[SOLVED] Wifi drops during gaming and other activities

[Reven358]

So this is a very specific problem I've been having for the past half year since I built my new computer, and I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it.

Whenever I play games that demand constant wifi connection such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, etc etc.. my internet will randomly drop for 5-15 seconds, or as long as it takes for game servers to drop me for lagging. Then once I have been disconnected my internet is perfectly fine again. I can watch videos on youtube, watch streams on twitch, and voice chat on discord perfectly fine, but anything else just doesn't work at all. I can't seem to screen share on discord either. Sometimes it will work but then other times it will for about 10 seconds and then my internet will cut out.

My computer doesn't display the internet as being disconnected. During everything it still shows I have excellent signal strength. Only discord seems to show the proper wifi status as when I'm playing a game while in voice chat it'll show my ping spiking to the upper thousands until I disconnect from said game, then it goes back down to normal.

I am at the end of my rope here as this problem has been going on for so long. I have almost no knowledge of wifi so any advice will be greatly appreciated.



I use a TP-Link 802.11ac network adapter for my wifi.

 

[acecreator26]

So this is a very specific problem I've been having for the past half year since I built my new computer, and I can't for the life of my figure out what is causing it.

Whenever I play games that demand constant wifi connection such as League of Legends, Overwatch, Minecraft, etc etc.. my internet will randomly drop for 5-15 seconds, or as long as it takes for game servers to drop me for lagging. Then once I have been disconnected my internet is perfectly fine again. I can watch videos on youtube, watch streams on twitch, and voice chat on discord perfectly fine, but anything else just doesn't work at all. I can't seem to screen share on discord either. Sometimes it will work but then other times it will for about 10 seconds and then my internet will cut out.

My computer doesn't display the internet as being disconnected. During everything it still shows I have excellent signal strength. Only discord seems to show the proper wifi status as when I'm playing a game while in voice chat it'll show my ping spiking to the upper thousands until I disconnect from said game, then it goes back down to normal.

I am at the end of my rope here as this problem has been going on for so long. I have almost no knowledge of wifi so any advice will be greatly appreciated.



I use a TP-Link 802.11ac network adapter for my wifi.

I'm assuming your using a wireless connection. Have you tried using a wired connection instead?

 

[Reven358]

I'm assuming your using a wireless connection. Have you tried using a wired connection instead?

Sadly, the place where I have my set up located does not have access to an Ethernet port. So yes, I am using a wireless connection.

 

[Reven358]

Also I forgot to mention that the internet for everyone else in the house is fine. Only mine seems to be dropping.

 

[acecreator26]

Sadly, the place where I have my set up located does not have access to an Ethernet port. So yes, I am using a wireless connection.

That is unfortunate.

Have you tried using a wireless network adapter? I had a similar issue with my PC (mine was that I only had one bar) and I bought a Quallcomm Atheros AR938x and now I have a full 3 bars of WiFi with no drop outs. If you do have one, I suggest updating the drivers.

 

[bill001g]

Wifi is subject to inference. You can have great signal levels and still have a strong source of interference. In most cases it is neighbors using WiFi. As their usage changes the interference changes which is why it tends to be random.

Games are the most affected because they use the timing between packets to sync the client to the server.

Now it could be some other issue with the game and wifi but other than replacing the driver you have few options.

I would consider using powerline network devices based on the newer AV2 standard. These tend to work better for most people running games than using wifi.