Diagnose my home WiFi network problem

remosquito

So, I've got an 8 meg broadband connection at home, which is distributed to my various devices via a Thomson Speedtouch 580 router.

As far as I can work out, my PS3, my smartphone and my laptop get a good connection to the network, and to my broadband. The problem is with my desktop.

At random, I get webpages not loading at all throwing error messages, or I get the "waiting for google.co.uk" (or any page) for anything from a couple of seconds to a minute or 2.

If I do a speed test (typically on speedtest.net), I can get 6 meg one minute, then running it again immediately the page won't even load (worst case). Sometimes I can actually watch the progress bar move quickly for a bit, then stop, then go slowly - basically random behaviour. Throughout all this my wifi signal strength is reported as at least 75% at 54 Mbps on my wireless adapter software.

I have tried a couple of wireless adapters on the desktop, and had the same results. I've installed and reinstalled the drivers for the wifi adapters, the LAN drivers and mobo drivers. I've tried positioning the aerials on my router and desktop in direct line of sight to rule that out. I've tried changing wifi channels.

Help, what do I do next!

GunJack

download and run insssider on the desktop...

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider

should give you a better idea of which wifi channel to use on your router...and take it from there

Terry_collins

To get the best speeds a direct connection via ethernet is the best solution as I found that Wifi is subject to interference from devices such as radio which can give poor broadband performance.

remosquito

Indeed, and I can get a good connection with it hardwired, but it kinda defeats the point of having my wireless network, and it's totally impractical....

GunJack

alternatively, get a decent router. Something like a D-Link 2640B, Netgear DG834GT or similar. Plenty on ebay. Belkins are notoriously poor, generally..0

remosquito

I don't think that's the problem though.... I can connect absolutely no problem to the network from my phone, from any room in the house and even out in the back garden! Plus the router is a Thomson which I believe are ok.

I guess some kind of conflict between the router and the wifi adapter could cause issues, but I've tried a couple of adapters and get the same problems, which makes me think it's the PC.

I'm almost ready to try installing a 32 bit copy of windows 7 rather than the 64 bit version, just to see what happens....