One device much slower than others on home wifi - why?

strollin said:

Have you tried rebooting the router? It doesn't seem logical but I've experienced problems that were only happening with a single computer on the network clear up once the router was rebooted.

I did so after reading your post, and intending to do so but forgetting.

Apparently the router had been up for 30 days, which I think is a long time for it.

After the reboot - and yes, I did it correctly, disconnecting it, then the modem, waiting a few minutes, then waiting for the modem to get online before connecting the router - I had some problems with several devices on my network not being able to connect to wifi, so I again rebooted.

This time the slow computer was still slow - but much faster than it had been, logging 3-6 Mbps on speedtest.net. Underwhelming, but a big improvement from measured speeds over the past few weeks.

- - - Updated - - -

Samuria said:

As its very old and cant cope with modern wireless speeds it will drop packets and do lots of resend giving low speeds its speed is 50 meg ac can be over 3 gigs and the encryption is way out of date and insecure

This is something to be ashamed of, but I never changed the encryption because everything "just worked" and I didn't want to have to go and set up all the devices again with a new password for stricter encryption.

A mild copout, but the old Netgear router has a nice feature that I think helps a bit on the security side. I have an "access list" set up where only known devices can access the wifi. Something else can know the password, but if they're not on the access list, they don't get on.

I expect to put the new router - and of course modern encryption - in play this weekend.

W10 Tweaker said:

Unfortunately, the device manager will lie and often doesn't know any better. For a laptop, the manufacturers site is the only solution, like-wise for a desktop, the card manufacturers is best.



Attachment 278400

Attachment 278402


Are these screenshots from the problem PC? If so, 80% signal level is satisfactory. The Nirsoft WifiInfoView or another app will inform you of the best wifi channel to use.

In order to continue troubleshooting it will be necessary to update the wireless network card from the manufacturers site. If that can't be proven as current, we're done. Install your new AC type router and see what happens. I do agree with sorting this out before but after the router upgrade works too.

After, with or without proofing the wireless card drivers, run the speedguide.net TCP/IP Analyzer and post results. This will tell you if the settings are optimum for Broadband.

Apologies for being not bright enough to multiquote properly! But I think I captured the gist of your key points/questions.

The Dell wireless card in the slow PC has so many flavors and variants that I can't meaningfully look at all of them on the Dell site. But the drivers I saw for it all pre-dated, by a wide margin, the purchase date of the computer. So I'm comfortable saying driver is current.

I take it that the good 80% signal level means that the PC is receiving a good signal, but the poor results indicate that signal isn't being processed optimally? The channel recommender tool you mention - that should be run with the new router in place, right? My current router doesn't allow channel selection.

I hope that the mere swap-in of a new and better router clears this up.

asus2016 said:

Apologies for being not bright enough to multiquote properly! But I think I captured the gist of your key points/questions.

No worries, this is a significant amount of information to absorb if you're not accustomed to working with it regularly.

asus2016 said:

The Dell wireless card in the slow PC has so many flavors and variants that I can't meaningfully look at all of them on the Dell site. But the drivers I saw for it all pre-dated, by a wide margin, the purchase date of the computer. So I'm comfortable saying driver is current.

I would suggest you focus on configuration by utilizing the TCP/IP Analyzer from speedguide.net . It will inform you if settings require to be tweaked for optimization while using that Dell 1397 wireless card.

Also, if you plan to keep that PC and after you proof adequate 802.11ac reception from the new router with one of your other PCs in that location, a new up-to-date wireless card can be obtained for about $25.


Wireless replacement cards.


Compatibility of the above card as a replacement for a Dell 1397 will require verification.

asus2016 said:

I take it that the good 80% signal level means that the PC is receiving a good signal, but the poor results indicate that signal isn't being processed optimally?

A receive level of 80% is usually sufficient, however; I'm not familiar with that card and its performance characteristics.

asus2016 said:

The channel recommender tool you mention - that should be run with the new router in place, right? My current router doesn't allow channel selection.

I hope that the mere swap-in of a new and better router clears this up.

Yes, the optimum channel should be determined with the new router, especially if the older doesn't have any ability to select specific channels.

You should try your new router but you will require to generate an 802.11g for the Dell 1397 and only for that PC alone. As mentioned above, an upgrade of the wireless card will provide enormous gain using 802.11ac .


What is 802.11 Wireless LAN Standards? Webopedia Definition

asus2016 said:

I hope that the mere swap-in of a new and better router clears this up.

If not, try this.

Resolution:

Disable Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC)

Open PowerShell as admin and run:

Get-NetAdapter

Disable-NetAdapterRsc -Name "wifi card name from the previous command"

[SOLVED] Issue with WiFi on 10 brand new HP laptops - Windows 10 - Spiceworks - Page 2

W10 Tweaker said:

OOPs, I also forgot to mention I did read about a couple of settings to change for the 1397 card; In the properties dialogue box for the wireless card, within the device manager, on the power management tab, remove the check on allow computer to turn off this device.





