Spotty, Sometimes Slow Internet on my Gaming Desktop

[rebornupright]

Hi all.

To get right down to business, basically, I can't maintain a decent internet connection on my gaming desktop without it dropping every so often or sometimes just slowing to a snail's pace. Sometimes it will also do things like refuse to load images, etc.

My thing is that I believe it to be a combination of two factors: the internal wireless card on my PC has never been great (it's integrated) and I don't think that the range is very good at all on the wireless router. And with my computer in a far corner of the house (and yes that's the only place I can really have either appliance) it's just having a rough time of it. Internet of course works flawlessly when wired.

I'm thinking that my solution may be to buy a repeater and then wire the computer to the repeater. But some have also suggested buying an external wireless adapter. I'm just not very sure that I trust that as a viable solution... But I'll trust you guys!

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[TheDualshock]

A wired connection will always be optimal since there's little to no interference and usually has (if the LAN chipset supports it) 1GBit/s speeds. I'd go for a wired connection unless you are restricted to wireless (too far)

 

[rebornupright]

A wired connection will always be optimal since there's little to no interference and usually has (if the LAN chipset supports it) 1GBit/s speeds. I'd go for a wired connection unless you are restricted to wireless (too far)

Yeah unfortunately I just am too far away to get a wired connection directly to the router without being extremely obnoxious to my roommates and stringing a CAT5 cable all the way down to the living room.

 

[IrnMan]

I think your solutions are spot on. I had a similar issue to you so first thing I did was get a cheap and cheerful wireless repeater. Being cheaper it was a little finicky to set up but now that it is my desktops latency has dropped significantly. When setting up the repeater find a plug socket (on the same floor as your desktop, most transmit horizontally not vertically) where you get around 80% signal strength (test using smartphone/laptop/tablet etc) and set it up there. You don't need to wire it to PC to get speed boosts. (Tip: set ssid and password of repeater to same as that of router to get a seamless wireless connection throughout your house).

If that doesn't improve things as much as you'd like get a new wireless adapter, preferably one that is outside the case and has an antenna.

 

[mamasan2000]

Wireless can easily be affected by interference. Make sure the channel you are using is free, meaning ... check that your neighbors aren't all using the same channel as you. There is an app for android phones called Meraki WiFi Stumbler which shows the channel numbers people around you use. Or just go for a high number, 10+ and test.

Use the following settings on the router:

Transmit power : High
Beacon interval : 50
RTS Threshold: 2346
Fragmentation Threshold: 2346
DTIM Interval: 1

Enable WMM
Enable Short GI
Enable AP Isolation

If those apply to your model of router.

I think the beacon interval is the key, along with transmit power.