Another broadband speed question

fred246

It's not an ancient desktop. It's only 6 or 7 years old. I am much older than that and I am not 'ancient'.

RumRat

In tech terms you are probably obsolete....

itwasntme001

Personally I would try get a good quality WiFi card fitted - I highly recommend the gigabyte WB1733 card.  It just works as it should.  Your PC seems young enough to have PCIE slot to fit this hopefully.

You could try a USB dongle first which would be easier and cheaper, but they are generally unreliable and tend to break longer term - so why even bother.  High end desktop PC and laptops fit the same Intel chipset as the Gigabyte model and they never have a problem.

If you can't fit it yourself, learn to do it or get someone who does know.

Mickey666

Chino said:

Heedtheadvice said:

To be fair debit, mickey did not say all wifi is pants!

I suggest you re-read Mickey666's post, because that's exactly what he said:

Mickey666 said:

Many people don't realise how rubbish wifi connections really are.

I should have probably qualified my post by adding that wifi is rubbish because of how quickly its performance drops off with distances and how easily it can be affected by walls, ceilings and interference.
Of course it's POSSIBLE to get a fast wifi connection.  I have a 30MBps broadband service and my router sync speed is 28.54 Mbps.  I'm writing this on a wifi-connected Raspberry Pi-400 and 'Broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk' reports a speed of 25.23 Mbps, so pretty good. 

BUT, I'm only about 2m from the wifi access point in the same room.  I wouldn't expect to get such such a speed all over the house.  In fact, I know for a fact that I can't get such speeds all over the house because I've tried and failed, which is why I've installed wifi access points in all the rooms where I do want a fast wifi connection.  I've also installed an outdoor wifi point for the same reason.  https://www.tp-link.com/uk/omada/

As for my 'proper' PCs, I wouldn't dream of having them wifi connected so they use 1000 Mbps Ethernet cable connections - way faster than any domestic wifi is going to support.  Still, it's horses for courses, and who wants to trail an ethernet cable from their iPad while surfing the web . . . which is why wifi is so popular. 

Also, most houses - even new builds - are woefully inadequate when it comes to data wiring, even though it's as cheap as chips, so the vast majority of homes live with restricted wifi speeds because of lack of data wiring infrastructure, which is a great shame.  I suppose 5G may improve things eventually, but it'll be a long time before it can compete with a cheap and simple bit of cable that will give Gigabit speeds today and even faster if required.

JJ_Egan

You would also know how to set wireless channels etc , where the majority do not .

Heedtheadvice

Chino said:

Heedtheadvice said:

To be fair debit, mickey did not say all wifi is pants!

I suggest you re-read Mickey666's post, because that's exactly what he said:

Mickey666 said:

Many people don't realise how rubbish wifi connections really are.

Well you could maybe read it like that but you really quoted him out of context as just after that quote he qualified that statement by saying it was convenient but unreliable, which it can be. Compared to ethernet...well there is really no comparison apart from convenience and mobility aspects.....

Mickey666

JJ_Egan said:

You would also know how to set wireless channels etc , where the majority do not .

True, but automatic channel selection works pretty well with wifi access points.

CoastingHatbox

A 6-7 year old desktop will have WiFi-N (IEEE 802.11n-2009) which should be good for higher speeds than the OP is receiving.

The first thing I would suggest is doing a WiFi survey with a WiFi analyzer app on your phone. You want to make sure your WiFi is on a channel that has least contention with other WiFi networks.

Does your PC have Wi-Fi aerials poking out of the back of it? Are they securely connected, not snapped off etc? If not, then it might have an internal WiFi antenna - these connect via mini coax connectors which aren't the most secure fitting.

If you let me know what type of PC you have, I'll try and find out whether it is likely to be WiFi on board or a daughter board, and then I can let you know where to look inside the PC for these coax connectors.

Also, make sure your access point isn't behind a TV and in so far has possible has clear line of sight to the rest of the house. Using the WiFi analyzer app you might find that moving the PC a short distance could clear things up.

The problem with WiFi is that it is half duplex, and each transceiver/antenna can only be involved in one connection at a time. So another device in the house streaming or making constant requests, even on a neighbouring network using the same channel, can really affect performance.

JJ_Egan

Mickey666 said:

JJ_Egan said:

You would also know how to set wireless channels etc , where the majority do not .

True, but automatic channel selection works pretty well with wifi access points.

Many find that turning off auto or smart works even better for problem areas .

CoastingHatbox

JJ_Egan said:

Mickey666 said:

JJ_Egan said:

You would also know how to set wireless channels etc , where the majority do not .

True, but automatic channel selection works pretty well with wifi access points.

Many find that turning off auto or smart works even better for problem areas .

In contended areas where all the devices are on auto-channel selection, one device jumps channel and then they all jump channel. Doesn't always help.