other, collisions, corrupt data and drops will happen usually to the weakest signal, which is hers.

How old is the router? Is it a dual band? If so and I'll assume but is she using 2.4ghz instead of 5ghz? Is her network card at the latest driver and firmware? Same with the router, is it at the latest firmware? Those are the first things I'd try.

If not or tried but to no avail, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I can't praise ethernet over powerline enough :)

$40 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AV600-Po ... 146&sr=8-3
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Post by Rapitiss »

Thalsadoom wrote:I can't praise ethernet over powerline enough
In the description: Please note that the Powerline Adapters need to be on the same circuit

Only way I know would be to flip circuit breakers in your house and that's kind of intimidating and disruptive to your house mates.
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Thalsadoom
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Post by Thalsadoom »

Rapitiss wrote:In the description: Please note that the Powerline Adapters need to be on the same circuit
The manufacture puts that in so they won't be held accountable should it work across multiple circuit rails but not give you the rated speed (500mbs / 1ghz, etc).
I have heard of it working for some people but the speed can be compromised. It's worth a shot imo.
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Post by Rapitiss »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDt77CB ... ixVerified

This is a review my jay's two cents.

One of the interesting things about his review. His previous experience with power line adapters was poor. The new adaptor worked flawlessly. He attributed it to having a house built in the 1960's (crappy old wiring) vs newer house built in 2004.

If I was a little more motivated ( younger ) I'd be tempted to try to get a network connection to my garage for a security camera.
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Post by Rapitiss »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgfoGg- ... tsVerified

Here is Jay explaining wireless signals getting jammed up. In this case he's talking about changing the "channel" his wireless access point is using, which is 'easy' but requires some digging into the specifics of your router.
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Post by Tanluyen »

What is the model of your current router?

If the roommate's all chip in, I would recommend a Mesh network, would improve your entire network for them too: https://store.amplifi.com/products/ampl ... -fi-system.

Otherwise I have not had good luck with Range extenders / repeaters, but you could get an Access Point that can act as a client and then hardwire from that to your computer: https://www.tp-link.com/us/support/faq/1074/ something like this device would do fine: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Wireless ... 975&sr=8-2
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Post by Zargut »

Can’t say enough good about these. They are the solution to everyone’s WiFi problems.

https://www.amazon.com/Powerline-Ethern ... 60&sr=8-15
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Post by Rapitiss »

Summery: Purchased the TP AV1000 as suggested above ...

Tested three spots:

1 - Basement - 200% WiFi speed -
2 - Upstairs - 90% WiFi speed
3 - Garage - FAILED TO CONNECT

Dedicated 1GB Ethernet destroys both wifi and TP AV 1000 network over power

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https://www.amazon.com/Powerline-Ethern ... 084CZMYNM/

The setup for the TP AV1000 was trivial. Plug it into power and your network router. Plug receiver into power where you want network and press the pair button.

I ran two benchmarks: ISP Speed test and copying a 500 MB file over local network

My test laptop and linksys router are both 5yr+ so these tests are using older wireless standards/radios.

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Test #1 - Baseline - 1GB wired network

17 ms ping
42.01 MB/s upload
31.47 MB/s download
~ 84 MB/s file copy

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Test #2 - WiFi - "5 bars" - basement

17 ms ping
14.45 MB/s upload
14.77 MB/s download
~ 1.0 - 1.73 MB/s file copy

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Test #3 - VP 1000 - basement ( likely same circuit )

18 ms ping
31.62 MB/s upload
13.85 MB/s download
~ 3.34 - 3.50 MB/s file copy

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Test #4 - WiFi - upstairs - "5 bars"

16 ms ping
14.01 MB/s upload
17.18 MB/s download
~ 1.50 -1.70 MB/s file copy

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Test #5 - VP 1000 - upstairs ( likely NOT same circuit )

18 ms ping
14.85 MB/s upload
8.24 MB/s download
~ 1.38 - 1.70 MB/s file copy


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Test #6 - VP 1000 - garage ( NOT same circuit )

FAILED TO CONNECT
Zargut
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Post by Zargut »

why is your download speed so low? I get 70+ mbps on mine. And its not the same circuit so I guess it has to travel to the garage through the panel and back? Or is that just your normal speed?


72.9

Mbps download

11.2

Mbps upload

Latency: 68 ms
Server: Chicago
Your Internet connection is very fast.

Your Internet connection should be able to handle multiple devices streaming HD videos, video conferencing, and gaming at the same time.
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Post by Rapitiss »

Zargut wrote:why is your download speed so low?
Wired speed on my main machine is 46 Mbps down and 48.8 Mbs up. I *DID* flip the down vs up data when I entered it in the post above.
Zargut wrote: I get 70+ mbps on mine. And its not the same circuit so I guess it has to travel to the garage through the panel and back? Or is that just your normal speed?
I don't normally use wifi. I expect the speeds are limited do to the old radio protocols. Its probably all in the 2.4 GHz band, but the wifi really isn't what's important.
Zargut wrote:
72.9 Mbps download
11.2 Mbps upload

Latency: 68 ms
Server: Chicago
What is the condition of this test? Wired? Wireless? Using the TP AV-1000?
Zargut
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Post by Zargut »

That’s using the av1000, 1970’s era wiring. Using the first speed test on google

https://www.google.com/search?q=speedte ... e&ie=UTF-8
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Post by Rapitiss »

Its the same speed test.

My house was built in the mid 50's. When we gutted the basement I paid an electrician to go through the house and find/fix all the outlets that were not properly wired ( of which there were many ).
Zargut
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Post by Zargut »

I mostly thought this would work for Pamy since it would take her off the crowded WiFi. I would have preferred to run cat5 or whatever the modern version is but I didn’t want to drill through walls and couldn’t go attic and no basement.
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