Terrible connection, ISP no help

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Hi all:

Since I moved to a new place 3 years ago, the connection here has been so bad I can’t tell you. I’ve tried both phone and cable ISPs, and can hardly ever get a connection that’s faster than dial up.

I get dropped connections, some days every 5 or 10 minutes. Whenever I have to post anything on-line, I’ve taken to writing it out first in WordPad so I can save often and don’t lose everything when I dump. I have hardly ever seen a video here (even a short one) where the sound synched with the action, and they just buffer and buffer.

FaceBook is a real problem for some reason and after an hour or so it starts not letting me ‘like’ posts, can’t even connect to any video on FB that opens it’s own tab, and soon after it starts denying my ‘likes’ it will begin bouncing back to the top of my page if I try and ‘like’ something, and then it just crashes. And with 6 grandkids all over the place I really NEED my FB.

I have called both ISPs while I’ve been dealing with them and can get no answers or help. All the other ISPs run off their equipment so I don’t think I’d be any better off switching again.

Someone suggested that because I live in a valley might be the reason, but don’t see how that can affect cable.

My cell phone seems to have no problems but I won’t use it for FB or banking or a lot of other things since I’m very weak on cell security.

I’m running an XP box with wi-fi for my Win 10 laptop upstairs.

Does anyone have any ideas? I would be eternally grateful to find some solution to this business.

TIA,
~grannym

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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Are you sure it’s not the computer that’s the issue?
Have you tried another computer / tablet?

cheers, Paul

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Hi Paul:
I did wonder since I had the XP and a small Acer Win 7 notebook so that’s why I went and bought a good new Win 10 laptop.
No difference in the performance of either of them, nor of the laptops my house sitter brings when I’m going away or that my brother brings when he stays when he’s in town on business.
I mostly wonder if it has to do with the all-in-one piece that connects me. And if there are grades of those and they just hand out cheapies.
Someone else ( same person who wondered about me living in a valley) wondered if it would make a difference of I moved the connecting point from the basement to an upstairs room. But there again I can’t see that being a factor with a cable connection.
I actually changed my package at the ISP from a middle range one to the lowest one with no discernable change in service.
But thanks for thinking about it – and maybe something more will strike you.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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Check to see what speed you get when wired, but as the wireless signal has to travel through building materials then check to see if you get a stronger signal in different parts of the upstairs room using inSSIDer3 and what your speed is like with the laptop downstairs.

You can use http://www.speedtest.net to check your speeds.

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html

I don’t know what you mean about using a XP Box for your WiFi, but when using a modem/router, logging into the router and changing channels, using the RSSI -minus value and the Link Score of inSSIDer3 as a guide can improve your reception.

Regarding Paul’s point about it being your computer – I have two Toshiba laptops which have the same Realtek wireless adapter and the wireless speeds on one are usually slower than on the other.

I don’t know if your Win 10 machine came with Win 10 or if it was upgraded, but if it was upgraded, go into Device Manager/View/Show hidden devices/Network adapters.

Right click on the wireless one and select Update Driver Software/Browse my computer/Let me pick.. and if it’s using a driver installed by Windows during the upgrade, then click on an earlier one then on Next.

The graph in inSSIDer3 will tell you how stable the wireless signal is with each driver.

My laptops were upgraded from Win 7 and I have drivers for April 2013, Oct. 2013 and March 2016.

The one for Oct. 2013 doesn’t work at all and the one for 2016 which came with the upgrade produces a graph like a broken saw blade, so I use the April 2013 one, while having a slight undulation, works well.

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Check with the cellular companies who provide service where you live. Here in the US, all of the cellular companies provide portable hotspot devices which give you wireless internet service wherever you are, if you are in their coverage area. An option which I have considered, but have decided against because they don’t provide unlimited data, is Verizon Home Internet. Basically, they put a good 4G antenna on your house, and then run some Ethernet cables in your house, giving you wired and wireless internet. The cost is US$60 per month for the first 10 GB of data. There may be something like that where you live.

You also might be able to use your smartphone as a wifi hotspot.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I think Home Plugs would be a much better option to get the wireless signal from downstairs to upstairs.

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Sudo15 and mrjim, thanks for your suggestions too.

I have checked the speeds here downstairs on the desktop running XP, and they’re within acceptable ranges, I guess. I took 3 readings and download ranged from 12.8Mbps to 15.9. Upload range was 1.6 Mbps to 2.7. So despite that I am having all this trouble – on all machines.

I’ll check the other machine with a speed test next time I go up to use it. It was bought with Win 10.

When I was back in the bush in S Africa, the place I stayed had something they called a wi-fi booster since they were far from everything. If the upstairs machine proves to have significantly less speed than this one, would that be a helpful thing to have? Are they called the same thing here?

