Strange disconnections on home Wifi network, despite other devices working fine

[lee1127]

I am having a problem where I sometimes cannot access the internet with my PC (I have a USB wifi adapter), and it will come up with a "could not reach server" error message, or DNS error. However then it periodically works, literally after a few minutes, and then does not work again a minute later. I have had download/upload speeds as low as 40kbps/120kbps when testing on speedof.me.

Note: On my phone and on my housemate's laptop, the internet is working fine in our apartment, apart from occassional drops in download/upload speed (but never as low as on my PC). My room is not far from the router in the living room, so signal should be fine. I am very confused what is causing this problem.

I have already tried:
- Disabling the Windows 10 setting where Windows updates my hardware drivers automatically, so that I could instead install the proper drivers for those devices.
- Disabling and re-enabling the USB wifi adapter. This fixes it but only for a short time. (Note: I had similar problems with my previous adapter, so I have a brand new one from TPlink, so I doubt it is a hardware failure)
- CMD>ipconfig /flushdns, ipconfig /registerdns, ipconfig /release, ipconfig /renew. After all of these commands it stopped working, and then started again a few mins later..

UPDATE: Now one of my housemates also had the same problem with her laptop - now I'm really lost as to what it could be.

My setup/specs:
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Motherboard
CPU: AMD Phenom II Black Edition X4 980 Processor, 3.70 GHz (With Noctua NH D-14 fans and heatsinks)
Graphics: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB
Memory: 8 GB of RAM (4x2 GB Modules - Corsair XMS3 DDR3 TW3X4G1333C9A 1333 MHz)
OS: Windows 10 Professional on a Samsung 860 Evo 500 GB SSD (Also contains all program files)
Mass Storage: 1 TB Harddrive (Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 SCSI Disk Device), from my previous setup
Power supply: Corsair Enthusiast TX750 V2 Power Supply (750W)
Disc reader: LG GH24NS90.AUAA50B 24x SATA Bare Internal DVD Rewriter

Thanks in advance for the help!

- Lee

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I'd be tempted to try a different WiFi adapter -- at least that'll tell you if your existing one is the culprit.

 

[RememberThe5th]

Which usb wifi adapter? 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz?

 

[lee1127]

Which usb wifi adapter? 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz?

It is 2.4 GHz (model: TPLink TL-WN823N).

 

[RememberThe5th]

Have you installed drivers for it from CD/Internet or?

 

[lee1127]

Have you installed drivers for it from CD/Internet or?

I installed the driver from the TPLink CD which was included with the product.

UPDATE: Now one of my housemates also had the same problem with her laptop - now I'm really lost as to what it could be.

 

[RememberThe5th]

Unplug router for 30s-1min and power it up.

 

[lee1127]

Unplug router for 30s-1min and power it up.

This only seems to fix it temporarily.

 

[RememberThe5th]

Then reset router to default totally, not sure how it goes by holding reset pin (small hole somwhere).

 

[lee1127]

Then reset router to default totally, not sure how it goes by holding reset pin (small hole somwhere).

I don't think this is the problem (we recently got a new router less than a month ago, same ISP) but I might try it tomorrow anyhow.

I think it is related to my room and my housemate's rooms somehow. I just found my phone and laptop are also crazy slow and have connection issues when they are in this room. In the living room, devices work fine. However my room is only separated from the router by 8 metres and a regular wooden door. I wonder what this could be..

 

[RememberThe5th]

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

 

[lee1127]

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

My laptop doesn't have an ethernet connector, so it will be difficult to test, but I remember a few weeks ago I moved my PC to the living room to get a quicker download speed to download GTA V. With the ethernet cable plugged in from the router directly, the speed was easily 5 mb/s for the download from Rockstar's servers (compare to the < 700kb/s [and at times much lower] I was getting in my room for the same download), and probably would have been much higher than 5mb/s (with ethernet cable) on a speedtest website had I tested that, too.

FWIW, here are some screenshots of speedtests from the past few days on my desktop, from its regular location in my room, at moments where the internet gets really slow.
7 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/JziJlJo.jpg
13 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/a8Fox5O.jpg

 

[johnbl]

you might go to the microsoft app store and download
wifi analyzer by matt hafner
then run it and make sure your router is not using the same channel as another router nearby. if it is they will interfer with each other and have to retransmit packets.

on your local machine, set the wifi to not sleep, some drivers have bugs when they wake up where the transmit power does not go back up. (control panel, device manager setting for the wifi adapter)

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

My laptop doesn't have an ethernet connector, so it will be difficult to test, but I remember a few weeks ago I moved my PC to the living room to get a quicker download speed to download GTA V. With the ethernet cable plugged in from the router directly, the speed was easily 5 mb/s for the download from Rockstar's servers (compare to the < 700kb/s [and at times much lower] I was getting in my room for the same download), and probably would have been much higher than 5mb/s (with ethernet cable) on a speedtest website had I tested that, too.

FWIW, here are some screenshots of speedtests from the past few days on my desktop, from its regular location in my room, at moments where the internet gets really slow.
7 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/JziJlJo.jpg
13 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/a8Fox5O.jpg

 

[lee1127]

you might go to the microsoft app store and download
wifi analyzer by matt hafner
then run it and make sure your router is not using the same channel as another router nearby. if it is they will interfer with each other and have to retransmit packets.

on your local machine, set the wifi to not sleep, some drivers have bugs when they wake up where the transmit power does not go back up. (control panel, device manager setting for the wifi adapter)

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

My laptop doesn't have an ethernet connector, so it will be difficult to test, but I remember a few weeks ago I moved my PC to the living room to get a quicker download speed to download GTA V. With the ethernet cable plugged in from the router directly, the speed was easily 5 mb/s for the download from Rockstar's servers (compare to the < 700kb/s [and at times much lower] I was getting in my room for the same download), and probably would have been much higher than 5mb/s (with ethernet cable) on a speedtest website had I tested that, too.

