unstable connection with full bars

[urmamasllama]

so i recently purchased a new router, a dlink 686L. for the most part it has been fantastic although i really want dd-wrt and its not yet available. right now my big issue is that i have two computers on the second floor of the house and both are having issues with connection quality. the indicator in windows tells us full signal however pingtest will randomly have abnormally high ping and jitter and rarely even a bit of packet loss but the connection quality never drops. from pinging the router i have determined that the issue is occurring from the wireless connection as the wired system in the house has been fine. any ideas what may be wrong?

 

[oct]

so i recently purchased a new router, a dlink 686L. for the most part it has been fantastic although i really want dd-wrt and its not yet available. right now my big issue is that i have two computers on the second floor of the house and both are having issues with connection quality. the indicator in windows tells us full signal however pingtest will randomly have abnormally high ping and jitter and rarely even a bit of packet loss but the connection quality never drops. from pinging the router i have determined that the issue is occurring from the wireless connection as the wired system in the house has been fine. any ideas what may be wrong?

Few questions

1.What type of cards G, N?
2. Wifi can be 20mhz only or 20/40mhz when available.
3. Distance from router? How may walls dose it pass through?

Get a wifi wifi analizer (like http://www.inssider.com) check for crosstalk on wifi channels. Use only channel 1,6, and 11 on router. Check to see if "PHY(signal strength of wifi hitting computer wifi antenna is above 60db)" if your PHY is below 60db you will have random packet loss. Range extender is the easiest way to fix low PHY. I personally don't like using range ext because of high latency over double wifi hops. If it's not possible to run cat5 to desktop I would consider powerline ethernet https://www.google.com/search?q=powerline+over+ethernet&client=ms-android-att-us&espvd=1&source=univ&tbm=shop&sboxchip=Shopping&sa=X&ei=LhjMU9ekMIKiyATkvYK4DQ&ved=0CBwQsxg&biw=360&bih=567)


Note: the signal reported by windows OS is not a accurate way of measuring strength, driver compabilty for wifi card plays a big part of how many bars are displayed.

 

[Solandri]

Check to see if any neighbors have wifi networks on the same channel as yours. Try to find an empty channel (1, 6, and 11 are the only "real" channels, as "1" covers 1-5, "6" covers 6-10, and "11" covers 11-15).

From your description, it sounds like your router is on the first floor and the two problem devices are on the second floor. The "omnidirectional" antennas built into most routers aren't really omnidirectional (equal signal strength in all directions). They're omnidirectional in one plane, and that plane is oriented parallel to the ground when the router is in its normal position. You still get some signal above and below, but the signal does not propagate as far outside this plane.

Unfortunately, your router has an internal antenna (usually traced onto the mainboard). If you had the kind with external antennas, you could try moving one of them for better reception. i.e. tilt the second antenna so its plane intersects the two devices on your second floor.

And oct's suggestion is good, but it's "powerline ethernet", not "power over ethernet" which is an entirely different thing.

 

[urmamasllama]

i've ran a channel analyzer and set it to a cleaner channel already i still have the issue however i did notice that the channel i put it on has a bunch when near the router itself just nowhere else in the house. wifi analyzer consistently shows -60 or better everywhere in the house. essentially the router goes through two walls for every computer upstairs but like i said they all get full signal. we're considering running a line up here and splitting on a switch. but it seems odd that with full signal strength we would still have issues

all the cards are N
would it help if i set it to 20 hz only mode?
once again two walls and about 30 feet.

 

[oct]

Some N cards do not like using 40mhz bonded channels. Try configering router to 20mhz only. Be aware that 20mhz is slower then 40mhz, but 20mhz will be more stable in high density wifi networks.

 

[urmamasllama]

wanted to finally respond. thank you, your solution worked perfectly ping dropped significantly and is now much more consistent and there is actually little change in network speed.