Other PC wireless connectivity issues

Hi all. In the last few days my computer has experienced a significant drop in internet connectivity to the point where it pretty much doesn't work atm. I'm using a wireless connection, which varies between 2-4 bars of strength (but spends most time at 3 bars). When I managed to get it to connect long enough to perform a speed test on www.speedtest.net I got a ping of 12 and a download speed of 0.6mb/s. This is with 150mb internet. Placing my laptop right next to the PC, I was able to get download speed of 60mb/s (with a ping of 42) using the same website.

It has been abysmally slow for the past few days. Currently, I can't maintain a connection long enough to load Steam or even a webpage. Some windows updates were installed a few days ago so I thought this might be the problem, but I've done a system restore to the point before any updates (when the internet connection was fine) and the problems remain. I have also run a full system scan with Malwarebytes and found no issues.

A possibly related problem (but maybe not) is that when running some games (such as Call of Juarez: Gunslinger) I'll get a very high framerate (~120) but the game will experience lagging and small jumps every few seconds or so. As I say, this could be a different issue altogether but I thought it was worth mentioning just in case.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as my computer is essentially unusable for any online task right now. My specs are as follows:

AMD FX-8320
Gigabyte 970A DS3P
Gigabyte R7 260X 2GB
8GB Kingston Ram
Edimax EW-7728IN wireless N adapter
Zalman ZM650-XG PSU

Thanks very much in advance!

Ben

 

plug a cable in to test first. This will help you pinpoint if its the wireless or a router/isp issue.

Have you any devices near the router that may interfere with wireless? Anyone near you installed a router and running wifi on the same channel?

 

if you have an Android phone you may download wifi analyzer app and take a look at the existing networks/channels

 

Or try inSSIDer.

 

There is an overlapping channel for the 2G connection, but not for the 5G (I'm with Virgin Media). I've switched it a different channel but with negligible changes. I can't plug a cable into this PC as it's too far from the router but there is a desktop with a wired connection to the router and it gets almost maximum download speed, sometimes even higher than the stated max (135-160mb/s).

Sometimes, my laptop will get 150mb/s download speed when I'm on a different floor to the router, right now it's managing 40mb/s on the supposedly faster 5G connection when it's right next to the router. So clearly there is some issue with the WiFi because of the huge variation in download speeds, but I still think there might be a problem with the wireless desktop. It managed to hit 10mb/s earlier today, currently it's on ~ 0.5mb/s, but with my laptop in the exact same location I get much, much higher speeds (when my desktop had 10mb/s, the laptop had 60mb/s). The speed of the connection as displayed in the network connections area of the control panel is never as high as the laptop's either.

Thanks for your help though everyone. Does anyone have any more suggestions?

 

make sure the wifi aerial isn't covered by other wires, sometimes its better to use an extension cable for the wifi adaptor

 

Edimax EW-7728IN wireless N adapter....... hmmm, hadnt noticed you have this installed.

This is where I would be looking I think. start with the usual, drivers etc and go from there. can you try the card in a different computer to see if that one struggles as well?

 

Sorry for the huge delay in replying, I've been very busy of late.

I've tried updating the drivers but there's been no change. I have no other PC to test the card in unfortunately.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to why the card might suddenly have become a lot worse? Or does anyone have any other ideas?

 

UPDATE:

So I've switched my Super Hub to modem mode and plugged in my Edimax BR6574n router. The download speed on my wireless desktop jumped to 20mb/s, while the download speed on my laptop was 28mb/s. After that one moment of performing somewhat normally, the download speed on the desktop has dropped to ~10mb/s. It's doubly infuriating because both the desktop and the laptop have the same upload speed of ~12mbps on the wireless connection. Can anyone think of a reason why the upload speeds are the same but the download speeds are so different?

Another issue I'd like to resolve is why the router (wireless N, rated to provide up to 300mbps) is not providing the full download bandwidth that the Super Hub did to my laptop. Using the Super Hub gave negligible differences between wired and wireless connections but with the Edimax the wired is on ~140mb/s and the wireless can't go above 28mb/s. The upload speeds and pings are still identical. Any help with this issue would also be much appreciated.

Thanks very much in advance.

FURTHER UPDATE:

Both the upload and download speeds on the desktop are now significantly lower than on the laptop. I haven't adjusted any settings at all so I have no idea what might have caused this change. I'd be very grateful for any input on any of the problems because I'm completely out of ideas now. Cheers.