Or would the home plugs be a better option?

Thanks for all,

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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Well you seem to have enough coming into your home – it’s getting it from the router to where you are working.

The quality of ISP supplied routers can vary and they tend to use the cheapest, so it may not have a particular strong wireless signal – but it could also be because of the construction of your home that is degrading the wireless signal strength.

Changing the location of the router to a higher level would probably improve the signal strength to the upstairs machine as it’s what is happening in your home after the broadband reaches your home, rather than how it is delivered.

When you check the upstairs machine, download inSSIDer3 onto it to see if the router is using the best channel.

Some routers are default set to Auto rather than a specific channel and if it changes to a highly populated one, then that could be the cause of the disconnects.

Ideally you are looking for a channel that isn’t highly populated or adjacent to any that have a stronger RSSI value or one within 20 of yours.

Forget the minus sign on the RSSI value and you are looking to get the signal less than 70.

The closer to 75 is disconnection area.

Downloading inSSIDer3 onto your downstairs machine will give you an idea of the strength you are looking for but the further away from the router, the higher the RSSI and the possibility of an unstable connection to that machine.

When logged into the router, also check that it is set to Always on or if it is a setting in minutes, change that to 0.

With Home Plugs you have the option to Ethernet connect as well from a shorter distance, avoiding the clutter of cables.

If the router has external antennae then you can buy High Gain antennae or even a powered one which may do the job, but that would be a gamble.

Given the choice and simplicity of installation, I personally would opt for the Home Plugs.

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download ranged from 12.8Mbps to 15.9. Upload range was 1.6 Mbps to 2.7.

Well you seem to have enough coming into your home – it’s getting it from the router to where you are working.

I agree, my connection is much less than that and I have no trouble with videos etc.

Possibilities not mentioned: is it possible some other people [eg neighbours] are piggybacking on your internet service? Could you have a malware infection which is consuming bandwidth?

Have you taken your laptop to someone else’s house, who has the same ISP and connection type, to check what your speeds are there? What are the general speeds for other internet users near you?

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Hi Lugh:

I don’t think I have a malware infection (I hope). I keep my Kaspersky up-to-date and run a full scan about once a week. And I haven’t noticed any of the type of bizarre behaviour that I associate with malware, eg pop-ups, programs doing freaky things – just behaviour rhat seems to emanate from some connection or bandwidth problem.

My connection is well-locked down I think, but there are always new ways of sneaking in being found, so would you have specific checks or tests I could do for either of these behaviours?

I have taken my little Acer notebook (now replaces by the Win 10 laptop, alas) to the local doughnut shop and it worked just fine. Had no troubles there.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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Sudo, mrjim and Lugh:

Sorry for the lag in replies, but I’ve been down and out for a few days.

One thing I did manage to do was to do a speedtest on the upstairs machine. I usually do 3 so that I can see if there’s some pattern or not.

So what happened was, that the range was much wider over the 3 tests ( 15.5 –> 9.1 down), but for the most part *higher* than downstairs where the router is. Is this possible? How is it possible?

The other thing is that then I used a different speed test from the one Sudo15 recommended, called testmy.net It seems to have a bit more information on it, only some of which I understand, but it tells you where you stand in relation to the speed others are getting from your ISP, and I’m in the lowest 25%.

It also gives a figure for something it calls ‘middle variance’ which I don’t really understand, and upstairs it was 199% while downstairs it was 51%. Can this variance business cause the type of problems I am having?

TIA,
~m

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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I know I’m late into this thread, but when I read about the router being “downstairs” it got my attention. Routers are known to send signals “outward and downward”. That’s why in large buildings with high ceilings, the IT guys would place boosters way up on the beams at the ceiling. I’ve sucessfully troubleshooted problems for friends who had their routers in the basement. That didn’t work too well…
Hope this helps.

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Hi Sudo15:

Haven’t had a chance to work with the inSSIDer3 yet – been down with a bad bout of bronchitis. I am not a fan of winter.

But see below, please? Maybe some of the information will mean something to you.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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I guess I didn’t understand what you were wanting to accomplish here.

If you have a good signal downstairs, but a poor signal upstairs, then you could try using a wireless repeater, to provide a better signal upstairs.

I have had two different situations where I needed wireless repeaters, both, in fact, in the same building.

The router was in the office, which was downstairs, in a front corner of the building. We needed to boost the signal to two areas of the building — in the back, upstairs; and in the front, upstairs. The building was built as an emergency storm shelter, so I’m quite sure that the structure of the building impeded the signal from getting to those areas.

Back, upstairs: I put a wireless repeater in the back, upstairs, in the spot which was closest to the router. Also, if you followed the structure of the building, that spot was “in line” with the router — there were no beams or other elements of the building which were blocking the signal. In that spot, the repeater got a good signal from the router, and it then provided a good signal to the entire upstairs area in the back of the building.

