When I am at home I mostly use my lap top. I have a Lynksys router and have been using it for about 3 years. For the last few weeks I have noticed I will go from 54 Mbps (fastest) clear down to 11 Mbps and back up again. It does this all the time now. Just down and back up, over and over. What could be causing this to happen?

It is a password protected WPA set up. I have done the disk clean up and defragmentor (I do these atleast once a month) Would it be a problem with the router or the laptop? Any help would be great.

 

Hey RockCrawler:

Start with making sure you have the latest firmware in your router and the latest driver for your wireless card.

Even if it looks like you do, download the new ones anyway, and reload them. For the router it's easy. Replace the driver for the network card.

This will take care of any corruptions that may have snuck into the systems.

If that does not fix the problem, wireless routers are very sensitive to RF. This includes noise in the electrical system. I have a UPS on my router and that cleaned up a lot of the issues I was having. But if there are other systems in the neighborhood that have changed, there is not much you can do about it.

I had a client who was having tons of issues, so we put a UPS on his power and logged the usage. From the reports we generated, we went to the local power company and showed them there was very dirty power in the neighborhood. They came out and replaced a can on the pole. Voila. No more issues.

Another client couldn't run wireless at all because of the generators being used next door. As soon as they were shut off, the wireless worked perfectly. Figure that one out.

Disk cleanup and defragging are always good but does not have anything to do with this. Get yourself a good registry cleaner as well. Run that every couple of weeks.

Let me know how it goes.

Randy

 

If sounds like it could be RF interference. You could place the laptop close to the Linksys and see if it still occurs. If it does I would move them both to the other side of the house and see if it still occurs. Also my cordless phone sometimes interferes with my wireless network. If I have the phone handset near the PC it often interferes with the signal of my laptop. Depending on results you could try changing the “wireless channel” being used. If you go to your web browser and type the IP address of your default gateway it will bring you to the login of your Linksys. If you didn’t change the password I would try “linksys” or something similar. I believe you leave the username field blank. Keep in mind that you should do this from a wired PC because your wireless client will likely loose its connection. You may have to fuss around with the laptop wireless client software if you change the setting to get it back online. I have never needed to change mine but your symptoms sound like it could interference with something in the area. It could be a neighbor, or any number of things.

 

1. How far away from your wireless router is your laptop?

2. What kind of walls are between the laptop and the wireless router?

3. Have you put any new electronics in the house recently? (since the problem started)

4. What channel are you operating on?

In reality, unless you are doing massive file transfers between two computers, 11mbps is more than enough for residential grade internet connections. Let me know the stuff above and I may be able to tell you how to remedy this problem. As the guys above said, there are many variables to wireless working just the way you want it.

 

Don't update your wireless equipment's driver or firmware needlessly. It was working and is still working. Updating may introduce new problems.

Defragging the hard drive has nothing to do with wireless whatsoever.

You either have some hardware degradation, which is highly unlikely, or you have added or moved cables or wiring which are affecting you wireless router's radiation pattern, or you are getting interference.

Do you have close neighbors? If some of them have added wireless equipment, you may be competing with them for the wireless spectrum. We are even seeing this out here in the boonies. The nearest occupied house is about a quarter mile away, yet we have recently started seeing someone else's wireless network show up on our scans.

I suggest trying to move to another channel. See if that works any better. If not, reorient the antenna(s), and try rearranging the cabling in the vicinity of the wireless router. That sometimes will help. Some wireless routers have provisions for high gain antennas. If yours does, it may pay to buy one and see if it helps.

 

Thanks for the great replies!! I am at work now and when I get home I will check into the suggestions mentioned above.

As for some of the questions...Laptop is only about 30 feet away from router with only 2 interior walls between. No new electronics in my house. I will check the cables and the placement of them. I have seen 1 or 2 new wireless systems in range if I go to "View Wireless Connections" (or something like that)

Changing the channel sounds like what I will try first. I can see about 5 different wireless systems in my area. All low stength but I guess it could still mess things up with the competeing (like mentioned above) I will check things out tonight and report my findings. Thanks again for the quick replies.

 

The most commonly used residential wireless channels are 6 and 11. Try a channel like 7 or 3. I would still suggest updating firmware, it is like changing the oil and if done right will make things work better even if you don't notice it.

 

Because wireless channels overlap, there are really only three "clear" channels. They are 1, 6, and 11. They are only clear if nobody nearby sets up on any of the other channels. Since most people don't have the first clue about this, you can't always run on one of the three prime channels. However, you should always try those three before you try any other channel. If you have more than one wireless network, it is really important to put them on these channels.

There is also the possibility of other 2.4 GHz wireless devices interfering. One good example is baby monitors. There is nothing you can do about them except try different channels, reorienting the antenna, a combination of both, or move to the boondocks. I recommend the latter.

These other devices are on these frequencies legally, and wireless users have no special rights and are required to tolerate the interference. Such is life.

Congrats on running WPA encryption. It's not perfect, but if you have a really long key, it is almost impossible to break. It does have a lot of overhead though, so running as fast a network as possible does help. Good luck.

 

I find that using a microwave for cooking interferes with our wireless network. If you or your wife was cooking at the time this might be it. When ours slows down for reasons other than the microwave I just reboot the router and all is well.

 

Thanks again for the great ideas and advice. I will be leaving work in about 2 hours and will check things when I get home. I am sure with the ideas and suggestions here it will be fixed tonight.

 

the wireless router uses the same frequency as cordless (not cellular) phones.
2.4GHz is a common frequency for cordless devices. change channels might help.

 

OK. I changed the chanel and moved the atennas and the cables behind all the computer stuff. So far it seems to have helped. I will know tonight I'm sure. THANKS for the help guys!!!

 

Watch out for automatic updates. Adobe will try to download a massive 50+ MB file if you let it. With that going on, it will swamp you for awhile. Do you have a router with and ethernet ports? If so, plug into those and let it do updates while plugged in.