Then on the advanced tab, select type 802.11g only. This apparently has worked for others using this card. The following pic is only for example. Mine has different options, obviously.

Thanks as always for all the help and patience.

New router is installed. Crazy fast. Easy immediate connections for multiple phones, computers, household thermostat. All good.

The Dell 1397? Yuck. Awful.

I would say - after about three hours of playing around, the following are true:

• The router can "see" the PC as connected, and, as desired, to the 2.4 GHz band.
• PC is connected via wifi according to its wi-fi settings.
• In lots of tries, I'd say roughly 80% of the time, unable to connect to the internet; 15% just a plain unacceptable download speed (<1 Mbps); 5% a perfectly acceptable download speed (roughly 10 Mbps, which is way faster than I ever noted on that computer).

Here are some screen shots I got. This wasn't easy, as I wanted to email them from the slow computer to mine, and it was maddening even trying to get gmail to load, then to accept the screen shots.





Above are two of the "good" speedtests, which I ran from a desktop app on his computer - I had much less success with the web bases speedtest.net. The download speed isn't breathtaking, but it's a lot better than he had been getting. Note though that a majority of times it couldn't connect. And that the upload test failed both times. No results. Other times, very few, I'd run it and get an upload "speed" (?) of well under 0.5 Mbps. Note also that normally the speedtest will pick a server 10-90 miles from me. But on this computer, it picks servers 100-200 miles away.



Above is the output from the Windows WiFi Analyzer program. Not sure what's noteworthy here. It says it's an 802.11n network, and the 1397 card comes in a confusing number of flavors, but I think it's an 802.11b or g card.



Above has the results of netsh wlan show interfaces. First though, note above that, there's the last bit of a ping I'd done of a very reliable server - wsj.com I think it was. Note that the ping time was bad. And that wasn't even close to the consistently wort ping times I was getting. I'm not sure what else in this is important. The 87% signal is better than the (I think) 80% I'd obtained earlier this week with the predecessor router.



Finally, the device manager screen when I tried the device manager properties trick you'd suggested. The "allow to turn off" box was already unchecked, and above are the properties settings. There was no 802.11g setting. I did pick another "auto" setting, but this got bad results. Only tried it once, then went back to 802.11b only.

Other comments:

• Calling Spectrum for help was really disappointing. Waited on hold for 20 minutes, and the person pretty much just said "oh, if every other device is fast, it's the computer, and we can't troubleshoot that." I kept pleading my case, and she suggested some things to try, but kept saying she didn't know enough to troubleshoot.
• Using PowerShell to Disable Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC) did nothing. I forget the exact wording, but I think it said I don't have a RSC capability in that card.
• I have the slow computer and the thermostat on the 2.4 gig part of the router. Everything else is on the 5 gig part.
• Slow computer is using Channel 6, which was auto-assigned. There is only one other visible network, weak signal, and it keeps appearing and disappearing. And that network is on a different channel. I forget which. I am doubtful whether I could run some optimizer from that computer, just because internet connection and downloads are so unreliable. Could perhaps download installers to a thumb drive and copy onto that computer.
• 
  Above is a screen shot from the router. The "slow" computer is shown in negative image, so dark background. Note that the signal strength is middle-of-the-pack among the attached devices. More importantly (I think) note that the signal rate is a dreadful fraction of what everything else is showing.
• The router placement is on an upper shelf of a computer desk, on the second floor of my house. So probably 4-5 feet off the floor. It's right next to an external speaker, but that hasn't interfered with anyone else's wifi reception. All the other wifi devices are on the first floor, within 10 feet of the slow computer. Running speedtest.net on my phone, with the phone leaning against the slow computer, the phone will be recording 80 Mbps or well above, while the computer struggles to connect. And all the other devices in that room are getting download speeds orders of magnitude better as well. Bottom line is that router placement and device positioning are not factors here.

I am sure there is much more I could say but have forgotten or overlooked. But I hope I've provided a lot of substance to ponder.

[QUOTE=asus2016;1912428]Thanks as always for all the help and patience.[QUOTE]

You're most welcome.


[QUOTE=asus2016;1912428]New router is installed. Crazy fast. Easy immediate connections for multiple phones, computers, household thermostat. All good.
The Dell 1397? Yuck. Awful.[QUOTE]



(1) The least expensive solution for this ancient wireless card would be to splurge on a newer AC type replacement for less than $25 from Amazon. You can get assistance here with installation and likely watch YouTube videos to see it done.

(1b) The next best solution, if you don't want to replace that card is get a wifi extender for 802.11 AC that has an Ethernet port. Then you can have the problem PC hard wired, provided it has an Ethernet card. This will most likely cost twice the cost of a replacement wireless card.