Front, upstairs: The conference room was the only area in the front, upstairs, where a signal was needed. The stairwell went directly from the office to the conference room; so I was surprised that the conference room didn’t get a good signal; but it didn’t, so I had to find an alternate method. I put a wireless repeater in the room directly below the conference room. In that spot, the repeater had a good signal. And being directly below the conference room, it provided a good signal to the conference room.

There were two things I learned from the experience:

1. Find a good channel for your router, and set it to that channel, rather than allowing it to automatically find the best channel. When it was set to auto, and it would change channels, it would lose its connection with one of the repeaters (the other repeater had not yet been installed). However, when I fixed it on one channel only, the repeater never again lost connection with the router.

2. Select a different SSID (network name) for the repeater than the one you already have for the router. Although it is more convenient to have only one SSID for the entire house, what sometimes happens when you do is, your computer gets a faint signal from the router, and connects to it, even though your repeater is providing a much stronger signal. By having different SSIDs, you can force it to use the strongest signal.

One other thing I learned: don’t put a space in the SSID. (e.g. Put ‘footballfan’, not ‘football fan’.) Some devices won’t connect if there is a space in the name.

Edit: Spelling correction: “I put a wireless router in the room directly below the conference room.” Changed “router” to “repeater”.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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“If you have a good signal downstairs, but a poor signal upstairs, then you could try using a wireless repeater, to provide a better signal upstairs.”

Mrjimphelps:

The problem is that I have a (reasonably) good signal BOTH downstairs and upstairs, but both machines seem to have very strange problems despite that. Disconnects, video and audio not synching on clips, slow, slow reaction times and so on.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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The further away from the router, the weaker the wireless signal which will result in lower speeds, but if you used the same machine for the speed tests in both locations, then that is unusual to have a lower speed nearer to the router, unless you are too close to it.

inSSIDer3 will tell you your signal strength in either location, but if you are getting disconnects on video downstairs as well, then log into the router to see if the channel setting is set to Auto as when it changes, it will disrupt the video stream.

Not sure what middle variance means, even after reading this – http://testmy.net/ipb/topic/31676-middle-variance/

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Middle variance: http://testmy.net/ipb/topic/31961-what-is-middle-variance-is-it-better-to-be-high-or-low/

How much your speed varies or fluctuates between high and low.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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mrjim: Thanks for that. I’ve looked at all the threads talking about ‘middle variance’ now and it would seem to me to be connected to the number of programs running. I very seldom have more than the browser open, but am going to test it when I have FaceBook or something like that running and see what might show then.

Facebook is the program that gives me the most, and the most consistent problems, and if it wasn’t for the grandkids I’d just dump it since it’s a major time-waster with little gain from the time spent, so the best I can do right now is try and get the whole thing working so I don’t spend so much time bangingmy head on the desk while I reboot, or redo text that vanishes.

"She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot."
--Mark Twain

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One thing you might check, especially on your upstairs machine, is whether your network settings are at optimal values. Download TCP Optimizer from speedguide.net and give it a go. In the General Settings tab, move the slider to somewhere in your reported range, say 14 Mbps and then select Optimal settings. Do the same on the Advanced Settings tab. Pay particular attention to the size of the MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit), because if this is set too low there will be multiple reads, and if too high it will cause fragmentation of incoming data (which then has to be de=fragmented). Check this via the MTU/Latency tab, and set the MTU in General Settings to the recommended value. Then Apply Changes, and exit. Because some registry values may have been changed, a restart is then recommended.

This can be an iterative process; you may need to try it with different speed settings until you get the right balance.

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If the router sends the signal “down”, could he put the router upside down, therefore resulting in the signal being sent “up”?

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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If the router sends the signal “down”, could he put the router upside down, therefore resulting in the signal being sent “up”?

Gee, I never thought of that!
Actually, I should have rephrased that to say the signals go downwards, rather than the signals are sent downward by the router!:mellow:

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If the router sends the signal “down”, could he put the router upside down, therefore resulting in the signal being sent “up”?

One possible downside of that: Electronics are some times designed with an orientation in mind with regard to cooling. If the chips are not cooling enough, say is a warm environment, you may be shortening the life of the component. Many routers have the facility to be mounted vertically with an included bracket.

:cheers:

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Experience tells me that most electromagnetic field strength problems result from the presence, or absence, of walls and ceilings (especially those containing metal). If a router has an external directional antenna you may find that you can direct the router’s radio waves toward a problematic area in your building (thus increasing the signal strength in that area or space).
Location: A router should always be placed in a central location in the home. (This can not only mean horizontally but vertically as well.)

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