Massive ping spikes to router

iviv

iviv

iviv

Soldato
Joined
2 Jun 2007
Posts
6,839
Location
Mornington Crescent
I've had to switch from a wired connection back to wireless, and I'm having issues with dropouts and the connection suddenly going extremely slowly sporadically. Just had it happen again and managed to fire a few ping commands off while it was happening, the results are pasted below.

I have an Edimax WE-7728IN wireless card which is using the lastest available chipset drivers direct from ralink. The router is a Belkin F5D8236-4 and both are wireless-n. That said, I've just checked the connection status and while I have a signal quality of 4 bars (out of 5) the speed is only shown as 27.0 Mbps, which is lower than I remember it being, and especially when it should be going up to 300 max over N. It is operating in b, g and n mode as we have g laptop connected, otherwise I would just run it in N mode.

Looking at things between the PC and the router, I'd guess at there being an internal wall and an external wall (just about), and its about 15m away. Certainly no reason that I can think of to cause such issues. Is there anything obvious I'm missing, or anything I can do to prevent this happening?

C:\Users\Iviv>ping 192.168.2.1 -n 20

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=307ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1207ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=499ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=999ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=599ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2198ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1299ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=399ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1499ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1499ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1606ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 14, Lost = 6 (30% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2198ms, Average = 865ms

C:\Users\Iviv>ping 192.168.2.1 -n 20

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1445ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=53ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=454ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 18, Lost = 2 (10% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 1445ms, Average = 111ms

C:\Users\Iviv>ping 192.168.2.1 -n 20

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 20, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 6ms, Average = 3ms

C:\Users\Iviv>ping 192.168.2.1 -n 20

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 10, Lost = 10 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 2ms
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the slow reply, was able to switch back to a wired connection for the past few days, but back on wireless and I have the same issues again :(

Here's what inSSIDer shows:
http://i.imgur.com/lt6rY.jpg

Just the one connection that I can see, which is mine, connected at 4 bars of quality and 2.0Mbps (Out of a possible 300 :( )

If it will help, I'll take a quick video with my phone showing how close the router and wireless card are. I've even reinstalled windows since my last post (got a new hard drive to stick it on), and still running the latest drivers from ralink.

I just tried changing the channel from 7 down to 4, and while the speed jumped up initially to ~260Mpbs (reported by the wireless network connection status screen), it continued to drop, down to currently 40.5Mbps, which is still technically better, however pings haven't improved:

Pinging 192.168.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=14ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=729ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=490ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1990ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=599ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=299ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=499ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1099ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1499ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=2299ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1299ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=699ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=799ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=598ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=697ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=296ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=3395ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.2.1: bytes=32 time=1899ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 20, Received = 18, Lost = 2 (10% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 14ms, Maximum = 3395ms, Average = 1066ms
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Looks like the wireless signal is having trouble getting through sometimes and forcing a resend/s of data.

I've heard that sometimes the PC itself can attenuate signals coming to a wireless card and if the orientation of the case to the incoming signal is poor it can cause drop in signal integrity. The Electrical interference from the back of a PC might also have a negative effect. If you could somehow extend the antenna away from the case that might help.
 
Tealc said:
Looks like the wireless signal is having trouble getting through sometimes and forcing a resend/s of data.

I've heard that sometimes the PC itself can attenuate signals coming to a wireless card and if the orientation of the case to the incoming signal is poor it can cause drop in signal integrity. The Electrical interference from the back of a PC might also have a negative effect. If you could somehow extend the antenna away from the case that might help.
Click to expand...

http://i.imgur.com/f9ObG.jpg

That's the back of my case, and I've included a super low quality drawing showing the patch from my PC to the router:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ew5w0vinbuiwqkb/Wireless.avi

The path is fairly clear, most of it is simply down corridors, the wall next to the PC is just a plasterboard partition, though there is part of an external wall/chimney stack at the end next to my bed.

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do with the wireless card, there's only 2 PCI slots in my PC, and the other is taken up with my sound card.
 
Thanks for the tour of the house :p.

I noticed the attennas of the router is pointing upwards? Maybe if you try turn them to face your PC better?

How is the wireless in the other parts of the house? It could be just your PC in an area with too much inteference between it and the router.

Another option is homeplugs. This is a good alternative to wireless, I find it as stable as a normal wired connection but speeds tend to depend on the quality of the electrical wiring in your home.
 
Orcvader said:
I noticed the attennas of the router is pointing upwards? Maybe if you try turn them to face your PC better?
Click to expand...

I have no idea how the antenna work, which way the signals radiate from them. Would that work?
 
I think I'm just going to buy a cheap repeater, and get that set up somewhere in the middle because its just too painful as it is. If I buy an N 150 repeater, stick that in the middle, and connect to that via ethernet, then I would still get the exact same speed since the ethernet ports are only going to be 100 anyway, won't they?
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=NW-029-OK&groupid=46&catid=1596&subcat=
Could I buy that and use it as a repeater/range extender? Or is it something that the router had to specifically support, so would only be available on the more expensive routers?

If not, I've found the TL-WR740N available elsewhere for the same price which can, though I'd rather buy from OcUK if that one will work.
 
Last edited:
monkeyspank said:
the signals come out from the sides. imagine you put a polo over the antenna, then a doughnut, then a hula hoop etc etc. If that makes sense :p
Click to expand...

So pointing them towards my PC would make things worse then, as it doesn't actually come out the end? In which case there's nothing really I can do with the positioning.
The receivers work in the same way? Through the side rather than the end?
 
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