[QUOTE=asus2016;1912428]I would say - after about three hours of playing around, the following are true:

• The router can "see" the PC as connected, and, as desired, to the 2.4 GHz band.
• PC is connected via wifi according to its wi-fi settings.
• In lots of tries, I'd say roughly 80% of the time, unable to connect to the internet; 15% just a plain unacceptable download speed (<1 Mbps); 5% a perfectly acceptable download speed (roughly 10 Mbps, which is way faster than I ever noted on that computer).

Here are some screen shots I got. This wasn't easy, as I wanted to email them from the slow computer to mine, and it was maddening even trying to get gmail to load, then to accept the screen shots.

[QUOTE]



(2) 1257ms latency is very bad. I have a wireless internet service and the latency is between 45ms and 70ms. If you're on Broadband cable I would expect to see about 25ms or better. Is the latency as high on the working PCs when located nearby the problem PC?


[QUOTE=asus2016;1912428] [QUOTE]




(3) I believe the screenshots above are suggesting that your card is configured for 802.11g and the router 802.11n . You might want to get those two devices set to the same type. Although 802.11n spec is twice the speed of 802.11g, according to more than 1 online solution I read for the 1397 card, it was suggested that 802.11g is faster. Check your router and confirm the 2.4Ghz wifi is set to 802.11g .

(4) On most newer routers you are able to change the wifi channel to optimize reception level. I'd save this item until you resolve most of the others.


Sorry about that red font. I buggered up the quotes somehow. :-/

W10 Tweaker said:

(3) I believe the screenshots above are suggesting that your card is configured for 802.11g and the router 802.11n . You might want to get those two devices set to the same type. Although 802.11n spec is twice the speed of 802.11g, according to more than 1 online solution I read for the 1397 card, it was suggested that 802.11g is faster. Check your router and confirm the 2.4Ghz wifi is set to 802.11g .

(4) On most newer routers you are able to change the wifi channel to optimize reception level. I'd save this item until you resolve most of the others.

My plan is, assuming failure to fix this on my own, to bring the computer to a very-trusted local shop with which I've had a long and great relationship. Besides my unimpeachable record of making everything worse each time I pick up a tool, the computer is an all-in-one (guessing even nuttier and worse than a laptop to open up and navigate), and my son who uses it has an amazing skill of using anything as unintended. So there might be some malware, broken drivers, who knows what, under the hood that I've missed.

You asked about the ping times. Every other device on the network with a wifi connection has ~50ms times, often less, certainly nothing disturbing. Any idea why the speedtest, when looking for nearby servers, is bouncing off ones 200 miles away?

Regarding setting 2.4GHz, I did change it on the router to g, and then when I got nothing to happen - no connecting to the internet - on the slow computer, I tried b for the router, since it looks like the card can only go to b. On the card, the advance > IBSS 54g mode options are limited to (802.11b Only - what I've most tried - plus 54g Auto and 54g Performance). I tried 54g Auto, and fared little better.

These changes have reduce the signal rate, viewable from the router, to 11 Mbps, on that computer now. That's lower than yesterday.

I'm also continuing to be at a loss to explain any of the following:

• SOMETIMES - rarely today but it did happen at least once - I can bring up a non-cached web page
• But usually I can't - no web access
• And - today anyway - almost always, pinging a web site from the slow computer says it can't be reached n
• Yet from the wifi settings on the slow computer it shows I'm connected to wifi
• Yet netsh wlan show interfaces on the slow computer will show a wifi interface (signal strength was 92% when I checked)
• Yet Wifi Analayzer run from the slow computer showed the wifi connection too, seemingly strong, and with the band properly changing from n to g to b when I made the change at the router

So to state it inelegantly, it's like the COMPUTER "knows" it's connected to the wifi network. It's just that it can't access the internet!

**Also, regarding changing the wifi channel for optimization:

Yesterday, the router was set to its likely default, an automated channel selection, that had assigned channel 6 to the 2.4 wifi. I used Android wifi analyzer app to look at a table of channel strengths, and at that moment, there was nothing for 6, but most of the lower-numbered channels were at or near max strength. So I picked 2. It really didn't seem to help. At this moment, I'm still using channel 2, but almost all the channels are at 3/4 strength or better, with 2 still being among the strongest, and 6, at about half-strength, being the weakest.

I want to keep trying things, but I imagine that when the weekend is over, I'll wave the white flag and call the shop. BUT... please keep suggesting, and I hope I'm providing some good value-add here.

It would seem you've addressed all the suggestions so far. If best option to upgrade the card is via a shop, you might call and request a price quote for a new AC type card and then weigh that price against option 1b above.

It may prove much less expensive to buy a wifi range extender with Ethernet port if your problem PC has a NIC card builtin.

As for the 802.11b/802.11g anomaly, it's probably not worth much more effort if you plan to replace the card or option 1b.