Issues with School Internet

[MikeChas]

I've issues with internet in my dorm. It was perfectly fine at the beginning of the semester, and I could stream and play games at the same time. Now I can barely play anything without 300 ping. Extreme levels of rubber banding is also an issue. The dorm is covered in wireless routers, and I've tried connecting to various ones to no avail. I understand it may be my schools bandwidth or routers, however I figured I'd ask here before I go to them. Doing hardly anything gives me insane network spikes on the resource monitor http://puu.sh/gYgde/5fa2d5d8b7.png . Essentially I'm wondering if this could perhaps be on my end, although I doubt it. Every once in awhile the internet is stable with a decent ping, but the times seem to be arbitrary. I just cant figure out why it has become so laggy as of recent. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

 

[Bitfury]

Even though you may be the only person connecting to any particular AP at a given time, you certainly are not the only one using the internet from your dorm. When all is said and done, the speed of the internet connection tends to be the bottleneck. You can have 2000 APs in a dorm but it would not matter because they all end up on the same circuit.

 

[MikeChas]

Even though you may be the only person connecting to any particular AP at a given time, you certainly are no the only one using the internet from your dorm. When all is said and done, the speed of the internet connection tends to be the bottleneck. You can have 2000 APs in a dorm but it would not matter because they all end up on the same circuit.

Yeah that is what I figured. I just cant for the life of me figure out why it got so unstable so fast. That is why I was curious if it was anything on my end. I assume using the AP with the best RSSI is the best if it doesn't appear to be one router malfunctioning. It is good to know it is most likely the internet I guess. Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

Do you have an option to connect to an Ethernet jack? Try that. You may have someone in the area that started using torrents or maybe setup some leaky old microwave that is sending out 2.4 ghz signals and interfering with the WiFi. It may also be an infrastructure issue, are you the only one with the issue? You need to start ruling things out, starting with the basic "is it me or everyone" question to narrow down what you need to look at.

 

[MikeChas]

Do you have an option to connect to an Ethernet jack? Try that. You may have someone in the area that started using torrents or maybe setup some leaky old microwave that is sending out 2.4 ghz signals and interfering with the WiFi. It may also be an infrastructure issue, are you the only one with the issue? You need to start ruling things out, starting with the basic "is it me or everyone" question to narrow down what you need to look at.

I wish I could connect via Ethernet, but cannot. I've seen my roommate have similar lag. I actually just unplugged everything in our living room and checked for improvement, to no avail. I assume for us both to get lag, it would have to be something interfering in the immediate area, which I guess would have to be the floor below us or something. The rubber banding issue is almost rhythmic, or has some pretty consistent timing (Studders every ~2 seconds when it is happening). The whole thing is odd, but I can't figure out any reason it could be me. I guess I can try to contact the resnet people, but that is probably a lost cause. Worth a shot though I reckon. And I would think it would be a torrent, but you can't actually torrent with this internet. I'd imagine there is some sort of work around, but it makes it seem less likely.

 

[hang-the-9]

Do you have an option to connect to an Ethernet jack? Try that. You may have someone in the area that started using torrents or maybe setup some leaky old microwave that is sending out 2.4 ghz signals and interfering with the WiFi. It may also be an infrastructure issue, are you the only one with the issue? You need to start ruling things out, starting with the basic "is it me or everyone" question to narrow down what you need to look at.

I wish I could connect via Ethernet, but cannot. I've seen my roommate have similar lag. I actually just unplugged everything in our living room and checked for improvement, to no avail. I assume for us both to get lag, it would have to be something interfering in the immediate area, which I guess would have to be the floor below us or something. The rubber banding issue is almost rhythmic, or has some pretty consistent timing (Studders every ~2 seconds when it is happening). The whole thing is odd, but I can't figure out any reason it could be me. I guess I can try to contact the resnet people, but that is probably a lost cause. Worth a shot though I reckon. And I would think it would be a torrent, but you can't actually torrent with this internet. I'd imagine there is some sort of work around, but it makes it seem less likely.

Don't just check with your roommate, check with a few others in the dorm, especially in the rooms next to you. There are also wireless signal testers you can use, inssider is one, you can get it installed on your cell phone or laptop and it will show you all the signals and the channels they are on. Once you see what is going on, you can get that info the IT support and show them that they may need to change channels or look for whatever or whoever is causing the issues.