FWIW, here are some screenshots of speedtests from the past few days on my desktop, from its regular location in my room, at moments where the internet gets really slow.
7 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/JziJlJo.jpg
13 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/a8Fox5O.jpg

I am using WiFi analyzer, and apparently I am already on the recommended channel, which is only shared with one other network.

I have also disabled the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

My housemate suggested it might be some type of interference from another device...perhaps the upstairs neighbours, immediately above my room? I am at a loss right now as to what it could still be.

 

[johnbl]

any usb device and usb driver can mess up any other usb device.
I have seen one usb device have a error and write thousand of error messages to the internal logs each second.
you might down load and run https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

it can show if there are any usb problems with your machine.

you might go to the microsoft app store and download
wifi analyzer by matt hafner
then run it and make sure your router is not using the same channel as another router nearby. if it is they will interfer with each other and have to retransmit packets.

on your local machine, set the wifi to not sleep, some drivers have bugs when they wake up where the transmit power does not go back up. (control panel, device manager setting for the wifi adapter)

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

My laptop doesn't have an ethernet connector, so it will be difficult to test, but I remember a few weeks ago I moved my PC to the living room to get a quicker download speed to download GTA V. With the ethernet cable plugged in from the router directly, the speed was easily 5 mb/s for the download from Rockstar's servers (compare to the < 700kb/s [and at times much lower] I was getting in my room for the same download), and probably would have been much higher than 5mb/s (with ethernet cable) on a speedtest website had I tested that, too.

FWIW, here are some screenshots of speedtests from the past few days on my desktop, from its regular location in my room, at moments where the internet gets really slow.
7 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/JziJlJo.jpg
13 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/a8Fox5O.jpg

I am using WiFi analyzer, and apparently I am already on the recommended channel, which is only shared with one other network.

I have also disabled the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

My housemate suggested it might be some type of interference from another device...perhaps the upstairs neighbours, immediately above my room? I am at a loss right now as to what it could still be.

 

[lee1127]

OK so I downloaded that program, and I'm not sure how to read the information it's given me, but FWIW, this stuck out under USB Root Hub (USB 3.0)>[Port 2] : TP-Link Wireless USB Adapter (might be an issue?):

--------------- Connection Information V2 -------------
Connection Index : 0x02 (2)
Length : 0x10 (16 bytes)
SupportedUsbProtocols : 0x03
Usb110 : 1 (yes)
Usb200 : 1 (yes)
Usb300 : 0 (no)
ReservedMBZ : 0x00
Flags : 0x00
DevIsOpAtSsOrHigher : 0 (Is not operating at SuperSpeed or higher)
DevIsSsCapOrHigher : 0 (Is not SuperSpeed capable or higher)
DevIsOpAtSsPlusOrHigher : 0 (Is not operating at SuperSpeedPlus or higher)
DevIsSsPlusCapOrHigher : 0 (Is not SuperSpeedPlus capable or higher)
ReservedMBZ : 0x00
Data (HexDump) : 02 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

any usb device and usb driver can mess up any other usb device.
I have seen one usb device have a error and write thousand of error messages to the internal logs each second.
you might down load and run https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html

it can show if there are any usb problems with your machine.

you might go to the microsoft app store and download
wifi analyzer by matt hafner
then run it and make sure your router is not using the same channel as another router nearby. if it is they will interfer with each other and have to retransmit packets.

on your local machine, set the wifi to not sleep, some drivers have bugs when they wake up where the transmit power does not go back up. (control panel, device manager setting for the wifi adapter)

1. As I experienced working in restaurant, with 30+ people sitting outside onto 1 wifi AP (probably 20 are using wifi, or less), could clug up an 100Mb/s network at range of 10-15m of AP (Clear sight).
2. Try to speedtest.net and benchmark your network speed with wired ethernet and reply back with screenshot/link (since i forgot to ask your network speed).

My laptop doesn't have an ethernet connector, so it will be difficult to test, but I remember a few weeks ago I moved my PC to the living room to get a quicker download speed to download GTA V. With the ethernet cable plugged in from the router directly, the speed was easily 5 mb/s for the download from Rockstar's servers (compare to the < 700kb/s [and at times much lower] I was getting in my room for the same download), and probably would have been much higher than 5mb/s (with ethernet cable) on a speedtest website had I tested that, too.

FWIW, here are some screenshots of speedtests from the past few days on my desktop, from its regular location in my room, at moments where the internet gets really slow.
7 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/JziJlJo.jpg
13 Oct 2018: https://i.imgur.com/a8Fox5O.jpg

I am using WiFi analyzer, and apparently I am already on the recommended channel, which is only shared with one other network.

I have also disabled the option "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

My housemate suggested it might be some type of interference from another device...perhaps the upstairs neighbours, immediately above my room? I am at a loss right now as to what it could still be.

 

[lee1127]

I've just tested again with an ethernet cable into my PC, from the router in the living room, and I got:
Download: 270 kb/s
Upload: 400 kb/s
(https://speedof.me/show.php?img=181122215302-6726.png)

This is REALLY weird, because ethernet should be prioritised over WiFi and is usually much higher...I'm totally confused as to what's going on now.