Poor network connection

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My wife’s laptop (Asus A73E Win 7 Pro) has had ongoing wireless connectivity issues for a long time. I have tried everything I can think of to improve her connectivity but can’t seem to solve her problem, which is slow connection, frequent dropping of signal, switching connections, etc. She barely gets about 25Mbps, but it is very erratic. I replaced the stock NIC with a Killer Networks N1202 NIC which improved things slightly.

My internet base is in my office area in a downstairs corner of the house (mid 60’s partial brick house). Usually she is at a desk in our bedroom at opposite corner of the house and upstairs.
I have Time Warner Cable Ultimate internet with 300 Mbps. TWC provides an Arris MTA Model TG1672G which is Dual Band. This is in my office.

I also have an Asus EA-N66 Wireless Extender that is Extending the 5G signal from the TWC router/modem. This is positioned just above the stairwell so as to pick up the signal from downstairs and spread it upstairs. If you were going downstairs you could reach up and grab it as you reach the bottom. If you were stand next to the stairwell upstairs you would see it at your feet.

Upstairs, just outside my bedroom door, I have a TP-Link Powerline adapter. The base is connected to an Ethernet switch that comes off the Arris router. Plugged into it is an Asus RT-N56U to provide additional coverage upstairs. Typically the only things connecting to that signal is my wife’s laptop and the Wii. I made sure they it is on different channels than the Arris.

I have spent time on the phone with Asus, both the networking support line and the laptop support line without success. I have also spent a lot of time with TWC support on the phone, online and with them here. Everyone says there equipment is working correctly.

My laptop, an Asus ROG G750 connects just fine upstairs and I get anywhere from 65-90 Mbps. My desktop, which I built and is downstairs near the Arris modem gets 180 Mbps wireless and 305-310 Mbps wired.

I have attached an FRST Report. I was going to attach a Speccy report but the format isn’t supported.

Any help or suggestions are much appreciated.

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Using both laptops side by side, is the problematic one still bad?
Have you tried repairing / reloading Windows and drivers?

cheers, Paul

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Paul,

Yes, side by side her laptop has issues where mine does not. No, have not tried a Windows repair. I will consider that.

Thanks.

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Is it practical to Ethernet connect your wife’s laptop to determine if it is a wireless problem and have you tried the laptop in other parts of the house ?

Just going back over your opening post – what do you mean by “switching connections” ?

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Sudo15,

I do have an Ethernet cable running to her desk downstairs so she can work at the downstairs desk without issues. The problem with that is that I also work from home taking phone calls 10 hours a day as if I were in a call center. She hears everything I say to customers and it disturbs her concentration. So she work upstairs when I am working.

Switching connections= changing from 2.5 to g connection, from either router or extender. Multiple are necessary to provide coverage for whole house. I am wondering if the newer AC routers will provide better coverage, not just the speed. But at close to $300 it’s a big expense for “I wonder”

Thanks

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Does the same poor performance occur in Safe Mode with Networking ?

Does your wife enjoy better wireless speeds downstairs or anywhere else in the house ?

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I haven’t tried Safe Mode with networking. I will try that first. Downstairs is marginally better. One thing I did notice. Should IPv6 be enabled in router settings?

I appreciate all the tips. I am not sure I will get to try them today, but if I can before I go to work I will try.

Thanks again!

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I have an oldish (2011) router that has IPv6 unchecked by default, but my ISP doesn’t support IPv6 yet – but a router setting is universal and would affect all machines if it was problematic.

On your wife’s laptop you could go into Networking and Sharing Center/Change adapter settings – right click on the wireless connection – select Properties and uncheck the (TCP/IPv6) box, as that has been known to cause connectivity problems but I’ve never heard of it being responsible for bottlenecking speeds – but who knows

What I was thinking with Safe Mode with Networking was if your wife has something installed on her laptop that you don’t and that could be taking up bandwidth.

I don’t think MSE would be responsible and while I’m not sure to which the full extent MBAM Pro works, in that mode all 3rd party programs and even an infection (hopefully) would be isolated.

With the laptop in a reasonably quiescent state with a browser open and in normal mode, open Task Manager/Networking and see how busy the graph is.

The odd spike doesn’t matter but something more constant would warrant further investigation.

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Ok I got a chance to boot to safe mode with networking. The increase is marginally better. I unchecked the IPv6 in the network adapter.

I will not be able to do more testing this morning as I have to get ready for work.

As far as her usage vs mine, yes completely different. She has many more programs that she uses on a daily basis than I do. She uses a lot of tools for her ebook formatting. My laptop is not used for anything special, but it is a much newer (1 year old) and more powerful laptop than hers. It better be, it was 3 times the price!

