My wi-fi is extremely unstable

[zidouj]

Hi,

So once I moved locations and started using my friend's internet, I realized that it was extremely unstable. I would get internet for a while and then suddenly it would cut out. I noticed it primarily when I was playing video games but later on also noticed it while doing normal tasks on the internet such as checking my email and such. I called the ISP, they kept telling me to restart my modem, did it around 10 times. That didn't work. Then after hours on the phone someone mentioned that our internet plan was the lowest possible. She said that our bandwidth was too low. Now I did look it up online to check what happens when your bandwidth is low and whether or not it kicks you off the web if you exceed it and found nothing.

I don't understand what is going on. I'm using a USB wifi stick on my desktop. If anyone has experienced unstable internet any help would be welcomed.

I will be monitoring the thread closely. Thank You!

 

[USAFRet]

1. What IS your internet plan?
2. What type of service it is? Cable, DSL, Fiber, other...
3. You're connected via WiFi? How far away from the router?

 

[doggghouse]

More bandwidth just means you can receive and send more data at once, so data transfers go faster. There's no way to go over the amount capped by the ISP, it is the data rate that the ISP sends and receives data at. You are probably OK at the lowest bandwidth, unless you or your friend are hogging the connection by doing a lot of streaming (ex. Netflix) or doing file sharing (ex. bittorrents).

My guess is that you are experiencing cut-outs because you are on a wireless network. Wireless networks have become extremely popular in the last 10 years, so practically every household has a wireless router now. The problem is, in crowded neighborhoods--apartments especially--there are too many signals trying to use the same space, so you get interference from your neighbors' routers. There is an app called inSSIDer that lets you browse the wireless environment and see how many other networks are in your area, their signal strength, and what channels they are using. You may see that a lot of networks are using channel 6 (the default), so your problems may go away if you switch the router to channel 1 or 11... assuming there are a lot less networks on those channels. The inSSIDer app can be downloaded here... http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

One way to tell for sure if wireless traffic is causing problems is to plug your PC directly into the router with a network cable, at least long enough to test the connection.

 

[zidouj]

1. What IS your internet plan?
2. What type of service it is? Cable, DSL, Fiber, other...
3. You're connected via WiFi? How far away from the router?

My Internet plan is : http://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/Products/Fibe-Internet-5
2. Not Sure
3. The router is decently far away, but not that far around 8 meters

 

[USAFRet]

1 & 2. That link doesn't tell me what YOU have.
3. 8 meters - 25 feet...what is in between?

If, just for testing purposes, you run an ethernet cable from PC to router, what do you get?

 

[doggghouse]

My Internet plan is : http://www.bell.ca/Bell_Internet/Products/Fibe-Internet-5
2. Not Sure
3. The router is decently far away, but not that far around 8 meters

Interesting, it looks like you do have a data limit of 20GB. But from what I can tell, they just start charging you extra for data after you exceed that amount each month.

Easiest way to test is to plug directly into the router to see if it continues to cut out... or if your friend's PC is already directly connected, see if his connection is stable compared to yours.

Also, when you choose a network to connect to wirelessly, do you see a bunch of networks with strong signals, or just yours?