The Wifi on my laptop has really slowed down lately.

clarkyell · 03 Sep 2018

Hey,

So I'd say about 3 days ago the internet on my laptop really slowed down, to the point where i struggle to stream videos. Before that it was fine, had no problems at all. No updates (that I know of), nothing newly installed or downloaded previous to the 3 days so I've really no idea what caused it.

My drivers are up to date, I've tried restarting my router, resetting my IP address and making sure my flash player is all up to date. No one else in the house is having this problem and it's fine on other devices, so I'm a bit stumped as to why it's doing this, the laptop is about 3 years old ( Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series).

Thanks for any help!

Bree · 03 Sep 2018

Welcome to TenForums @clarkyell

Your Inspiron 7000 series has a dual-band WiFi. It may be that everyone else in the house is using 2.4GHz while you are on 5GHz.

I'd say about 3 days ago the internet on my laptop really slowed down ... I've really no idea what caused it.

It could be that a neighbour has just turned on a new router and it is causing interference on the channel you are using. The WifiInfoView utility from NirSoft can scan for all channels in use around you and let you see what's going on. It may be that you need to change the channel your router uses to avoid a clash with your neighbours. Maybe just for 5GHz.

WifiInfoView - WiFi Scanner for Windows 10/7/8/Vista

PS: you may want to edit your time zone to match your UK flag, it's in 'Date & Time options' in your profile here...
https://www.tenforums.com/profile.php?do=editoptions

clarkyell · 03 Sep 2018

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate your help.

I've tried on both bands of WiFi and both have the same result. I also changed the channels on the router this evening after reading your post and I still have no luck.

I also just done an internet speed test out of curiosity from my laptop and from my phone, both in the same position:

Laptop - down: 9.19
- up 12.2
Phone - down: 44.3
- 11.7

Is it normal for a laptop to be so much slower than a phone ? My phone is last years model so nothing too new.

Thanks again for your help.

Bree · 03 Sep 2018

clarkyell said:

Is it normal for a laptop to be so much slower than a phone ? My phone is last years model so nothing too new.

No, my laptops get 15Mbps download speed on WiFi (2.4GHz or 5GHz) - exactly the same as when I connect them by Ethernet to the router. In fact, that is the maximum speed my broadband can deliver.

Try a 'Network Reset'. It's in Settings > Network & Internet > Status, at the very bottom of the page.

clarkyell · 03 Sep 2018

Gave that a go and it's still the same.. this is strange.

Bree · 03 Sep 2018

Well, a Restart has been known to work miracles.

As has been going to Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > Manage known networks, the clicking on your connection and selecting 'Forget'. Then set your connection up again from scratch.

clarkyell · 03 Sep 2018

You're right.. but this time, unfortunatley its not that simple

no luck with that either!