[SOLVED] Issue with wifi dropping while gaming

Solidjake

Notable
Sep 6, 2019
308
61
890
Good evening guys. Been having issues with my wifi for a bit the past year or so and I want to finally get this fixed.

When gaming, my wifi on my laptop/phone is extremely slow and to the point where it just disconnects. This happens in the 2.4ghz setting. Task manager shows 1.1 Mbps send and 256 Kbps. Speedtest.net shows 233 Mbps down and 12 Mbps up. Spectrum is the internet provide and I'm using my own modem the Arris SBG6580-2 with the latest firmware. I'm trying NOT to use a 5ghz wireless connection due to the fact that the boiler downstairs is far away and won't connect to the internet with the shorter range.

802.11 mode in N only, bandwidth 20 Mhz, channel 3 (used various wifi apps and this is the best channel for minimal interference) In a NYC apartment so many signals around.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need more info please let me know. Thanks.
 
Solution
It could still be interference. Channel 3 is actually a very poor choice for most people. The numbers you see in a router on 2.4g only represent 5mhz of bandwidth. A wifi radio channels uses 20mhz. So it uses blocks of 4 of these channels. When you select channel 3 it means you overlap all the people that picked channel 1 and all the people that picked channel 6. The reason channels 1,6,11 are the recommended ones is those are the numbers that break the wifi bandwidth up with no overlap. BUT many people run 40mhz of bandwidth which is 8 of the radio channels you see in a router. This uses the bottom 2/3 or the top 2/3 of the radio bandwidth. It is impossible to avoid overlapping 2 of these signals.

There is...

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
Make and model of your laptop? An SKU will help us two fold. Check and see which BIOS version you're working with on your laptop. See if uninstalling and reinstalling your wireless networking adapter's drivers helps. As for your phone, I'd be pointing a finger at the router, see if the issue persists when on the 5GHz bandwidth.
 
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It could still be interference. Channel 3 is actually a very poor choice for most people. The numbers you see in a router on 2.4g only represent 5mhz of bandwidth. A wifi radio channels uses 20mhz. So it uses blocks of 4 of these channels. When you select channel 3 it means you overlap all the people that picked channel 1 and all the people that picked channel 6. The reason channels 1,6,11 are the recommended ones is those are the numbers that break the wifi bandwidth up with no overlap. BUT many people run 40mhz of bandwidth which is 8 of the radio channels you see in a router. This uses the bottom 2/3 or the top 2/3 of the radio bandwidth. It is impossible to avoid overlapping 2 of these signals.

There is no real solution for the lack of bandwidth. This is why you really should try to use 5g if it is any option. There are 9 20mhz blocks you can use. Channels on 5g are 20mhz wide. Unfortunately the newest routers use at least 4 (ie 80mhz) of these blocks and some of the very newest ones use 8 (ie almost all) of the total bandwidth.
 
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Solution

Solidjake

Notable
Sep 6, 2019
308
61
890
Make and model of your laptop? An SKU will help us two fold. Check and see which BIOS version you're working with on your laptop. See if uninstalling and reinstalling your wireless networking adapter's drivers helps. As for your phone, I'd be pointing a finger at the router, see if the issue persists when on the 5GHz bandwidth.

Late 2014 Macbook Pro with Mojave. Everything update minus the latest OS that is out now. Phone is a google pixel 2 xl. Did restarts, shutdowns, etc and nothing worked. Will try to the 5GHz option now and will report back