Wifi speeds atrociously slow

[Jake467]

Hi, I've been having troubles for a few weeks now; my wireless network used to be pretty fast, but out of the blue my download speeds dropped off a cliff. I have no idea what happened, and I'm not sure how fast it was before this 'incident', however, now when I test it I get a download speed of around .17 Mb/s, and my upload speed sits around .75 Mb/s. When I tested my wifi speeds on my parents' laptop, which has notably lower specs than my computer, the test read about 35 Mb/s download! How can this vast swing be possible? I'm certain there is no virus or malware on my computer, and my cpu usage sits around a comfortable 10% when I'm using the internet. I've accessed my router management page, but honestly have no clue what to do from there, if anything, so I haven't touched the settings. By the way, my service provider is Mediacom, and my router is a Linksys "wireless-g Broadband Router" with a model number of WRT54G. I don't understand why my connection slowed down so suddenly, so I was wondering if anyone else out there could help me pinpoint the potential problem?

 

[Saga Lout]

Can you run a temporary cable to your computer to the router just for long enough to see if you have a wireless problem or something within your system that's causing this?

 

[Jake467]

Sorry for not replying sooner, I've had an unbelievably busy week. In short, no, I can't run a cable directly between the computer and router, I do not have a cable long enough to do the job, and it would probably cost more than I would care to spend to buy such a long cable. Are there any other options I have here?

 

[Jake467]

Actually, now that I am looking at cable prices they seem well within reach for a long length... however it could be a while before I actually get one for various reasons. Is there anything I can do in the meantime to hopefully check, repair, or temporarily improve my wifi speeds? Also, when I do get the cable, I need a cat5 cable, correct? if so, then where do I go from there (after plugging the cable into my computer and router)?

 

[dEAne]

Your router is linksys g - 802.11g and the fastest one is 802.11n. Yes you can buy a UTP cable for that, category 5e is fast but little expensive.