One thing my wife mentioned is that the connection issues get worse as the day progresses. dropped signals occur more often the longer she is connected. I looked just now at what the Killer Networks software said was the top 5 bandwidth use applications and they were Firefox, FTP transfer, Host Process for Windows ( 2 instances), and Dropbbox , so I prioritized them. I will check with my wife later to see how things go.

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I would have expected something a bit more than a marginal improvement if it had been because of a 3rd party program.

Firefox has always been hungry but does the computer itself also slow up with prolonged usage ?

You could check the Temp folder by going Start – type %temp% and press enter.

A high accumulation in there can cause problems.

Just to check her signal strength, open a command prompt and enter netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

You can post the output by right clicking in the text area of the cmd window – click on Select all and press enter then right click in the reply box and select Paste.

RouterStatsLite may run with your router and can be run minimized which will produce a graph which can be checked against the disconnect times, should it be SNRM related due to local interference from other local users.

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I would have expected something a bit more than a marginal improvement if it had been because of a 3rd party program.

Firefox has always been hungry but does the computer itself also slow up with prolonged usage ?

You could check the Temp folder by going Start – type %temp% and press enter.

A high accumulation in there can cause problems.

Just to check her signal strength, open a command prompt and enter netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

You can post the output by right clicking in the text area of the cmd window – click on Select all and press enter then right click in the reply box and select Paste.

RouterStatsLite may run with your router and can be run minimized which will produce a graph which can be checked against the disconnect times, should it be SNRM related due to local interference from other local users.

here is the Netsh details

C:UsersLizzie>netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid

Interface name : Wireless Network Connection 4
There are 12 networks currently visible.

SSID 1 : Asus B10 2g
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 54:04:a6:d3:2f:4c
Signal : 100%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 2 : Chromecastb10
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : Open
Encryption : None
BSSID 1 : fa:8f:ca:83:31:94
Signal : 64%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 6
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 3 : Na41zcK
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA-Personal
Encryption : TKIP
BSSID 1 : 00:23:69:d0:93:d8
Signal : 52%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 7
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 4 : Asus B10 5g
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 54:04:a6:d3:2f:4d
Signal : 76%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 44
Basic rates (Mbps) :
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 5 : ATT904
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : b8:16:19:8e:d3:50
Signal : 30%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 6 : TWC B10 2g
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : d4:05:98:0a:06:00
Signal : 66%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 9
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 7 : TWC B10 5g ext
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 10:c3:7b:ca:16:2e
Signal : 60%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 157
Basic rates (Mbps) : 6 12 24
Other rates (Mbps) : 9 18 36 48 54

SSID 8 : TG1672G62
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 8c:09:f4:eb:97:60
Signal : 38%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 9 : 2WIRE725
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 28:16:2e:da:17:f8
Signal : 56%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 11
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 10 : Kagays
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 20:aa:4b:9d:0d:62
Signal : 56%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 11
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 11 : TNT Wireless
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : e8:33:81:c1:e1:e0
Signal : 52%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 11
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

SSID 12 : TG1672G82
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Personal
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 78:71:9c:54:c8:80
Signal : 18%
Radio type : 802.11n
Channel : 1
Basic rates (Mbps) : 1 2 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54

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I will have to check that command line later. I just got off work and work all day tomorrow. Not sure if i will get to it in the morning. Killer Networks let me know they do have a newer driver. Not sure if she has downloaded it as I instructed. If I don’t get to it tomorrow I will look at it Sunday morning.

Thanks again for the help!

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You have 4 wifi units on channel 1 and they are likely to interfere. You also have 3 on channel 11.
Move the one your wife uses to channel 6 and see how it goes.
See this page for overlap details. http://www.extremetech.com/computing/179344-how-to-boost-your-wifi-speed-by-choosing-the-right-channel

cheers, Paul

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Actually, “ours” are
SSID 1 : Asus B10 2g CH 1,
SSID 2 : Chromecastb10 ch 6
SSID 4 : Asus B10 5g ch 44
SSID 6 : TWC B10 2g ch 9
SSID 7 : TWC B10 5g ext ch 157

The rest are not from our house. and there should have been one more : TWC 5G also on 157. The one that is listed as TWC B10 5g ext ch 157 is a wireless extender that is extending that signal.

The only overlap is the SSID 1 : Asus B10 2g CH 1, which I just changed to CH 4. That was the one she normally connects to so maybe that will help. I shall see what happens.

Thanks!

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