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

Before I get to the extensive background on this, I'll start with a simple problem statement.

One computer on our home network gets much slower wifi performance, than anything else on the network, despite other devices mere feet away getting better performance.

Now for the background.

We had an ancient legacy Spectrum package that was rated at 20 Mbps download, and it seemed to get the job done, even with work-from-home during COVID-19, and even with lots of devices - three Windows 10 computers, as many as two ipads, as many as five cell phones - sharing the signal.

Then I noticed that the download speed on one computer, a Windows 10 all-in-one from late 2016, was atrocious. Something like 1 Mbps.

I blamed this on the legacy package and upgraded to a 100 Mbps plan from Spectrum. The new modem and router (manual at https://d15yx0mnc9teae.cloudfront.ne...ide15Apr17.pdf) arrived yesterday.

Not wanting to mess with home wifi - all those devices plus a thermostat - I connected the modem, but left my old Netgear router (WGR614v9 | WiFi Router | NETGEAR Support) in place. Yes, this router is capped at 54 Mbps, but my goal is simply to have everyone's internet working fast enough.

Everyone's download speed increased noticeably and measurably - I use speedtest.net - but the "slow" computer was still slow. Maybe 4 Mbps, once, tops, and otherwise 1-2 - once I measured it below 1.

Logically, I would think that the router position would be the reason. Router is on second floor of house, slow computer is on first floor, with one ceiling and some walls to pass through to reach the computer. But if I were to drop a plumb line from the router to the first floor, it's probably no more than six feet horizontally from the router. So call it 10 feet vertically and six horizontally.

So not only is the router "close," but a laptop in the same room, maybe 10 feet from the computer, is getting 20-40 Mbps. If the router were positioned poorly, would this be happening?

So I'd welcome some suggestions and comments about this. Naturally, it would be a fairly simple weekend project to put in the new Sagemcom router and configure the new network and get the devices working with it. But I don't want to make that effort until I can have my arms around the slow performance of the one computer. Things I wonder:

1. I never thought about rebooting the Netgear router, but much I read online suggests that a router reboot should be the first line of attack - comments? I'm not at home now, but it's possible the router has been running since the last time we had a home power failure, probably 9+ months ago.
2. Does WiFi Analyzer (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/wi...ot:overviewtab) do any good? I assume that to use it, I'd install it on the slow computer, run it - and then what? Does it "tune" the computer, or does it make recommendations that I implement on the router?
3. I don't know what kind of wireless card the slow computer has, but are there tricks - play with the driver or otherwise - that I can try to optimize it?
4. How useful is running speedtest.net from a laptop or cell phone from various spots in a house to see the differences in router signal strength?
5. Any other tricks I can use to try to improve the WiFi performance of the slow computer? And if no, how likely am I to see it improve when I swap in the faster and newer router?

Once again, yes, I know it's stupid to have a 54 Mbps router, 13+ years old, with an internet package that features 100 Mbps speeds. And I'm perfectly willing, when I have time to do all the configuration, to swap that router in. But the at-the-moment issue is the slow performance of the one computer, as I describe.

Perhaps your all-in-one has an inefficient built-in antenna.

JackHughs

W10 Tweaker said:

Hi asus2016.

1) Relocate the problem laptop next to the wifi router.
2) Open an administrative command prompt. Type 'netsh wlan show interfaces' then enter.

Nirsoft wifiInfoView should help determine if that's a problem.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_i...tion_view.html

Thanks for the good suggestions. The problem computer is a desktop with a wireless card, so I can't just bring it anywhere. But I'll run the command you mentioned. And I've used other nirsoft tools before, and if the one you suggest is as useful as the ones I've used, I'll look forward to it.

W10 Tweaker said:

If the previously mentioned suggestions don't provide sufficient answers, could you possibly temporarily relocate the wifi router closer to the desktop PC?

Please let us know if your testing identifies the solution. Good luck.



Update;



I've re-read your first post and wanted to ask, do you know if this PC has always been challenged for download speed and has the wifi router always been in its present location? Besides evaluating your wifi performance in different areas it does sound unlikely that this PC would perform so poorly in comparison to others unless it has a problem.

I would advise following the previously mentioned steps to understand how well your wifi signal is being received in different areas and by other devices. And establish if you might have (1) a wifi propagation issue, (2) a wireless card problem or possibly (3) a PC configuration deficiency.

(2) Check the manufacturers site for a driver update for your wireless card.
(3) There are a few items that can be tweaked to provide optimum broadband performance. I'll try to post them sooner than later. Time to make dinner now.

Thanks for the new questions.

I can't honestly say if the "slow" PC has always been so wi-fi challenged. The others in my house aren't as careful and rigorous as I am in terms of how they maintain and care for their computers, so I always accept that mine is the "best" in the house - no malware, no resource hogs in the background and on and on. I'd go nuts if I was always trying to keep them perfect, and I tend to notice problems only when I get on someone's to make a "minor" upgrade to it, and then inch by inch by foot by mile, I descend into the swamp of a poorly-maintained machine.

Wifi router has always been in current location.

I did check for a new driver. According to the Windows device manager (yes, you said the manufacturer's site - sorry), driver is current. I will have to go perform that action.

Below are screen shots I have of my netsh command prompt, and from the Wifi Analyzer (which I had wrong; it's from the Microsoft store, not the Google Play store:





I'll also mention that I ran speedtest.net from a cell phone located at the slow computer (results were in the 10-15 Mbps range), from the location in the room where a laptop performs better (10-20 Mbps) and from two feet above my wired router (11.78 Mbps). Again mind you, this is a router rated at 54 Mbps maximum.

From my own computer - internet feeds into computer by way of router - it was 45-50 Mbps.

Running speedtest.net, and something I got by googling from the slow computer, we couldn't even connect. I downloaded the desktop app from speedtest.net and ran it and I think we got 0.17 Mbps. Dreadful.

So I hope this stuff helps you formulate further good guidance.

- - - Updated - - -

W10 Tweaker said:

Hi asus2016.

2) Open an administrative command prompt. Type 'netsh wlan show interfaces' then enter.

Some of what you say, I have addressed in One device much slower than others on home wifi - why? down below. Hope this helps, and thanks!

You main problem will be with the ancient router its dangerousley insecure and the speed max will be 50 meg diveded by number of pc. It will not be cable of handling modern Ac speed network cards its like trying to run win 10 on a 386 as the cpu in the router is that old. Routers are very cheap now and you want an Ac one

Samuria said:

You main problem will be with the ancient router its dangerousley insecure and the speed max will be 50 meg diveded by number of pc. It will not be cable of handling modern Ac speed network cards its like trying to run win 10 on a 386 as the cpu in the router is that old. Routers are very cheap now and you want an Ac one

I understand each point you make.

But my question is why one PC's download speed is orders of magnitude slower than that of every other attached device.

I received a new ac router, that I've not yet connected, until I have more time - and can resolve why the one PC's download speed is so slow.

I'm embarrassed to say that I'd never heard/known that the max speed will be 50/number of attached devices (I assume that a "smart" thermostat, and phones count?). The numbers do work out. Just not for the slow PC.

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