Win 10 - internet connection problems started

JohnB47

Heedtheadvice said:

What was that technical term Biggus? When it all goes what...? Ah base over apex!

Just to throw another spanner in the fix. I had a lot of problems with a "hidden" wifi connection on the channel in use being a fairly high signal strength. It was causing poor connection. Turned out to be the Fire stick so it now only gets plugged in when it is needed. Seems to be a common problem.

Wonder if ensuring the laptop and stick are in different bands?

Also it would be good to inspect your wifi signals. Download a wifi analyser (I use the android Wifi Analyser) so you can see channels, strengths and interfering signals and can then instruct the router to use the best/lowest interference channel and see if you have signal dropouts.

Maybe do an inspection before you plump for a particular band? Pick 5Gb for speed if sufficient strength based upon data rather than a guess?

Thanks. Very interesting. I did mention that I'd fitted a firestick at Christmas. I wonder .... Anyway, still planning to play around soon. Us there a WiFi analyser available for a win 10 pc? 

neilmcl

JohnB47 said:

Heedtheadvice said:

What was that technical term Biggus? When it all goes what...? Ah base over apex!

Just to throw another spanner in the fix. I had a lot of problems with a "hidden" wifi connection on the channel in use being a fairly high signal strength. It was causing poor connection. Turned out to be the Fire stick so it now only gets plugged in when it is needed. Seems to be a common problem.

Wonder if ensuring the laptop and stick are in different bands?

Also it would be good to inspect your wifi signals. Download a wifi analyser (I use the android Wifi Analyser) so you can see channels, strengths and interfering signals and can then instruct the router to use the best/lowest interference channel and see if you have signal dropouts.

Maybe do an inspection before you plump for a particular band? Pick 5Gb for speed if sufficient strength based upon data rather than a guess?

Thanks. Very interesting. I did mention that I'd fitted a firestick at Christmas. I wonder .... Anyway, still planning to play around soon. Us there a WiFi analyser available for a win 10 pc? 

I use inSSIDer.

Biggus_Dickus

neilmcl said:

JohnB47 said:

Heedtheadvice said:

What was that technical term Biggus? When it all goes what...? Ah base over apex!

Just to throw another spanner in the fix. I had a lot of problems with a "hidden" wifi connection on the channel in use being a fairly high signal strength. It was causing poor connection. Turned out to be the Fire stick so it now only gets plugged in when it is needed. Seems to be a common problem.

Wonder if ensuring the laptop and stick are in different bands?

Also it would be good to inspect your wifi signals. Download a wifi analyser (I use the android Wifi Analyser) so you can see channels, strengths and interfering signals and can then instruct the router to use the best/lowest interference channel and see if you have signal dropouts.

Maybe do an inspection before you plump for a particular band? Pick 5Gb for speed if sufficient strength based upon data rather than a guess?

Thanks. Very interesting. I did mention that I'd fitted a firestick at Christmas. I wonder .... Anyway, still planning to play around soon. Us there a WiFi analyser available for a win 10 pc? 

I use inSSIDer.

‘inSSIDer’ is excellent;...not used it for a while but prompted by your post I’ve just hit my old ‘inSSIDer’ icon and logged on. It’s a newer version than my incumbent programme.

The older version would hog the wi-fi to the extent that ‘Speedtests’ were always very slow and glitchy,... which could lead you up the garden path if you were trying to sort a b/band speed problem and you’ve stupidly (like I did!) left ‘inSSIDer’ running in the background.

This new version of ‘inSSIDer’ is apparently even greedier,...webpages take an age to load, some won’t load at all.

However, the new version of ‘inSSIDer’ looks excellent btw,...but if you are wondering why your web browser has suddenly ground to a halt you’ve probably left ‘inSSIDer’ running in the background.

 

 

Jenni_D

Something's in my mind which says inSSIDer is no longer freeware - true or have I imagined this?

https://alternativeto.net/software/inssider/?license=free suggests some alternatives to inSSIDer.

Biggus_Dickus

Jenni_D said:

Something's in my mind which says inSSIDer is no longer freeware - true or have I imagined this?

https://alternativeto.net/software/inssider/?license=free suggests some alternatives to inSSIDer.

I've never paid for it and had several versions continuously for maybe 8 years or so;...and the newer version self-installed. Didn't even prompt me to upgrade to the Pro version or badger me for cash.

Biggus_Dickus

Well, “talk of the devil” as they say;

....just after lunch I was prompted to restart my laptop to complete the install of a Realtek driver update (Extension - 6.0.9054.1) which I duly did,...and the damn thing has again changed my Realtek wireless adaptor ‘advanced properties’!

It’s changed the ‘wireless mode’ entry to 802.11a, which means a max (laptop) download speed of just 54Mbps.  My Virgin fibre b/band consistently runs at circa 110Mbps.

I’ve changed the ‘wireless mode’ entry back to 802.11ag and my laptop is now  running circa. 110Mbps download as per normal.

Here’s the two Ookla speedtest.net results;...as soon as I saw the first result I knew what had caused it. Bleedin’ updates!

 

 

 

JohnB47

OK, just tried putting in standby and back on - OK. Then set the Network Adapter to prefer 5GHZ. Powered off and on - all OK. So, for now I have updated the WiFi Driver, set the laptop to not power the adpter off when in standby and set wifi preference to 5GHz. I'll leave it at that for a while.

Oh and I forgot to say, on Sunday, when I ran a full scan using Windows Defender, it found and fixed KipodToolsCby, some bad browzer modifier apparently. Probably nothing to do with my current problem.

Biggus_Dickus

JohnB47 said:

OK, just tried putting in standby and back on - OK. Then set the Network Adapter to prefer 5GHZ. Powered off and on - all OK. So, for now I have updated the WiFi Driver, set the laptop to not power the adpter off when in standby and set wifi preference to 5GHz. I'll leave it at that for a while.

Oh and I forgot to say, on Sunday, when I ran a full scan using Windows Defender, it found and fixed KipodToolsCby, some bad browzer modifier apparently. Probably nothing to do with my current problem.

All sounds good;...it’s often the way when you encounter niggly problems,...a bit of tweaking and poking around gets you there in the end. You gotta’ get jiggy with it. 

 

neilmcl

Jenni_D said:

Something's in my mind which says inSSIDer is no longer freeware - true or have I imagined this?

https://alternativeto.net/software/inssider/?license=free suggests some alternatives to inSSIDer.

It's still free but you're now required to create an account and sign in. Perhaps why haven't gotten round to using the latest version.

Biggus_Dickus

neilmcl said:

Jenni_D said:

Something's in my mind which says inSSIDer is no longer freeware - true or have I imagined this?

https://alternativeto.net/software/inssider/?license=free suggests some alternatives to inSSIDer.

It's still free but you're now required to create an account and sign in. Perhaps why haven't gotten round to using the latest version.

My previous version was online ‘sign-in’ required each and every time you used it and it’d been like that for several years. 

When I logged-in earlier it presented me with a newer version, but it now appears to just require a single once-only login,  provided you don’t actively log-out,...so that’s an improvement.

Prior to the online sign-in version, inssider was a stand-alone laptop/PC programme that didn’t require credentials.

They don’t  bombard you with ‘sales’ emails either, btw.  I can’t remember ever seeing a single one tbh.